Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Bonnie Biess/Getty John Fetterman, Mehmet Oz
Democrat John Fetterman has won the Pennsylvania Senate race over Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz and flipped a Senate seat blue, according to several news network projections — months after suffering a stroke amid one of the most hotly contested campaigns in the country.
“It’s official. I will be the next U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania,” Fetterman tweeted early Wednesday morning. “We bet on the people of Pennsylvania — and you didn’t let us down. And I won’t let you down. Thank you.”
Oz gained sudden momentum in recent weeks, with some polls calling him the frontrunner in a race that would prove key to determining which political party takes control of the U.S. Senate. Their face-off ultimately became the most expensive Senate race in the nation.
But Lt. Gov. Fetterman, 53, was leading Oz, 62, early in the race, often taking to social media to call out the former television personality for gaffes, including a widely shared shopping trip for “crudités.”
In those early days, the larger theme of the Fetterman vs. Oz rivalry was that one — the Democrat — was a Pennsylvanian through and through, and one — the Republican — was an out-of-touch transplant.
Ryan Collerd/AP Photo
But a stroke Fetterman suffered just before the Democratic primary in May made some voters nervous as time went on.
Fetterman won the primary handily, and his doctor later revealed he has atrial fibrillation, which caused the stroke, and cardiomyopathy, which led to him undergo a procedure to implant a pacemaker with a defibrillator. Fetterman returned to the campaign trail in August, saying in an emotional speech he felt “better than I have in years.”
But his stroke remained in the headlines, particularly as the Oz campaign seized on the health issue, even mocking it at times.
Oz and Fetterman participated in one debate, clashing on an array of issues including abortion, a decision the Republican said should be left to “women, doctors [and] local political leaders.” Fetterman, meanwhile, said his campaign “would fight for Roe v. Wade.”
But most of the coverage of the debate hinged on Fetterman’s performance in the wake of his stroke, which required that he use closed-captioning monitors to display moderators’ questions and the candidates’ answers.
Oz announced his campaign last November, penning an op-ed for The Washington Examiner in which he wrote that he wanted “to help fix the problems and to help us heal.”
The choice to launch a political campaign in Pennsylvania raised questions, as Oz previously lived in and filmed his eponymous daytime talk show in New Jersey. He only began voting in Pennsylvania’s elections via absentee ballot in 2021, and his Pennsylvania registration is tied to an address owned by his in-laws, the AP reported.
Still, he received the backing of the Republican Party following a tight primary that ended in a recount and also received high-profile endorsements, including that of former President Donald Trump.
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In his April endorsement, Trump, then 75, said he had “known Dr. Oz for many years, as have many others, even if only through his very successful television show. He has lived with us through the screen and has always been popular, respected and smart.”
“Harvard-educated, tremendous, tremendous career and they liked him for a long time. That’s like a poll,” Trump told the crowd at a North Carolina rally, The Washington Post reports. “You know, when you’re in television for 18 years, that’s like a poll. That means people like you.”
