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John Fetterman’s performance post stroke during debate with Oz could impact narrow Pennsylvania Senate race lead

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CNN
 — 

Democrat John Fetterman’s debate performance has intensified the focus on his recovery from a stroke, leading some supporters to worry that his current post-stroke limitations could affect his narrow lead in the critical Pennsylvania Senate race against Republican Mehmet Oz.

If Fetterman’s showing changes the trajectory of the race, the debate could have nationwide ramifications, with Pennsylvania representing the best chance for Democrats to pick up a Senate seat in the evenly divided chamber. A CNN poll conducted by SSRS and released earlier this week found that 51% of likely voters support Fetterman, compared to 45% for Oz, an advantage narrowly outside of the survey’s margin of error. And a CBS News poll also released this week found a tightening race, with 51% of likely voters in Pennsylvania backing Fetterman and 49% backing Oz.

Though the effects of Fetterman’s stroke dominated some post-debate conversations, Oz’s comments about abortion – saying “local politicians” should contribute to women’s medical decisions – also rocked the boat. Abortion rights have been a flashpoint across the country, including in the commonwealth, and Oz’s words could hurt him with the suburban women voters both campaigns believe could be decisive on Election Day.

Overnight Tuesday and into Wednesday, Fetterman’s campaign was doing double duty, explaining again the lingering auditory processing and speech issues from his May stroke that caused him to request closed captioning on Tuesday night – but ultimately provided only limited aid, as he dropped thoughts, pushed words together and, at times, repeated phrases. But the campaign was also making sure no Pennsylvania voters missed Oz’s comment, announcing within hours of the debate’s end a new ad highlighting them.

At a Pittsburgh rally Wednesday evening, Fetterman conceded, “To be honest, doing that debate wasn’t exactly easy.”

“I knew it wasn’t going to be easy having a stroke after five months. In fact, I don’t think that’s ever been done before in American political history,” he said.

To cheers from the crowd, Fetterman announced that his campaign raised more than $2 million following the debate, which campaign aides say they intend to invest into TV ads highlighting Oz’s comments on abortion.

“I may not get every word the right way, but I will always do the right thing in Washington, DC,” Fetterman said.

But as the Fetterman campaign seeks to change the subject to abortion rights, Pennsylvania voters are left to draw their own conclusions about the debate for the closing stretch of the race.

“Dr. Oz kind of picked on him, that’s how I looked at it,” said Craig Bischof, a fervent Fetterman supporter from Bedford. “He’s still having trouble from his stroke, so I thought he did a great job, I really did.”

Asked whether he demonstrated that he was ready to serve six years in the Senate, he said: “Oh, yes. He gets healthier every day. He’s come a long way. A stroke is a hard thing to get over.”

That was not a widely held view in lunchtime conversations with a half-dozen other residents of Bedford, a Republican-leaning town, in central Pennsylvania.

“It was embarrassing,” Jan Welsch said, offering a pointed critique of Fetterman’s performance on the debate stage. “Pennsylvania is in deep trouble, if they vote for Fetterman.”

While Welsch said she was uncertain about Oz’s candidacy before the debate, she said he demonstrated to her that he was a serious candidate, not just a former television celebrity.

“I really liked what Oz had to say,” Welsch said. “I had questions about Oz earlier, but after listening with him against Fetterman, it’s definitely Oz.”

In conversations with CNN, multiple Fetterman voters said that, while his performance made them anxious about his prospects with swing voters, they still planned to cast a ballot for him. In fact, none of the voters who entered the night planning to vote for the Democrat said they were planning to change their vote.

“It was tough,” said Karin Tatela, an educator from Chester County who was at the May event Fetterman had to cancel last minute because of his stroke. “I told my friend, I said, ‘I don’t really want to watch, it is kind of like looking at a car accident. You want to look, but you don’t want to look.’”

Tatela, however, said she still plans to vote for Fetterman.

“I cannot vote for that,” she said, talking a long pause to stop herself from attacking Oz. “I would never vote for Oz. I don’t care if they had to wheel Fetterman into the Senate in a hospital bed. But I think we could be in a little bit of trouble here.”

She is not alone.

“My opinion of who I am voting for hasn’t changed but I feel a little less comfortable in his ability to win the election because of how he performed,” said Andrew Charles, a Fetterman supporter who lives in Millersville, Pennsylvania, and works in manufacturing. “I just see a lot of red flags raising for people about his capabilities.”

Charles, who earlier this year attended a Fetterman event wearing a homemade T-shirt supporting the candidate, said he will still vote for Fetterman, but he found himself thinking about swing voters last night.

“If they were on the fence, they are probably not on the fence anymore,” he concluded, believing those voters will now back Oz.

Joe Pozzini, a union carpenter, said he had no concerns about Fetterman’s health when CNN spoke with him at a rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, earlier this month. But after the debate, Pozzini worried about how the Democrat’s health could impact the race.

“I know how I’m voting. I’m Fetterman all the way, but it was kind of worrisome,” the lifelong Pennsylvanian said. “His message is still there, he’s still a strong candidate, it’s just I was kind of worried about the on-the-fence people.”

