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Celebrity physician Dr. Mehmet Oz has overtaken Pennsylvania Lt. Governor John Fetterman in multiple polls taken after their first and only debate in the Keystone State’s hyper-competitive Senate race.Â
Their competition to replace retiring GOP Sen. Pat Toomey has been marked by caustic personal attacks and partisan vitriol.
Fetterman, who suffered a stroke in May, was grappling with auditory processing issues and minor speech problems during their high-profile head-to-head last week.
His repeated verbal stumbles, long pauses and repetition of phrases prompted some Democrats to worry about what they initially believed was a likely left-wing victory on November 8.
Now, after months of Fetterman’s lead over Oz gradually shrinking, two polls taken after the debate show voters slightly favoring the Donald Trump-backed Republican.
But Republicans are still wary in the Keystone State, given how close the race is overall – National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair Sen. Rick Scott suggested on Sunday that it’s still a ‘hard’ battle.
‘We’re going to keep all 21 that we have up,’ he told ABC News’ This Week when asked for his predictions on how the Senate will fall in the midterms.
Dr. Mehmet Oz has slightly overtake John Fetterman in a poll taken after their high-profile Pennsylvania Senate debate last week
‘I think the hardest has been Pennsylvania but Dr. Oz will win against Fetterman. But we’re going to pick up Georgia, we’ll pick up Nevada. I think we have every reason to believe we’re going to pick up Arizona and probably New Hampshire.’
A survey conducted by Wick that polled 1,000 Pennsylvania voters – roughly split down the middle between Trump and President Joe Biden’s 2020 supporters – found Oz leading Fetterman by almost 2 percent.
If the election were held today, the share of people who said they back Oz is 47.6 percent, compared to 45.9 percent who said they’d vote for Fetterman.Â
The figure falls within the poll’s 3.2 percent margin of error. The survey was taken October 26 through 27.
In the same poll, Pennsylvania’s Democratic Attorney General Josh Shapiro is leading Trump-backed Republican candidate Doug Mastriano in the state’s gubernatorial race by about 7 percent.
Another poll taken by right-leaning firm co/efficient shows Oz leading Fetterman by 3 percent, with a margin of 48-percent support to 45.
That survey sampled 1,716 likely voters from October 26 through 28.Â
Fetterman’s performance was marked with verbal stumbles and awkward pauses that show he is still dealing with the effects of a stroke he suffered in May. Oz, meanwhile, was hammered for saying he would support elected officials being in charge of abortion rights
President Biden defended Fetterman as ‘my kind of guy’ after a barrage of criticism and doubt ensued over his fitness for office after the debate.
When visiting a polling station in Delaware on Saturday, Biden told members of the press gathered that Fetterman is ‘just getting better and better.’
‘I thought he knew what he was doing, I thought he was strong,’ Biden said when reflecting on his rally with the Democratic candidate on Friday.
‘Look, Fetterman is Pennsylvania. Fetterman is everything that he appears to be,’ he added while taking off his sunglasses.
Biden participated in early voting at a polling place near his Wilmington, Delaware home on Saturday. He was joined by his granddaughter Natalie Biden, 18, the daughter of Beau and Hallie, who was voting for the first time.
‘Fetterman is my kind of guy,’ Biden said to press after casting his ballot. ‘And I think he’s going to be fine.’
When speaking about the upcoming election, the president said he is ‘feeling good’ so far about the campaign – but that comes after his latest gaffe when he claimed he campaigned in 54 states.
President Joe Biden defended Democratic Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman by claiming he is ‘my kind of guy’ and is ‘just getting better and better’. Pictured: Biden cast an early voting ballot in Wilmington, Delaware for the 2022 midterms on Saturday with granddaughter Natalie, 18, (right) who was voting for the first time
‘I may not say everything perfectly sometimes, but I’ll always do the right thing if you send me to Washington, D.C.’ Fetterman said at the Friday event.
Biden said Saturday of the 2022 midterms: ‘This is not a referendum. It’s a fundamental choice between two different people.’
For months, Dr. Oz was polling around 10 points behind Fetterman to take outgoing Republican Senator Pat Toomey’s seat – but the gap narrowed to just 1 percentage point over the last month as the effects of the Democrat’s stroke went on display.
Fetterman suffered a stroke in May, but said that he is recovering well and insists he is fit for office.
The downfall of his campaign started with an interview earlier this month where Fetterman used real-time closed captioning in order to fully understand the questions that were being asked.
The effects of Fetterman’s stroke has been on full display recently, causing Dr. Mehmet Oz, his Republican challenger, to catch up in the polls ahead of Election Day. Biden appeared with Fetterman for a rally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Friday
The NBC News correspondent Dasha Burns said on-air that in small talk before the cameras were rolling, Fetterman had a hard time understanding the conversation.
Fetterman’s wife Gisele has demanded an apology from Burns and said the criticism against her husband is an assault on the disabled community.
The Democratic candidate faced criticism for his debate last week with Oz, who is backed by Trump.
Viewers noticed Fetterman struggled to get through his hour-long debate.
Fetterman’s delivery was often halting and choppy, while Oz turned on the charm he honed over 13 seasons of TV.
At one point the Democratic Senate hopeful was asked to clarify his position on fracking, as moderators pointed to a 2018 interview , where the lieutenant governor expressed broad opposition to the practice, but not a ban.
‘I do support fracking – I don’t, I don’t – I support fracking, and I do support fracking,’ he fumbled.
In early mail-in voting, 780,546 Pennsylvania voters have already cast their ballot ahead of the November 8, 2022 midterm Election Day.
The criticism stemmed from an interview with NBC News earlier this month where Fetterman used real-time closed captioning to better understand the conversation and questions being posedÂ
An angle of the interview showed a large computer screen where the transcript appeared as he and interviewer Dasha Burns (left) spokeÂ
Biden fed into critics who claim he also isn’t fit for office during a rally with Fetterman in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Friday where he claimed he had been to four more states than there are at a rally to drive support for the embattled Democrat.
The 79-year-old president gave garbled remarks on how his administration has improved healthcare and mistakenly said ‘we went to 54 states’ to stop pharmaceutical companies from driving drug prices.
‘And, by the way, if they do, that means — not a joke, everybody; that’s why we defeated it in 2018 when they tried to do it. We went to 54 states,’ Biden said. ‘The reason is people didn’t realize that the only reason anybody who has a pre-existing condition can get healthcare is because of that Affordable Care Act.’
His addition of four non-existent states is the latest in a long line of gaffes that has continued to raise concerns about the health of Biden, who is the oldest president in US history.
Despite those worries, Biden has insisted he’ll run for a second term in 2024.
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