Everyone has been on the edge of their seat for a week, waiting to learn who won the Republican Primary election race for Senate in Pennsylvania. On Friday, Dave McCormick officially declared defeat, conceding to Dr. Mehmet Oz. It was a tough fight.
A close election
After a week of chaos, confusion and officials calling for a recount, Dave McCormick threw in his towel and admitted defeat on June 3.
The razor-thin Republican Senate primary election was a fight over who gets to take the seat of retiring Republican Pat Toomey. The experts were refusing to even speculate who might come out ahead after the final tally and it looked like the dispute was going to drag out endlessly.
McCormick decided to surrender the election gracefully after the recount numbers started to lean in his opponent’s favor.
“It’s now clear to me with the recount now largely complete that we have a nominee,” he graciously announced in Pittsburgh. “Tonight is really about all us coming together.”
Popular media guru Dr. Mehmet Oz will represent Republicans in the fall. When the first counts came in, Oz led McCormick by just 940 votes and a mere 0.07 percentage points when McCormick folded his hand.
The threshold to trigger an election recount automatically is 0.5 percentage points, a factor of 10 higher. That means they were still in a statistical tie.
Oz endorsed by Trump
The thing which probably influenced McCormick’s decision even more than the actual count numbers is the fact Donald Trump threw his support behind the celebrity doctor.
More than one recent election contest benefited from Trump’s approval. JD Vance won his primary in Ohio, at least in part because of Trump’s backing.
When the general election rolls around in the fall, Oz will be facing off against the current Lieutenant Governor, John Fetterman. That, they say, will be “one of the most competitive US Senate races in the country.”
Unfortunately, Fetterman “suffered a stroke the weekend before the May 17 primary election.” The former mayor of Braddock is expected to make a full recovery, though it “nearly killed him.”
The biggest reason the election contest between Oz and McCormick came down to a photo finish is thanks to Kathy Barnette.
She effectively played the roll of a spoiler by sucking votes away from Dr. Oz. McCormick was realistic enough to acknowledge that if she hadn’t been in the race, the outcome would have gone to Oz.