He added: “He got his point across I think, but it’s just, it was rough, it was rough, and someone on the fence might lean the other way and that’s worrisome.”

Fetterman acknowledged his stroke at the outset of the debate, seeking to humanize his recovery.

“Let’s also talk about the elephant in the room. I had a stroke. He’s never let me forget that,” Fetterman said, referring to Oz and his campaign’s frequent commentary on his recovery. “And I might miss some words during this debate, mush two words together, but it knocked me down and I’m going to keep coming back up.”

Influential Fetterman supporters, like Ryan Boyer, the first Black leader of the Philadelphia Building & Construction Trades Council, called the Democrat’s performance “a profile in courage.”

“Particularly my people in the African American community, know all too well that people have strokes. I have an uncle who had one and he’s a very intelligent guy, but it took him about a year and a half to get all the thoughts that he had in his head out of his mouth,” Boyer said.

He also told CNN that the union’s political arm, in a meeting immediately after the debate, had a “brutally honest” call and discussion about the candidates’ performances.

“To a person, I mean, listen, it was hard to watch, but they said that they understood him. We asked the question, ‘Did you understand what he was saying?’ And that’s the most important thing. ‘Did you understand his feelings?’And yes, it came off,” Boyer said.

Meanwhile, Boyer said Oz’s statement that abortion policies should be left up to “women, doctors, local political leaders” stunned him.

“They talk about cringeworthy because of Fetterman? It was cringeworthy when I heard that (from Oz). But it was a window into his soul,” Boyer added. “It was really amazing … So, now I want my local ward leader deciding something that’s going on with my daughter?”

While Oz avoided attacking Fetterman’s stroke recovery explicitly – unlike many of his campaign aides, who have mocked Fetterman’s recovery – the Republican did sprinkle seemingly derisive comments into the debate.

“John, obviously I wasn’t clear enough for you to understand it,” Oz said during otherwise benign questions about vocational education.

Whether the debate will matter, however, is an open question.

Several Democratic operatives noted that very few undecided voters watch debates live, and while some will watch their local news coverage of the contest, most aren’t plugged into the day-to-day machinations of the Senate race, even less than two weeks out from Election Day.

“I thought he would have been better, but I don’t think it hurts him,” said Mike Mikus, a Democratic consultant in Pittsburgh who led Katie McGinty through the state’s Democratic Senate primary against Fetterman in 2016 before she lost to Republican Sen. Pat Toomey in the general election. “I think people understand that Fetterman had a stroke, and it affects his speech. But, they also think he’ll get better.”

He added: “At the same time, most swing voters are not very political and most likely didn’t watch … The undecideds at this stage of a campaign are completely unplugged.”

Additionally, ahead of the debate, almost 640,000 pre-election votes had already been cast in Pennsylvania, according to data from state election officials, and Democrats make up a wide majority of voters who have already cast a ballot in the Keystone State. As of Monday, 73% of Pennsylvania voters so far have been Democrats, while 19% have been Republicans. While the scale is smaller, the breakdown is similar to this point two years ago, according to data from Catalist.

To focus the post-debate coverage on Oz, Fetterman’s campaign announced minutes after the debate ended that it would put money behind an ad highlighting Oz saying that the debate over abortion should be left to “women, doctors, local political leaders.”

The Oz comment is a continuation of his argument that states, not the federal government, should decide the issue. But when pressed repeatedly during the debate about a bill proposed by South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham that would limit abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, Oz dodged, arguing he didn’t support federal legislation on the issue but wouldn’t give a firm answer on how he would vote were he in the Senate.

Top Democrats saw the comment as an opening to link Oz with Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano, a state senator who introduced a bill in 2019 prohibiting an abortion procedure if a heartbeat is detected.

Their argument: Oz thinks politicians like Mastriano – either as state senator or possibly as governor – should decide the issue.

“Our campaign will be putting money behind making sure as many women as possible hear Dr. Oz’s radical belief that ‘local political leaders’ should have as much say over a woman’s abortion decisions as women themselves and their doctors,” said Joe Calvello, campaign spokesman. “After months of trying to hide his extreme abortion position, Oz let it slip on the debate stage on Tuesday.”

The ad was out by midday Wednesday, telling voters, “Oz would let politicians like Doug Mastriano ban abortion without exceptions – even in cases of rape, incest, or life of the mother. Oz is too extreme for Pennsylvania.”

Oz, for his part, barely mentioned the debate at a Wednesday event.

But to Republicans – and even some doctors who specialize in cardiology – Fetterman’s performance was concerning and raised questions about how transparent he has been about the impact of his stroke.

“He disgraced himself and is unfit for office,” said Ryan Costello, a former Republican congressman from Pennsylvania. “He hasn’t demonstrated any ability to handle the physical and communication obligations of being a U.S. Senator.”

Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a CNN medical analyst and interventional cardiologist who has treated several high-profile politicians, said the debate was “difficult to watch.”

