Pennsylvania Senate Race Heats Up

The Senate race in Pennsylvania is heating up with only a month to go until the midterm elections. This race is very much a battleground and could go either way at this point.

It features Democrat candidate John Fetterman versus Dr. Oz who’s running for the GOP with Trump’s backing.

Both candidates have a solid shot of winning the race at this point. Pundits are now increasingly focused on Philadelphia. Whoever takes Philly gets the crown. So, let’s take a look.

Focusing on Philly

Fetterman needs to get as many votes or more as Biden did in Philly in 2020 to win. If not enough people come out to vote in the city, he’s in trouble and he knows it.

In particular, Fetterman has been struggling with the controversy of him taking his shotgun and driving to accost an unarmed black man named Christopher Miyares who had been jogging.

At the time, Fetterman was mayor of Braddock, a town near Pittsburgh. He later became lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania as part of his political rise. However, this story has continued to haunt him.

According to Fetterman, he thought he’d heard gunshots which was backed up by several witnesses in the area at the time. He drove to find the man and accost him, but Miyares had no weapons on him when police searched him and appeared to have simply been out jogging.

Things like this make it hard for Fetterman to win Philly, which is 41% black. Nonetheless, Oz is also having a very tough race and it doesn’t look guaranteed he’ll win either, by any means.

The Current Situation

Fetterman won very big in the primary in order to become the Democratic candidate and should not be underestimated. He even won Philadelphia narrowly by crowding out gay black competitor Malcolm Kenyatta, which is quite something.

Fetterman has a habit of dressing in a working-class way and coming across as a man of the people that appeals to the working-class Democrat roots of places like Pennsylvania and Philadelphia.

His stroke just before the primary in May almost put him out, but his return has been considerable. Dr. Oz has a serious challenge here.

Oz, a Turkish-American reality TV star, is having a rough go of it and recently had several scandals break that are hurting his numbers.

Oz is partly struggling due to building no momentum between May to July and not investing enough in publicity. Now that he’s finally gaining ground and neck and neck with Fetterman, reports have come out about past medical experiments he did that harmed dogs and his promoting useless products on TV.

These are standard attack ad tactics, but the GOP still can’t afford to take this race for granted.