Wednesday 18 May 2022 01:28 AM Pennsylvania Senate hopeful NOT endorsed by Trump holds early lead in GOP ... trends now
Polls closed in Pennsylvania 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 election day in surgery.
Early returns showed Dave McCormick - the conservative candidate snubbed by Trump - taking an early lead in what's become a three-way race between the hedge funder, television personality Dr. Mehmet Oz and commentator Kathy Barnette.
Lt. Gov. John Fetterman held about 50 per cent of the vote over rivals Rep. Conor Lamb and state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta 15 minutes after polls closed.
On Friday the 52-year-old Fetterman suffered a stroke, and had a pacemaker implanted on Tuesday, hours after he voted in the election by absentee ballot.
Pennsylvania's Attorney General Josh Shapiro, running unopposed for the Democratic nomination for governor, was called the winner of his race as soon as polls closed.
Shapiro announced that he has COVID-19 and thus won't likely make an election night appearance.
Early returns showed Dave McCormick - the conservative candidate snubbed by Trump - taking an early lead in what's become a three-way race between the hedge funder, television personality Dr. Mehmet Oz and commentator Kathy Barnette
Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz and his wife Lisa Oz arrive to cast their vote, in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday with the GOP primary set to go down to the wire
Democratic Senate hopeful Lt. Gov. John Fetterman cast an absentee ballot from Lancaster General Hospital after suffering from a stroke Friday. On Tuesday doctors performed pacemaker surgery on the 52-year-old former Braddock mayor
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 future of where this nation will be' by facing an additional statue of the Obama family.
Republicans aligned with her rivals have also