“Fetterman’s residual neurological injury is substantial,” Reiner said. “Much greater than his campaign has led the public to believe. It’s more than just processing hearing. It’s incredibly sad to watch.”

This story has been updated with additional developments.

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Fetterman doubles down on abortion at rally: ‘Don’t piss women off’

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Pennsylvania Democrat Lt. Gov. John Fetterman doubled down on his pro-choice position at a rally Sunday as he vies against Republican nominee Mehmet Oz in the state’s U.S. Senate race. 

“Women are the reason we can win. Let me say that again: Women are the reason we win.” Fetterman told the crowd in Blue Bell, Penn., standing in front of a pink-and-black “Women For Fetterman” sign.

“Don’t piss women off,” Fetterman added.

He introduced himself at the start of his speech as “John Fetterwoman.”

Fetterman said his first actions in Congress, if elected, would be to do away with the filibuster and then to codify the right to abortion in federal law.

“This decision: should [it] be made up to Dr. Oz? Or to a woman and a real doctor, to choose?” Fetterman asked the audience, mocking his celebrity opponent. 

Fetterman’s push for the female vote in Pennsylvania comes amid reports of a surge in women registering to vote after Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court. A number of Republican candidates in battleground states have sought to soften their abortion stances ahead of November.

“Oz believes abortion is murder… No exceptions: rape or incest… If every abortion is a murder, that means Dr. Oz considers every woman who had to choose abortion is a killer,” Fetterman said, referring to audio of Oz critiquing abortion procedures.

The Republican’s camp has said he does support exceptions to abortion bans in cases of rape, incest and to save the life of the mother.

Fetterman has been polling ahead of his Republican opponent, but Oz has been ramping up his campaign as the election approaches.

The pair have spent months largely locked in social media spats. Fetterman announced last week that he plans to debate his opponent after Oz and retiring Sen. Pat Toomey (R), whose seat the two candidates are trying to fill, criticized him for not engaging in in-person debate.

Fetterman on Sunday also mocked Toomey for being a “miracle” of politics, due to being “despised” by both Democrats and Republicans.

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Trump moves to general election mode with Pennsylvania rally

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WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) — Larry Mitko voted for Donald Trump in 2016. But the Republican from Beaver County in western Pennsylvania says he has no plans to back his party’s nominee for Senate, Dr. Mehmet Oz — “no way, no how.”

Mitko doesn’t feel like he knows the celebrity heart surgeon, who only narrowly won his May primary with Trump’s backing. Instead, Mitko plans to vote for Oz’s Democratic rival, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, a name he’s been familiar with since Fetterman’s days as mayor of nearby Braddock.

“Dr. Oz hasn’t showed me one thing to get me to vote for him,” he said. “I won’t vote for someone I don’t know.”

Mitko’s thinking underscores the political challenges facing Trump and the rest of the Republican Party as the former president shifts to general election mode with a rally Saturday night in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, the first of the fall campaign.

Hours before Trump was to speak, the crowd streamed into the 10,000-seat Mohegan Sun Arena. Doug Mastriano, the GOP’s hard-line nominee for governor of Pennsylvania, was already there, as was Trump ally Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga..

While Trump’s endorsed picks won many Republican primaries this summer, many of the candidates he backed were inexperienced and polarizing figures now struggling in their November races. That’s putting Senate control — once assumed to be a lock for Republicans — on the line.

Among those candidates are Oz in Pennsylvania, author JD Vance in Ohio, venture capitalist Blake Masters in Arizona and former football star Herschel Walker in Georgia.

“Republicans have now nominated a number of candidates who’ve never run for office before for very high-profile Senate races,” said veteran Republican pollster Whit Ayres. While he isn’t writing his party’s chances off just yet, he said, “It’s a much more difficult endeavor than a candidate who had won several difficult political races before.”

The stakes are particularly high for Trump as he lays the groundwork for an expected 2024 presidential run amid a series of escalating legal challenges, including the FBI’s recent seizure of classified documents from his Florida home. Investigators also continue to probe his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

This past week, President Joe Biden gave a prime-time speech in Philadelphia warning that Trump and other “MAGA” Republicans — the acronym for Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan — posed a threat to U.S. democracy. Biden has tried to frame the upcoming vote, as he did the 2020 election, as a battle for the “soul of the nation.” Biden’s Labor Day visit to Pittsburgh will be his third to the state within a week, a sign of Pennsylvania’s election-year importance.

While Republicans were once seen as having a good chance of gaining control of both chambers of Congress in November, benefitting from soaring inflation, high gas prices and Biden’s slumping approval ratings, Republicans have found themselves on defense since the Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision protecting abortion rights.

Some candidates, like Mastriano, are sticking with their primary campaign playbooks, hoping they can win by turning out Trump’s loyal base even if they alienate or ignore more moderate voters.

Mastriano, who wants to outlaw abortion even when pregnancies are the result of rape or incest or endanger the life of the mother, played a leading role in Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election and was seen outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as pro-Trump rioters stormed the building.

