In regards to Pennsylvania’s currently open U.S. Senate seat, the recent Republican primary race was entirely too close to call as of early Wednesday morning.
Television host Dr. Mehmet Oz was in the lead over Treasury Department official David McCormick by just a minuscule 2,672 votes with over 94% of the ballots already tallies, which sit well within the half-a-percent margin that would cause an immediate and automatic recount. Conservative commentator Kathy Barnette sports just slightly less than 25% which ended up making it an official two-way split between McCormick and Oz for the chance to go up against the Democratic Candidate John Fetterman in the general election.
These results seem to differ from what was stated via recent polls carried out in the days walking up to the primaries that seemed to indicate that the battle would be a two-way affair but instead between Oz, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, and Barnette, who came to the forefront late in the race.
This race is being done to try and fill the seat of Sen. Pat Toomey, who is a Republican that has chosen to retire after a stint of two terms in the Senate. As it sits, Democrats seem to be hoping to try and flip the open seat in the upcoming midterm elections.
However, many of these primary races were quite a bit more decisive in their conclusions on Tuesday.
In another Republican gubernatorial primary race, voters chose State Sen. Doug Mastriano in place of former U.S. Congressman Lou Barletta. Mastriano is slated to go up against current Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who ran entirely uncontested in his own Democratic primary, in the upcoming general election. Shapiro has. as of these primaries, emphasized his centrist platform and threw funding at ads boosting Mastriano in his primary race, seemingly in hopes of highlighting his ties to Trump as a way to harm his chances in the November midterms. Current Gov. Tom Wolf (D-PA) has been set as ineligible to run for another consecutive term.
Additionally, Fetterman, the lieutenant governor of the Keystone state, managed to take down both U.S. Congressman Conor Lamb and State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta in the race for the commonwealth’s Democratic Senate nomination. Fetterman took the win even though he suffered a stroke over this past week and has successfully undergone a procedure to receive a pacemaker on the day of the elections.
Old Uncle Joe praised the victories from Fetterman, stating in a release that the nominee “understands that working class families in Pennsylvania and across the country have been dealt out for far too long.” The statement also issued condemnation for any Republican that Fetterman goes up against this fall as “too dangerous, too craven, and too extreme” to be the one representing Pennsylvania.
The Pennsylvania Department of State claimed in a statement that the results of quite a few of the extremely close elections will not be available quickly.
“We know voters want results on Primary Election Night, but the priority must be to make sure every vote is accurately and securely counted,” read the statement. “Ahead of the primary, more than 900,000 applications for mail-in and absentee ballots were requested. Pennsylvania election law does not permit pre-canvassing of ballots before Election Day — counties cannot begin counting mail ballots until 7 a.m. on Election Day.”
“We expect to have unofficial results within a few days,” the statement went on. “Given the possibility of recounts and the need for official certifications, it is unlikely that final results in all races will be available tonight.”
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