Dr. Oz wins Pennsylvania GOP Senate primary

Dr. Mehmet Oz, the celebrity TV doctor, won his Senate primary race in Pennsylvania yesterday. David McCormick, his closest competitor, called him after working hours to concede.

McCormick concedes to Oz

The earliest report of Dave McCormick’s concession comes from McCormick’s Twitter account. He left video of his concession speech at 6:30 p.m.

Other sources include Deadline, Axios, NPR, Associated Press (via US News and World Report), and Just the News.

Regular CNAV readers will recall our earlier reporting of a mixed result in Pennsylvania, and of Dr. Oz declaring victory late last month.

Mehmet Oz had only two opponents of consequence: McCormick and Kathy Barnette. Both candidates — and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo — made much of Dr. Oz having dual citizenship with Turkey. Dr. Oz made much of Kathy Barnette’s 2015 criticism of Islam on the Saturday before the primary. For the record, Dr. Oz was born in the United States, has relatives in Turkey, cast a vote in Turkish elections (he said he voted against the ruling party there), and kept dual citizenship only to make it easier to visit his relatives. He now says he will renounce the Turkish citizenship if he wins the general election.

Recounts and margins of victory

Oz led McCormick by 972 votes, which triggered an automatic recount. During that recount, McCormick sued the State, demanding that it count mail-in ballots that arrived on time but without a date on them. On Tuesday, Justice Samuel A. Alito issued an emergency stay on counting those ballots. (Ritter v. Migliori, case 22-1499.) Whether those ballots would have overcome Dr. Oz’ lead, remains unclear. Nevertheless, McCormick, saying he knew the recount would never erase that lead, conceded the race.

At last report, Kathy Barnette has declared she would support whoever won the Senate nomination. McCormick said the same yesterday. All three agree that they must beat Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the Democratic nominee. Dr. Oz now hopes to succeed Senator Pat Toomey, a Republican, who decided not to run again. Dr. Oz and his fellow Republicans all realize that this race could determine control of the United States Senate. But more than that, they all know John Fetterman is a radical leftist as bad as Joe Biden, or worse.

Fetterman suffered a stroke a few days before the primary and has had a pacemaker installed. He has made no in-person campaign appearances since.

Dr. Oz has the full confidence of President Trump, who has been a good friend of his for twenty years.

All eyes turn to the November election, and everyone expects both candidates to spend, and campaign, heavily and bitterly.

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