But others have been trying to broaden their appeal, scrubbing from their websites references to anti-abortion messaging that is out of step with the political mainstream. Others have played down Trump endorsements that were once featured prominently.

The shifting climate has prompted rounds of finger-pointing in the party, including from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who last month cited “candidate quality” as he lowered expectations that Republicans would recapture control of the Senate.

Florida Sen. Rick Scott, who leads the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said those who complain about the party’s nominees have “contempt” for the voters who chose them.

Trump, too, fired back, calling McConnell a “disgrace” as he defended the party’s candidate roster.

Democrats have also piled on.

“Senate campaigns are candidate versus candidate battles and Republicans have put forward a roster of deeply flawed recruits,” said David Bergstein, the Senate Democratic campaign committee’s communication director.

He credited Trump with deterring experienced Republicans from running, elevating flawed candidates and forcing them to take positions that are out of step with the general electorate. A Trump spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.

In Pennsylvania, Republicans are hoping Oz’s shortcomings as a candidate will be overshadowed by concerns about Fetterman, who suffered a stroke just days before the primary and has been sidelined for much of the summer. He continues to keep a light public schedule and struggled to speak fluidly at a recent event.

Republicans acknowledge that Oz struggles to come off as authentic and was slow to punch back as Fetterman spent the summer trolling him on social media and portraying him as an out-of-touch carpetbagger from New Jersey.

While Fetterman leads Oz in polls and fundraising, Republicans say they expect the money gap to narrow and are pleased to see Oz within striking distance after getting hammered by $20 million in negative advertising during the primaries.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee is helping finance a new round of Oz’s television ads, and the Senate Leadership Fund, a McConnell-aligned super political action committee, says it added $9.5 million to its TV buy — boosting its overall commitment to $34.1 million by Election Day.

A super PAC aligned with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., says it has made $32 million in television ad reservations in the state.

Oz has won over some once-skeptical voters, like Glen Rubendall, who didn’t vote for the TV doctor in his seven-way primary — a victory so narrow it went to a statewide recount — but said he’s come around.

“I’ve been listening to him speak, and I have a pro-Oz view now,” said Rubendall, a retired state corrections officer.

Traci Martin, a registered independent, also plans to vote for Oz because she opposes abortion, despite ads that aired during the primary featuring past Oz statements that seemed supportive of abortion rights.

“I hope he is (anti-abortion),” Martin said, “but the sad part is we live in an age when we see politicians say one thing and do another.”

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Colvin reported from New York. Associated Press writer Brian Slodysko in Washington contributed to this report.

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McCormick concedes to Oz in Pennsylvania GOP Senate primary

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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Former hedge fund CEO David McCormick conceded the Republican primary in Pennsylvania for U.S. Senate to celebrity heart surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz, ending his campaign Friday night as he acknowledged an ongoing statewide recount wouldn’t give him enough votes to make up the deficit.

After a bitter campaign that blanketed the airwaves with millions of dollars in attack ads, McCormick issued a gracious concession, vowing to help unite the party behind Oz.

“It’s now clear to me with the recount largely complete that we have a nominee,” McCormick said at a campaign party at a Pittsburgh hotel. “And today I called Mehmet Oz to congratulate him on his victory.”

McCormick’s concession cements a general election campaign between Oz, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, and Democrat John Fetterman in what is expected to be one of the nation’s premier Senate contests.

Already, the national parties are sponsoring attack ads on TV in a presidential battleground state that is still roiled by Trump’s baseless claims of a stolen election in 2020.

The result could help determine control of the closely divided chamber, and Democrats view it as perhaps their best opportunity to pick up a seat in the race to replace retiring two-term Republican Sen. Pat Toomey.

More than two weeks out from the primary election, Republicans had begun to consider a bitter primary becoming further drawn-out by a recount and lawsuits over mail-in ballots.

“I think it’ll be fine, I think there will be zero problems,” said Pat Poprik, the GOP chair in heavily populated Bucks County, where state party committee members had endorsed McCormick. “Many people I know liked both candidates, thought both were good and had to make a last-minute decision between them.”

In a statement, Oz said he was grateful for McCormick’s pledge of support.

Before the recount, Oz led McCormick by 972 votes out of 1.34 million votes counted in the May 17 primary. The Associated Press has not declared a winner in the race because an automatic recount is underway and the margin between the two candidates is just 0.07 percentage points.

Fetterman, the state’s lieutenant governor, acknowledged earlier Friday in a statement that he nearly died when he suffered a stroke just days before his primary. He said he had ignored warning signs for years and a doctor’s advice to take blood thinners.

Oz, who is best known as the host of daytime TV’s “The Dr. Oz Show,” had to overcome a barrage of attack ads and misgivings among hard-line Trump backers about his conservative credentials on guns, abortion, transgender rights and other core Republican issues.

The 61-year-old Oz leaned on Trump’s endorsement as proof of his conservative bona fides, while Trump attacked Oz’s rivals and maintained that Oz has the best chance of winning in November in the presidential battleground state.

