San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Recount likely in hard-fought Senate primary
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania’s Republican primary for an open U.S. Senate seat is too close to call and is expected to be headed for a statewide recount to decide the winner of the contest between heart surgeon-turned-TV celebrity Dr. Mehmet Oz and former hedge fund CEO David McCormick. A recount would mean that the outcome of the race might not be known until June 8, the deadline for counties to report their results to the state.
Oz, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, led McCormick by 1,079 votes, or 0.08 percentage points, out of 1,340,248 ballots counted as of Friday night. 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.
Both campaigns have hired lawyers to lead their recount efforts, and both have hired campaign strategists who helped lead the operation to observe vote-counting on election day for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2020.
The winner will face Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman in November’s midterm elections in what Democrats see as their best opportunity to pick up a seat in the closely divided Senate. Fetterman won the Democratic nomination while in the hospital recovering from a stroke four days before the election. The incumbent, Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, is retiring after serving two terms.
Trump’s clout is again on the line, as he looked for a third straight win in Republican Senate primaries after “Hillbilly Elegy” author JD Vance prevailed in Ohio earlier this month and U.S. Rep. Ted Budd easily scored a victory in North Carolina on Tuesday.
The big field of Republican candidates and their super PACs reported spending more than $70 million during the primary campaign. Oz and McCormick dominated the seven-person GOP field, blanketing the state’s TV screens with political ads for months and spending millions of their own money.
Oz, who is best known as the host of daytime TV’s “The Dr. Oz Show,” had to overcome misgivings among hardline Trump backers about his conservative credentials. Rivals also charged that his dual citizenship with Turkey would compromise his loyalties to the United States. If elected, Oz would be the nation’s first Muslim senator.
McCormick was virtually unknown four months ago and emphasized his credentials as a hometown success story.