BREAKING: Pennsylvania Senate Candidate Dave McCormick Gets Defeated And Concedes To Dr. Oz Victory

On Friday evening, Pennsylvania U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick surrendered the Republican primary contest to Mehmet Oz. McCormick made the declaration in front of a crowd of supporters and the media, describing the recount as “nearly complete.” Dave McCormick, right, and his wife Dinah Powell, a Republican contender for a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania, chat to supporters during his results watch party in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, May 17, 2022.

On Friday, he contacted Oz to congratulate him and to urge his followers to vote for him in November’s race against Democrat John Fetterman. “With the recount nearly complete, it’s apparent to me that we have a nominee. I also contacted Mehmet Oz today to congratulate him on his win. And I told him what I’ve always told you: I’ll do all I can to help him unify Republicans and Pennsylvanians behind his race, behind his Senate nomination. It is critical for the state of Pennsylvania that we defeat John Fetterman “According to McCormick.

Oz, who was endorsed in the race by former President Trump, reacted to McCormick’s concession by stating, “I received a kind phone call from David McCormick this evening, and I am appreciative for his vow of support in the next election. We all want a better future for Pennsylvania and the United States. We will ensure that this U.S. Senate seat does not fall into the hands of the radical left, led by John Fetterman, now that our primary is done. For the next five months, I plan to campaign in every part of the Commonwealth in order to win the support of every Pennsylvanian.”

Despite McCormick’s capitulation, the Pennsylvania Department of State announced it will continue the recount. “Despite the fact that David McCormick has surrendered the Pennsylvania Republican Senate race to Mehmet Oz, the Secretary of State has ordered an automatic recount of the election. The deadline for the lost candidate to waive the recount has passed, and no provision in the election statute allows the Secretary to stop an automatic recount after it has been ordered.”

“Counties should keep working to finish their recount by noon on June 7 and submit their results to the Secretary by noon on June 8,” says the letter. “I feel it is time to look forward to bringing new leadership to PA, and I look forward to helping flip PA red with my close friend Senator Doug Mastriano,” Kathy Barnette, a previous Republican Senate primary candidate in Pennsylvania, stated. Pennsylvania Republicans have rallied behind a charismatic convert to conservatism over a competitor who supported a purer version of the party’s current ideology, preferring a star former TV presenter and political newbie over a rival who espoused a purer form of the party’s modern theology.

The above phrase may have been written in 2016, when Donald Trump won the Republican presidential nomination by defeating Senator Ted Cruz in Pennsylvania’s presidential primary. But now, it’s a depiction of Mehmet Oz, America’s favorite living-room doctor, who, with the support of the former president, has finally secured the Republican Senate nomination in Pennsylvania. After McCormick abruptly surrendered in the middle of a statewide recount, Oz narrowly defeated the billionaire David McCormick.

Oz will now face John Fetterman, the progressive lieutenant governor who, after suffering a stroke four days before the Democratic primary, beat Representative Conor Lamb for the Democratic nomination. In Pennsylvania, Trump went two for two with his Republican support, as arch-conservative State Senator Doug Mastriano comfortably won the GOP governorship nomination. Oz’s triumph in one of the nation’s most costly Senate races was considerably closer—so close, in fact, that the contest was settled in two and a half weeks.

After the initial ballot canvass, the heart surgeon-turned-TV host led by less than 1,000 votes—a margin of less than 0.1 percent out of more than 1.3 million votes cast—triggering an automatic recount. The Oz and McCormick campaigns ended up in court, giving the Trump proxy fight another legal element. Because he needed absentee ballots to overcome the difference, McCormick found himself in the embarrassing position of asking judges to order election officials to count updated ballots, the type that Trump and Republicans protested so strenuously in 2020. The Republican National Committee backed Oz in the legal issue, despite remaining neutral in the primaries.

Although a state court ruled in McCormick’s favor, he decided this evening that the disputed ballots would not be enough to propel him to victory. “With the recount almost complete, it is now evident to me that we have a nominee,” he stated in a brief live-streamed remark. McCormick claimed he contacted Oz to congratulate him and promised to assist him in the autumn against Fetterman. After late polls showed her overtaking McCormick for a second-place finish, activist Kathy Barnette, whose deeply personal opposition to abortion and commitment to Trump’s election lie captured many of the MAGA faithful, finished third with nearly 25% of the vote, a slight surprise after late polls showed her overtaking McCormick for a second-place finish.

Barnette’s supporters blasted Oz’s brief support for Black Lives Matter marches and admiration of former President Barack Obama, while the conservative Club for Growth defied Trump and endorsed her. Oz originally rejected Trump’s demand that he declare victory immediately after the votes closed, but before the recount began in late May, he declared himself the “presumptive nominee.” The three-week head start may have put Oz at a disadvantage against Fetterman in the general election, but Fetterman primarily utilized it to recover from his stroke. Fetterman delivered a statement hours before McCormick conceded today, claiming he still needed “a little more time” before returning to the campaign road.