Oz had had little history with the Republican Party — but he had a friendship with Trump going back almost 20 years and, as Trump told him in a 2016 appearance on Oz’s show, “you know my wife’s a big fan of your show.”

Meanwhile, McCormick made Oz’s dual citizenship in Turkey an issue in the race, suggesting that Oz would be a national security risk. If elected, Oz would be the nation’s first Muslim senator.

Born in the United States, Oz served in Turkey’s military and voted in its 2018 election. Oz said he would renounce his Turkish citizenship if he won the November election, and he accused McCormick of making “bigoted” attacks.

Oz and McCormick blanketed the state’s airwaves with political ads for months, spending millions of their own money. Virtually unknown to voters four months ago, McCormick had to introduce himself to voters, and he mined Oz’s long record as a public figure for material in attack ads. He got help from a super PAC supporting him that spent $20 million.

Like McCormick, Oz moved from out of state to run in Pennsylvania.

Oz, a Harvard graduate, New York Times bestselling author and self-styled wellness advocate, lived for the past couple of decades in a mansion in Cliffside Park, New Jersey, above the Hudson River overlooking Manhattan — drawing accusations of being a carpetbagger and political tourist.

The celebrity heart surgeon stressed his connections to Pennsylvania, saying he grew up just over the state border in Delaware, went to medical school in Philadelphia and married a Pennsylvania native.

Before he ran, McCormick was something of a celebrity on Wall Street, running the world’s largest hedge fund, and had strong Republican Party establishment ties going back to his service in former President George W. Bush’s administration. His wife, Dina Powell, was a deputy national security adviser to Trump and had strong party connections as well.

McCormick had long considered running for public office, and moved from his home on Connecticut’s ritzy Gold Coast to a house in Pittsburgh before declaring his candidacy.

He stressed his connections to Pennsylvania: growing up on a farm as a high school wrestling and football star before going to West Point and fighting in the Gulf War. He also spent 10 years in Pittsburgh in business, giving him a stronger claim to Pennsylvania than Oz.

Like Oz, McCormick had worked hard to earn Trump’s endorsement, and he insisted he was the authentic “America First” candidate, invoking Trump’s nickname for his governing philosophy.

However, Trump attacked McCormick repeatedly in the campaign’s final two weeks, leading a rally for Oz where he called McCormick the “candidate of special interests and globalists and the Washington establishment.”

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Follow Marc Levy on Twitter at twitter.com/timelywriter

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Pa. GOP loudly opposed counting undated ballots, until now

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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — When Philadelphia’s election board prepared to count ballots last year that were mailed in without the voter’s handwritten date, Republicans threatened impeachment. Now a GOP Senate candidate wants counties to embrace the same approach.

In a last-ditch bid to close a roughly 900-vote gap with Dr. Mehmet Oz, former hedge fund CEO David McCormick is pressing for undated mail-in ballots to be counted. The Senate Republican primary is still too close to call, now more than two weeks after Pennsylvania’s primary election, and the mail-in vote, which has favored McCormick, could help him.

McCormick insists he simply wants every Republican vote to be counted in a contest that will decide the GOP nominee for one of this year’s most closely watched Senate races. But in calling for undated mail-in ballots to be counted, McCormick is putting the GOP in an uncomfortable spot after the party has spent the better part of two years deriding such votes as “illegal” alongside a broader embrace of former President Donald Trump’s lies about widespread fraud in the 2020 campaign.

“Now it looks like we could be OK for something if it impacts the race in a way you want it to go,” said Mike Barley, a Republican campaign strategist in Pennsylvania who does not have a candidate in the Senate race.

The national and state party are fighting McCormick in state courts, and the U.S. Supreme Court could resolve the matter any day now. In any case, most Republicans believe McCormick is out of luck and will be unable to make up the votes in a recount, regardless of whether undated ballots are counted.

More registered Democrats vote by mail in Pennsylvania than do registered Republicans, possibly as a result of Trump’s baseless smearing of mail-in voting as rife with fraud.

Until now, Republican Party leaders had been solidly unified behind the idea that ballots without a voter’s handwritten date on the envelope must be thrown out.

The law, they reasoned, is clear on that point — even if that handwritten date on a ballot envelope plays no role in determining whether a voter is eligible or whether a ballot is cast on time.

Then, three days after the May 17 primary election, a federal appeals court ruled in a case stemming from a local judicial election last year that throwing out such ballots violates federal civil rights law.

As he tries to find the votes to overtake the Trump-endorsed Oz, McCormick has argued that “every Republican vote should count,” and, in court, his lawyer, Charles Cooper, told a state judge that the object of Pennsylvania’s election law is to let people vote, “not to play games of gotcha with them.”

McCormick’s pursuit has served up a sort of whiplash for Republicans, who had threatened to impeach Philadelphia election officials last year after they moved to count such ballots and accused state judges of stealing a state Senate seat in 2020 when they ruled that the ballots could be counted in that year’s election.

