Dr. Mehmet Oz calls Lt. Gov. John Fetterman to concede Pennsylvania Senate race

Dr. Mehmet Oz called Democrat Lt. Gov. John Fetterman on Wednesday morning to concede defeat in their contentious Pennsylvania Senate race.

Fetterman’s margins in in-person and absentee voting in Philadelphia and in suburban Delaware County proved too much for the celebrity heart surgeon to overcome.

Oz, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, has not spoken publicly since Fetterman declared victory in the race.

In Philadelphia, Fetterman led by a margin that mirrored President Biden’s victory there in 2020. In Delaware County, just outside the city, Fetterman beat Oz in both Election Day votes as well as absentees. Fetterman’s margin with absentee voters dwarfed Oz’s performance there.

Fetterman was mayor for more than a decade of tiny, impoverished Braddock, near Pittsburgh. He used his time there to establish credentials with the Black community in the majority Black town. Known for wearing hoodies and shorts on the campaign trail, he has a tattoo of 15104, Braddock’s zip code, on one forearm. He also has tattoos of the date of every slaying in the community while he was mayor.

Oz shot to celebrity by appearing on Oprah Winfrey’s daytime TV show and then as the host of “The Dr. Oz Show.” In the final days of the race, however, Winfrey endorsed Fetterman.

“I said it was up to the citizens of Pennsylvania and, of course, but I will tell you all this, if I lived in Pennsylvania, I would have already cast my vote for John Fetterman for many reasons,” Winfrey said, before going on to urge listeners to vote for Democrats running for governor and Senate in various states.

Fetterman’s May stroke and his recovery figured in the final weeks of the race. The stroke’s effects were clear as he used closed captioning to help him process the words he heard, leading to some awkward pauses in his only debate with Oz. It’s unclear what effect the performance had on the race, if any.

Oz left Oprah’s show after five years and 55 episodes to start his own daytime TV program, “The Dr. Oz Show,” which ran for 13 seasons before he moved from New Jersey to Pennsylvania to run for the Senate.

The seat is being vacated by retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey.

With News Wire Services