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President Trump has begun to cast doubt on the results of the Republican Senate election in Pennsylvania between his approved candidate, the famous television doctor Mehmet Oz, and hedge fund manager David McCormick, urging Oz to “declare victory” before all votes. counted.
Pennsylvania, a state that Trump won in 2016 but lost in 2020, was at the center of his baseless allegations that voter fraud cost him the election and suggested that something sinister could happen in the Oz race on Wednesday. .
The former president announced on his social media site Truth Social that Oz had won, although the race had not been called. He mocked the bulletins sent by mail, publishing: “Here again! In Pennsylvania, they can’t count the ballots sent by mail. It is a big mess. Our country must pass on paper ballots, with voting on the same day. Just done in France, zero problems. Get a smart America! “
Senior news anchor Libby Casey breaks the most important conclusions from the primary elections in Pennsylvania and North Carolina on Tuesday. (Video: Libby Casey, Casey Sylvester / Washington Post)
He later called on Oz to “declare victory.” “It makes it much harder for them to cheat with the ballots they just found by accident,” Trump said without proof.
As of Wednesday morning, Oz, who won Trump’s approval in April, had a slim lead over McCormick, who sought Trump’s support and was backed by many of Trump’s allies. With 95 percent of the vote counted, Oz had 31.3 percent and McCormick 31.1 percent.
Pennsylvania law requires automatic counting if the candidate’s winning margin is 0.5 percent or less. Thousands of ballots left to be counted remain to be counted.
The winner will face Lieutenant-Governor John Feterman, who won the Democratic nomination by an overwhelming majority. Feterman is recovering from a recent stroke that left him out of the campaign in the final days of the primary. He hopes to return to the trail in a few days, his wife, Gisele Feterman, told CNN on Wednesday morning.
The race is seen as a decisive front in the battle for the Senate majority. The seat in Pennsylvania is held by retired Republican Sen. Patrick J. Tumi.
President Biden’s low approval rating has raised concerns among Democrats about interim terms in November, especially in key races on the battlefield. Republicans are seeking support from voters over fears of rising inflation, crime and other issues, creating strong political winds for the ruling party in Washington.
The controversial race between Oz and McCormick left a chance for a third candidate, Katie Barnett, to win a grip in the last weeks of the campaign among voters who were unhappy with their top-level choice. Barnett, who ran for Trump’s backboard with a far-right platform that embraced many of the former president’s ideas, including his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, was on the verge of finishing third.
Trump and Oz viciously attack McCormick, describing the former hedge fund chief executive and military veteran as a “liberal Wall Street Republican” who wasn’t really MAGA, the acronym for Trump’s 2016 Make America Great Again campaign slogan Mr. McCormick brought in Mike Pompeo, Trump’s secretary of state, to question Oz’s dual citizenship with Turkey.
Addressing supporters late Tuesday, Oz thanked Trump and Fox News’s Sean Haniti for help with his campaign.
“President Trump, after supporting me, continued to lean on this race in Pennsylvania. God bless you, sir, for putting so much effort into this race, I will make you proud,” Oz said. “I want to thank Sean Hannity … he understands exactly how to make a difference and has done so throughout the campaign, much of it behind the scenes.
The primary election of the Democrats in the Senate, in which Feterman defeated Connor Lamb and US Representative Malcolm Kenyatta, was far less personal. High-level Democrats did not support a single candidate in the race, but were quick to offer their support to Feterman when it became clear shortly after the election closed that he was the decisive winner with 60 percent of the vote.
“Democrats are united around John, who is a strong candidate, will run in a tough race and can win in November,” Biden said in a statement 90 minutes after polls closed. “And while we wait for the results of the GOP primary, one thing is clear – these candidates are not your father’s GOP. They fought vicious, chaotic primary elections to be the most extreme… whoever appears will be too dangerous, too greedy, and too extreme to represent Pennsylvania in the United States Senate.
Feterman is nearly 6 feet 9, with a shaved head, a goatee and tattoos on both arms. His huge hoodies, shorts, sneakers and simple style generate a deep fan base among voters frustrated by recent politics.
In every state except Pennsylvania, which held by-elections this year, turnout fell between 41 and 70 percentage points from 2020 – which is expected since 2020 was a presidential primary. In Pennsylvania, the decline in turnout was just 17 percentage points, evidence of high enthusiasm among Democrat voters.
Part of the delay in the Republican race was due to a typographical error that made thousands of ballots unreadable in Lancaster County, the sixth most populous in the state. These ballots had to be processed by hand and then scanned.
There are “a lot of ballots” to be counted in the Republican primary, said Acting Secretary of State Lee Chapman during a speech on CNN. Although Chapman said he could not provide a number, data from the Associated Press show that at least 24,000 absent and mailed ballots have not yet been counted. Oz is ahead with less than 2,500 votes.
Lenny Bronner and John Wagner contributed to this report.
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