This time around, however, Republicans aren’t blasting judges or threatening to impeach the county election boards that are counting the ballots.

“Not at this point, because it’s still in litigation,” said Republican state Rep. Seth Grove, who chairs the committee that writes election-related legislation.

In court, the Republican National Committee and the state Republican Party have opposed McCormick. The party, however, is not unified in that effort.

For instance, the Butler County Republican Party, which endorsed McCormick, hasn’t taken a side in the fight, said county GOP chair Al Lindsay.

Counties that already counted the undated ballots, without being forced, include Republican counties, both big and small.

Sam DeMarco, the Republican Party chair in heavily populated Allegheny County, said he’s not aware that Republicans have actually changed their mind about the law.

Rather, he has heard griping from Republicans about McCormick “because they think this is what the Democrats would do.”

In any case, it is probably better to get the fight out of the way in a Republican primary, rather than leave it for the general election, he said.

“I just want to get a definitive ruling and, personally I’m happy it’s happening now, in a primary, rather than in November, where the actual seat would be up for grabs,” DeMarco said.

The winner of the GOP primary will face Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman in November.

Barley, the campaign strategist, said the perception that the party has shifted its stance — or that some Republicans have, anyway — sets a dangerous precedent.

“What happens in November if it doesn’t go your way and then you don’t want them counted?” he asked.

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Follow Marc Levy on Twitter at twitter.com/timelywriter.

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GOP takes Oz’s side in Pa. Senate race vote-counting lawsuit

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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The national Republican Party is taking the side of celebrity heart surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania’s neck-and-neck GOP primary contest for U.S. Senate and opposing a lawsuit that could help former hedge fund CEO David McCormick close the gap in votes.

McCormick’s lawsuit was filed late Monday, less than 24 hours before Tuesday’s deadline for counties to report their unofficial results to the state.

In it, McCormick asks the state Commonwealth Court to require counties to obey a brand-new federal appeals court decision and promptly count mail-in ballots that lack a required handwritten date on the return envelope.

Oz, who is endorsed by former President Donald Trump, has pressed counties not to count the ballots and the Republican National Committee said it would go to court to oppose McCormick.

In a statement, the RNC’s chief counsel, Matt Raymer, said “election laws are meant to be followed, and changing the rules when ballots are already being counted harms the integrity of our elections.”

McCormick’s lawsuit is the first — but likely not the last — lawsuit in the contest between Oz and McCormick.

Oz led McCormick by 992 votes, or 0.07 percentage points, out of 1,341,037 ballots reported by the state as of Tuesday morning.

The race is close enough to trigger Pennsylvania’s automatic recount law, with the separation between the candidates inside the law’s 0.5% margin. The Associated Press will not declare a winner in the race until the likely recount is complete. That could take until June 8.

It’s not clear how many mail-in ballots that lack a handwritten date have been received by counties. Although he trails the vote count, McCormick has been doing better than Oz among mail-in ballots.

In an appearance Monday on a conservative Philadelphia radio talk show, McCormick insisted “every Republican vote should count” and said his campaign believes the federal court decision is binding on counties.

Ruling in a separate case late Friday, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the state election law’s requirement of a date next to the voter’s signature on the outside of return envelopes was “immaterial.” The lawsuit emerged from a county judicial election last year, and the three-judge panel said it found no reason to refuse counting the ballots in that race.

The ruling went against the position that Republicans in Pennsylvania have taken in courts repeatedly in the past to try to disqualify legal ballots cast on time by eligible voters for technicalities, such as lacking a handwritten date.

The state law requires someone to write a date on the envelope in which they mail in their ballots. However, the envelope is postmarked by the post office and timestamped by counties when they receive it.

Meanwhile, the state law gives no reason that a voter should date the envelope and does not explicitly require a county to throw it out should it lack a date.

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Follow Marc Levy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/timelywriter.

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PA Primary: Mehmet Oz, Dave McCormick neck and neck in Pennsylvania’s GOP Senate contest ; Kathy Barnette trails by 76,000 votes

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NEWTOWN, Pennsylvania (WPVI) — The night’s most closely watched race in Pennsylvania’s GOP Senate contest is still too close to call.

Election Results: Live updates on Pennsylvania primary races

Celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz and former hedge fund executive Dave McCormick are neck and neck. Political commentator Kathy Barnette trails behind by more than 76,000 votes.

As of 11 p.m. with 99% of the estimated vote counted, McCormick led by 337,797 votes while Oz held 335,314 votes. Barnette had 261,299 total votes.

The auto recount trigger in Pennsylvania for a statewide race is a margin of

The winner will face Democratic challenger John Fetterman who won his party’s nomination days after suffering a stroke.

“We’re not gonna have a result tonight,” Oz said shortly before midnight, before vowing to Trump, “I will make you proud.”

Oz had been locked in an expensive battle with McCormick. But Barnette, who has drawn the support of Trump backers suspicious of Oz’s ideological shifts, stunned the political world with a late surge that upended the race in the final weeks as she tries to become the first Black Republican woman elected to the Senate.

