Tuesday 17 May 2022 12:34 PM Pennsylvania heads to the polls TODAY for nail-biting Republican primary trends now
Pennsylvania voters head to the polls Tuesday after a dramatic primary season that pit former President Donald Trump against some of his closest political allies and featured the Senate Democratic favorite spending the run-up to election day hospitalized.
The Republican Senate race has been dominated by Trump's choice to back fellow television personality Dr. Mehmet Oz, over hedge funder David McCormick, whose official and unofficial advisers are a who's who of Trumpworld.
But that race has also been complicated by the sudden ascent of conservative commentator Kathy Barnette, who's been campaigning with Trump's choice for Pennsylvania governor, state Sen. Doug Mastriano.
On the Democratic side, polls showed Lt. Gov. John Fetterman in a strong position to capture the Senate nomination over rivals including Rep. Conor Lamb and state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, but on Friday the 52-year-old suffered a stroke, with his campaign saying Monday that he would remain in the hospital and miss election day events.
Former President Donald Trump (right) endorsed fellow television personality Dr. Mehmet Oz (left) in Pennsylvania's high-stakes Republican Senate primary, which put Trump at odds with some of his former aides
Hedge funder David McCormick (left) is getting help from Hope Hicks and other Trump insiders as he pursues the Pennsylvania GOP Senate nomination, where Kathy Barnette (right) has gotten sudden interest from voters after announcing she was the product of rape
Democratic Pennsylvania Senate hopeful, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, said Sunday that he suffered a stroke on Friday, just days before voters head to the polls. His campaign also said Monday that he would remain hospitalized through election day
REPUBLICAN SENATE PRIMARY
The race to replace retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey looked very different early on, with Trump wading in early and endorsing Sean Parnell, who tried to unseat Lamb in a Congressional race in 2020.
Trump endorsed Parnell in early September.
Less than three months later, Parnell was out, after a judge in the Republican's child custody case found abuse claims made by his estranged wife to be credible.
In the months following, a number of Trump White House figures played adviser - official and unofficial - to McCormick, the former CEO of Bridgewater Associates who had been considered for several administration positions during the ex-president's tenure
Politico reported in January that Trump White House alumni Hope Hicks and Stephen Miller were advising McCormick's campaign, while other Trump insiders including Kellyanne Conway, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Tony Sayegh and Larry Kudlow were advising the candidate unofficially.
But in April, Trump threw his weight behind Oz arguing that the TV doctor would 'be the one most able to win the General Election,' arguing that Oz could pull votes away from Democrats in Pennsylvania's left-leaning cities of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.
A number of conservatives cried foul, pointing out Oz's less-than-steadfast positions on abortion, transgender rights and guns.
'It's like Donald Trump's staff is sabotaging Trump by convincing him to make the worse possible endorsements,' conservative pundit Erick Erickson complained on Twitter directly after the ex-president announced Oz as his pick.
As primary election day neared, Pennsylvania Republicans showed fresh interest in Barnette, a far-right candidate who said she was part of the pro-life movement because she was a byproduct at rape, arguing during a debate, 'I'm still not just a lump of cells, my life has value.'
The comments came after conservative Justice Samuel Alito's draft opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked.
'I am so very grateful that our nation is having a very important conversation about life. I am the byproduct of a rape. My mother was 11-years-old when I was conceived, my father was twenty-one,' Barnette said, using the anecdote to launch an attack on Oz, who previously shared pro-choice views.
Final polls showed Oz with a narrow lead.
An Emerson poll released Monday had Oz at 32 per cent, Barnette at 27 per cent and McCormick at 26 per cent.
Trump was pushing for Oz until the end.
Politico reported Monday that Trump recorded a call that went out to Pennsylvania voters knocking McCormick for being soft on China and hammering Barnette for wanting to erect a statue of former Democratic President Barack Obama, a Trump nemesis.
Politifact rated claims about Barnette wanting to erect a statue of Obama 'mostly true,' as she pushed for statues of the Obama family and Frederick Douglass to be added to the Emancipation Memorial - which shows President Abraham Lincoln standing over a slave - which was targeted for removal during the 2020 wave of racial justice protests in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd.
On Monday, NBC News reported on a newly surfaced photograph that appeared to show Kathy Barnette (circled) marching toward the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6
Another image that reportedly shows Republican Senate hopeful Kathy Barnette (circled) marching toward the U.S. Capitol Building with members of the Proud Boys and other Trump supporters on January 6
Barnette, who is black, said she never supported or voted for Obama, but explained that the slave in the controversial statue would be 'looking into the
