Fetterman Projected Winner Over Oz In PA U.S. Senate Race

PENNSYLVANIA — John Fetterman, the Democratic lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania, has been declared the projected winner in the United States Senate race in Pennsylvania, apparently defeating Republican candidate Mehmet Oz, a former television personality and doctor who had recently moved to Pennsylvania to run for office.

Check out Patch's previous coverage of the race here.

Related: Fetterman Beats Oz In Pennsylvania US Senate Race, AP Projects

At last count, the Pennsylvania Department of State website indicated Fetterman had 2,501,681 votes and Oz had 2,364,983.

If Fetterman is declared the official winner, it would mean both U.S. senators from Pennsylvania would be members of the Democratic Party. Incumbent U.S. Sen. Bob Casey is the other Democrat currently in office.

That is a split from many years prior, where Pennsylvania typically would have a member of each of the two major parties in that chamber of Congress.

The Associated Press officially called the race for Fetterman early Wednesday.

"I'm so humbled, thank you so much, really," Fetterman told a crowd of supporters after the race. "It's 1:30 in the morning and you're still here hanging in... we launched this campaign almost two years ago, and we had our slogan. It's on every one of those signs right now: 'Every county, every vote'. And that's exactly what happened. We jammed them up. We held the line. I never expected that we were going to turn these red counties blue, but we did what we needed to do, and we had that conversation across every one of those counties. And tonight, that's why I'll be the next U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania."

Some questioned Fetterman's ability to hold the U.S. Senate seat due to a health scare in the middle of the campaign; he had suffered a stroke but was able to bounce back and continue on the circuit.

The predicted red wave never materialized for Trump-endorsed Dr. Oz, who came up short in his bid to replace retiring Republican U.S. Senator Pat Toomey. Toomey had endorsed Dr. Oz during the campaign.

The lights went dark earlier than expected early Wednesday morning at the Newtown Athletic Club where Dr. Oz was hoping to declare victory over Fetterman.

In his last Facebook posting of the night, Oz commended his campaign staff.

"I am incredibly proud of what you guys accomplished. These guys have done a wonderful job making sure this was the most efficient, most powerful, most loving, most caring and most kindest campaign. We deserve to win and we're gonna win."

In the waning days of the campaign, Dr. Oz focused on crime, inflation, energy independence and pointed to Fetterman's waffling on the issue of fracking and his far left views on crime.