Barnette, who voted in Huntingdon Valley on Tuesday morning, has repeated false claims the 2020 election was stolen.

In recent days, pictures have emerged of Barnette apparently marching near members of the Proud Boys on January 6, 2021. ABC News has verified the images that were first shared by an independent researcher.

She denied any connection to the Proud Boys to another network.

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2022 midterms: Results from Tuesday’s primaries | AP News

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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Republican Ted Budd will face Democrat Cheri Beasley in North Carolina’s Senate race after both easily clinched primary victories Tuesday night, as voters in five states weighed in on contests that could decide control of Congress, governor’s mansions and key elections offices later this year.

With her win, Beasley, a former state supreme court justice, is aiming to become North Carolina’s first Black senator. Budd’s strong performance is also a victory for former President Donald Trump, who elevated the little-known congressman with a surprise endorsement nearly a year ago.

But much of the attention on Tuesday centers on Pennsylvania, where Trump’s preferred Senate candidate, Mehmet Oz, has divided conservatives. Some are suspicious of the ideological leanings of the celebrity heart surgeon who gained fame as a frequent guest on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show. Oz has spent much of the campaign in a heated fight with former hedge fund CEO David McCormick.

That’s allowed commentator Kathy Barnette to emerge in the final days of the primary as a conservative alternative to both Oz and McCormick. Should she win the primary and general election, Barnette would be the first Black Republican woman elected to the U.S. Senate.

Trump, who has held campaign-style rallies with Oz, insists he is the best candidate to keep the Senate seat in Republican hands in the fall. Given his level of involvement in the race, a loss would be a notable setback for the former president, who is wielding endorsements as a way to prove his dominance over the GOP ahead of a potential 2024 presidential run.

The year’s midterm primary season is entering its busiest stretch with races also unfolding in Kentucky, Oregon and Idaho.

Democrats have their own high-profile contests. In Pennsylvania, progressive Lt. Gov. John Fetterman has dominated the Senate race but was forced off the campaign trail by a stroke. The 52-year-old tweeted a picture of himself casting an emergency absentee ballot from the hospital. Later Tuesday he tweeted: “I just got out of a procedure to implant a pacemaker with a defibrillator in my heart. We got the all-clear that it was successful, and that I’m on track for a full recovery.”

Meanwhile, Pennsylvania Attorney General John Shapiro, who was unopposed for his party’s governor’s nomination, tweeted that he had mild COVID-19 symptoms that were forcing him from the campaign trail.

Tuesday’s contests could ultimately determine how competitive the general election will be this fall, when control of Congress, governor’s mansions and key elections posts are up for grabs. That’s especially true in the perennial political battleground of Pennsylvania, where some Republicans are already worried that Doug Mastriano is too extreme to woo moderates who are often decisive in general elections.

“There’s definitely some concern in large factions of the party,” said Pennsylvania Republican strategist Vince Galko.

More fundamentally, Tuesday’s primaries could test voters’ commitment to democratic principles. Barnette is running even further to the right than Oz and participated in the January 2021 rally that turned into an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Then there’s Mastriano, who was also outside the Capitol during the mob attack and would appoint Pennsylvania’s chief elections official if he becomes governor. He has pledged to take the extraordinary step of requiring voters to “re-register” to vote — even though that’s barred by the National Voter Registration Act and likely violates significant protections under federal, and possibly state, law.

Mastriano made Trump’s lies about widespread electoral fraud costing him the presidency a centerpiece of his campaign — and has been subpoenaed by the House committee investigating the Capitol riot following his efforts to name a slate of alternate Electoral College electors in Trump’s favor.

Stacy Steinly, a 51-year-old school bus assistant, cast her ballot in the town of Hamburg, Pennsylvania, about 30 miles west of Allentown. She said she chose Mastriano because “he was sticking by President Trump and saying that everything was fraudulent.”

“Everything he was talking about was making sense,” said Steinly, who wore a black T-shirt that said “Biden is not my president (or anyone else’s) based on legal votes.”

Trump’s safest bet might have been Budd, who overcome a slow start to emerge from 14 Republican primary candidates, including former Gov. Pat McCrory, as the winner of North Carolina’s Republican Senate primary.

While much of the attention during the opening phase of the primary season has focused on Trump’s grip on the GOP, the contests also serve as a referendum on Biden’s leadership of the Democratic Party. In the president’s native state of Pennsylvania, Rep. Conor Lamb, a moderate in the mold of Biden, is at risk of being trounced by Fetterman.

Lamb said Tuesday he had detected “frustration” among Democratic primary voters, a feeling he said he shared as the party has struggled to accomplish much of its policy agenda. But he argued that moderates helped Democrats retake control of the House in 2018 and that the party should “double down” on that approach this year.

“What I’ve been trying to do throughout this campaign is talk about the fact that no matter how difficult it is, we actually know as a party what it takes to be successful,” Lamb told a Pittsburgh radio station.

Fetterman, known for his hulking, 6-foot-8 stature and tattoos, and for championing causes including universal health care, has appealed to many Democrats with an outsider image.

