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Post by Admin on May 18, 2022 17:39:59 GMT
NEWTOWN, Pennsylvania (WPVI) -- Tuesday night's most closely watched race in Pennsylvania's GOP Senate contest is still too close to call.
Celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz and former hedge fund executive Dave McCormick are neck and neck. Political commentator Kathy Barnette trails behind by more than 86,000 votes.
The night's most closely watched race in Pennsylvania's GOP Senate contest is still too close to call.
As of Wednesday morning, with 95% of precincts reporting, Oz had 411,674 votes while McCormick held 409,002 votes. Barnette trailed behind with a total of 325,557 votes.
Pennsylvania law requires recounts when the margin between the top two candidates is 0.5 percentage points or less. With just a few hundred votes separating Oz and McCormick, the result may not be clear for several days.
Election Results: Live updates on Pennsylvania primary races
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.
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Post by Admin on May 18, 2022 19:36:45 GMT
Former President Trump
Tuesday was a mixed night at best for Trump.
Cawthorn’s defeat was one blow.
Another came with the uncertainty in the Pennsylvania Senate Republican primary. Trump backed Oz there. Even if the TV personality prevails in the end, it will be by the skin of his teeth.
Trump can point to other, more favorable results.
In North Carolina, his pick in the GOP Senate primary, Rep. Ted Budd, won with consummate ease over former Gov. Pat McCrory.
Trump left it very late to endorse Mastriano in the Pennsylvania gubernatorial primary — but Mastriano is cut from very Trump-like cloth.
Overall, it was a night that saw Trump’s hold on the GOP appear not quite so solid as previously thought.
Democratic general election hopes
Democrats had hoped that conservative commentator Kathy Barnette’s late surge in the Pennsylvania GOP Senate primary would propel her to victory.
Most Democratic insiders believed Barnette, with her history of inflammatory statements and scant political experience, would be the easiest candidate to defeat in November.
Instead, they have wound up with either McCormick or Oz, who are likely to be tougher adversaries.
On the other hand, Democrats believe Mastriano’s wide victory in the gubernatorial race gives them a real opening there.
Losers
Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.)
The 26-year-old congressman’s defeat was one of the biggest headlines of the night.
The dynamics behind that defeat have been mentioned above, but it was still a remarkable fall for the pro-Trump provocateur.
He can easily find a prominent place in the conservative media firmament if he wants one, post-Congress. But a primary defeat before his first term is out must surely be a bitter pill nevertheless.
Rep. Conor Lamb (D-Pa.)
Just four years ago, Lamb was a rising star in the Democratic Party.
In 2018, he won a special election in a Republican-leaning district to become a congressman at the age of just 33.
At the time, Lamb’s ideological moderation and military record — he served in the Marine Corps — was perceived to be an ideal recipe to win competitive districts.
But the congressman never gained traction in the Senate race this year.
Some blamed the fact that he entered the race six months after Fetterman. But it also seemed as if Democratic primary voters simply weren’t buying the conventional centrism that Lamb represents.
The Associated Press called the race for Fetterman less than an hour after polls closed — an embarrassing loss for Lamb, given his previously elevated reputation.
Kathy Barnette
Barnette looked like the woman of the moment in the final stretch of the GOP Pennsylvania Senate primary.
Her momentum appeared so pronounced that there were real prospects of a Barnette victory as Tuesday dawned.
In the end, she didn’t come particularly close.
Clarity
Tuesday’s results — and the lack of results in some places — made it tougher than normal to draw clear lessons.
Colorado, Arizona local governments partner on carbon removal technology Schumer pledges Senate vote on domestic terrorism bill Trump’s endorsement mattered some places — but not in others.
An ultra-MAGA approach was Mastriano’s ticket to victory — but not enough for Barnette.
Ultimately, the night was a reminder that candidates, and the dynamics of each individual race, can matter as much as the big national trends.
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Post by Admin on May 19, 2022 1:00:24 GMT
Chris Wallace: Mastriano the last person GOP wants to see as primary winner 188,704 views May 18, 2022 State Sen. Doug Mastriano, the Pennsylvania Republican backed by former President Donald Trump, will win the GOP gubernatorial nomination in the Keystone State, CNN projects. CNN's Chris Wallace and Kasie Hunt react.
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Post by Admin on May 20, 2022 1:05:16 GMT
PHILADELPHIA — Dr. Mehmet Oz is still ahead by a whisker in Pennsylvania’s razor-thin Senate GOP contest. But David McCormick is slowly chipping away at his lead, and both sides are preparing for a drawn-out vote-counting process marked by hand-to-hand combat behind the scenes. As of Thursday evening, Oz had an edge of only 1,083 votes, or one-tenth of a percentage point — down from under 1,700 votes Wednesday. Despite essentially being tied, the Oz and McCormick teams are both publicly projecting confidence that they will be on top once all the ballots are counted. By state law, an automatic recount will be triggered if the race comes down to half of one percent or less — unless the runner-up backs down and officially declines a recount. But at this juncture, neither camp is signaling that they’ll throw in the towel. Instead, Pennsylvania Republicans are predicting trench warfare that could drag out for weeks — and be fought in the media, as well as potentially in the courts — in the state’s closely watched primary.
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Post by Admin on May 20, 2022 18:10:06 GMT
Former President Donald Trump has urged celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz to declare victory in Tuesday's too-close-to-call Pennsylvania Republican Senate primary, even as votes show his lead narrowing. With over 95% of votes counted, Dr Oz leads with 31.2% of the vote, compared to 31.1% for challenger Dave McCormick. State law says a recount must be held if a candidate's margin of victory is under 0.5%. Thousands of mail-in ballots must still be counted. On Wednesday, Mr Trump took to Truth Social - his new social media platform - to cast doubt on the election and claim that Dr Oz, a surgeon best known for his appearances on the Oprah Winfrey Show, had won. He compared the state's counting of mail-in ballots to the 2020 election, which he continues to insist he won. "Here we go again," Mr Trump said of the primary. "In Pennsylvania, they are unable to count the mail-in ballots. It is a big mess." In another post, he urged Mr Oz, whom he has endorsed, to "declare victory". "It just makes it harder for them to cheat with the ballots that they 'just happened to find'," he wrote, providing no evidence to back up his claims. In Lancaster County, a ballot print error meant that thousands of mail-in ballots had to be reprocessed. The race between Mr Oz and Mr McCormick, a former hedge fund CEO, will determine who will run as the next Republican senator for Pennsylvania in the forthcoming mid-term elections.
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