Robert Sweeney, 59, also from Hamburg, said he voted for Fetterman because “he seemed like a decent guy and knows what he’s doing.”

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Associated Press writer Michael Rubinkam contributed from Hamburg, Pennsylvania.

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‘Reprehensible’: Oz condemns GOP opponent’s tweet on Islam

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CARLISLE, Pa. (AP) — Republican Senate hopeful Mehmet Oz is stepping up his criticism of far-right candidates in Pennsylvania who are gaining traction ahead of Tuesday’s primary election.

After spending much of the campaign steering clear of fellow Republican Senate contender Kathy Barnette, Oz on Saturday said she was out of step with the GOP and would be unable to win the general election in November. In an interview, he took issue with a 2015 tweet from Barnette in which she wrote that “Pedophilia is a Cornerstone of Islam.”

Oz, who would be the nation’s first Muslim senator, described the comments as “disqualifying.”

“It’s reprehensible that she would tweet out something that is defamatory to an entire religion,” Oz told The Associated Press. “This state was based on religious freedom. I’m proud as a Pennsylvanian to uphold those founding beliefs that every faith has its merits.”

The Barnette campaign did not respond to a request for comment. Earlier in the week, Barnette told NBC News that she did not make the statement, which was still live on her Twitter feed on Saturday.

For months, the race for the Republican nomination for Pennsylvania’s open Senate seat has been an expensive fight between former hedge fund CEO David McCormick and Oz, who have spent millions of dollars attacking each other on television. Each has also faced questions about their ties to Pennsylvania. McCormick grew up in the state, while Oz went to medical school there and was married in Philadelphia.

But in the final days of the Republican primary, a third candidate — Barnette, a conservative commentator who has courted hard-line pro-Trump groups — has emerged. Trump himself has warned that Barnette’s background hasn’t been properly vetted.

With the election just days away, polls show a tight three-way race with a sizable number of undecided voters who could sway the results next week.

Oz has won Trump’s endorsement in the Senate contest, although some Trump supporters continue to question his conservative credentials.

When asked to clarify his views on abortion in the Saturday interview, Oz distanced himself from Trump’s newly minted pick for Pennsylvania governor, Doug Mastriano, a far-right conservative who has called abortion “the No. 1 issue.” In a recent televised debate, Mastriano said he supports banning abortion from conception, with no exceptions for rape, incest or the life of the mother.

Oz described himself as “pro-life,” but said he would prefer an abortion ban in Pennsylvania that would include exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother.

“There are times when we disagree with other pro-life advocates,” Oz told the AP. “In my case, those disagreements often come about because, as a doctor, I’ve dealt with issues that threaten the life of the mother.”

Oz saved his most pointed criticism for Barnette, however, echoing Trump’s concerns that her background hasn’t been properly scrutinized. He lashed out at her previous comments on Islam, noting that she also has a history of anti-gay remarks.

“We know so little,” Oz said. “Every time she answers a question, she raises more questions. But I think it’s disqualifying to make Islamophobic and homophobic comments, not just for the general election, but the Republican primary as well.”

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Associated Press writer Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pa., contributed to this report.



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Entertainment

Mayim Bilak, Ken Jennings to remain Jeopardy! interim hosts

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This iconic American quiz show still hasn’t decided on a permanent host. What is Jeopardy!?

Once again, Sony still has pushed off inking a permanent Jeopardy! host, announcing that interim hosts Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings will remain behind the podium for the remainder of its 38th season.

“We are delighted to let you know that Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings will continue to share hosting duties through the end of Jeopardy! Season 38, and Michael Davies will remain as executive producer,” the show’s producers announced via Twitter. “We’re so pleased to have such an excellent and experienced team in front of and behind the camera as we head into 2022!”

After playing musical chairs all last summer, Jeopardy! landed on some guy named Mike really, really wanted to be the host of Jeopardy!—despite him having minimal experience or name recognition (but several sketchy podcast episodes and numerous workplace misconduct allegations). Shortly after that, he stepped down because everyone was really, really annoyed about it.

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And so, the show has decided to shrug off any decision-making until, at least, next July, when the gig technically hits job boards again. For her part, Bialik all but dashed any hopes of becoming the show’s perma-host. Her commitments to the Fox sitcom Call Me Kat (a show that definitely exists) reportedly keep her from full-time Jeopardy!-ing.

As for Jennings, despite a few gross tweets, he remains the clear choice at this point. Not that there’s much competition. Fan-favorite LeVar Burton is out of the running, as are the host pool’s two most prominent medical quacks, Dr. Oz and Aaron Rogers. Oz and Rodgers have moved on to running for Congress and devoting his life to the teachings of Joe Rogan, respectively. (Though, Bialik has given them stiff competition in the past).

So the show will continue to be without a permanent host for the time being. Unfortunately, that means Mike Richards only has a few months to get a job as an intern, work his way up to associate producer, navigate the org chart that leads him to executive producer so that he can give himself the job, again.

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