In the crucial Pennsylvania Senate race, Democratic candidate John Fetterman defeated Dr. Oz in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, as prominent Republicans conceded the red wave had not materialized.
In a night that polls indicated would be dominated by the GOP due to President Joe Biden’s low support ratings, the Democrats won vital House seats on the East Coast and maintained their Senate majority in New Hampshire.
The Pennsylvania election was an important victory for the Democrats, who began the evening hoping to maintain their majority of 50 votes in the Senate. They need to win only two of the five uncalled races as of early Wednesday morning.
J.D. Vance, a Trump-backed Republican, won in Ohio, and Ron DeSantis was re-elected as Florida governor in a landslide, but the GOP victory party was put on hold by Democratic victories in swing states.
All eyes are on the outcomes in Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, and Wisconsin to determine who will gain the majority in the Senate. Still favored to retake the House, but likely by a razor-thin margin. With three candidates on the ballot in Alaska, two Republicans, Kelly Tshibaka and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, vied for the most votes.
‘We launched this campaign over two years ago – and we had a slogan – and it’s on every single one of those placards right now: every county, every vote,’ Fetterman told a boisterous throng still assembled at Stage AE in Pittsburgh. “And that is precisely what occurred; we jammed them.” We held our ground.
He continued, “I never anticipated that we would turn these red counties blue, but we did what was necessary.” “Therefore, tonight I will become the next United States senator from Pennsylvania,” Fetterman continued.
Shortly thereafter, the White House said that Vice President Joe Biden texted congratulations to Fetterman.
During brief remarks at Mar-a-Lago, where he was boosting the prospects of candidates he sponsored, former President Donald Trump, who had a hand in pushing several of the Republicans on the ballot, described the night as “extremely exciting.” On the same night that his opponent DeSantis chalked up a double-digit victory, though, Trump’s prospects fared poorly.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy announced in a speech that the Republicans will win the House, but as of early Wednesday morning, networks had not yet declared Republican control of the chamber.
The party faced the possibility of a tiny majority in a divided administration, which would be difficult to control.
On the night of the midterm elections, further events included:
Senate candidates Herschel Walker and Raphael Warnock were anticipated to face off in a December runoff.
Republican Brian Kemp defeated Democrat Stacey Abrams in the contest for Georgia governor.
Kathy Hochul was reelected as governor of New York despite a late surge by Republican Lee Zeldin.
Maggie Hassan, a Democrat from New Hampshire, overcame a challenge from the Republican Don Bolduc.
Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado finds herself in a close campaign.
Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan, defeated Republican Tudor Dixon.
As she slipped behind Democrat Katie Hobbs, Republican Kari Lake criticized “cheaters and crooks.”
In Pennsylvania, Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman defeated Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz at 1 a.m., concluding one of the most closely watched midterm elections. Wednesday afternoon
As he came onstage, Fetterman expressed astonishment, as the projected duration of the count was many days.
John Fetterman’s victory was the first and only gain for Democrats in the 2022 midterms, as the party attempts to retain control of the upper house.
“I’m not sure what to say right now, oh my gosh,” he said as he surveyed his family and fans. A man responded, “Just say you’re the winner!” ‘
John Fetterman, lieutenant governor, tweeted that he won his U.S. Senate contest prior to announcing his victory at his election night party.
Democrat John Fetterman led Dr. Mehmet Oz by 2.4 points in the hours following the election’s announcement.
Sen. Mark Kelly led Blake Masters in Arizona, 52-46, with only two-thirds of the vote counted.
With three-quarters of the vote counted in Nevada, Republican Adam Laxalt led Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, but many mail-in votes from Democratic-heavy Clark County were still to be counted.
Shortly after NBC, Fox News, and the Associated Press accurately projected the lieutenant governor’s victory, Fetterman’s supporters erupted in cheers.
As he came onstage, Fetterman expressed astonishment, as the projected duration of the count was many days.
“I’m not sure what to say right now, oh my gosh,” he said as he surveyed his family and fans. A man responded, “Just say you’re the winner!” ‘
Fetterman replied, “I’m very humbled, thank you so much, genuinely.”
At midnight, a defiant Oz insisted that he would win the election.
At his watch party in Newtown, Pennsylvania, he stated, “Once all the votes are counted, we feel we will win this race.” We have been decreasing the margin all night, but there are still many more ballots to count.
Votes from blue, urban areas flowed in first, putting Fetterman well ahead of Oz according to early results.
Allegheny County, which encompasses Pittsburgh and Braddock – where Fetterman served as mayor – and Philadelphia significantly swayed the election in favor of the Democrat.
Less populous, more typical red counties leaned toward Oz and were slower to report.
Approximately one point separated the two candidates at midnight.
Oz addressed his audience, “I have told you repeatedly that I believe in you and have gone across the Commonwealth to make that message plain; tonight you have informed me that you believe in me.” “Be blessed for that,”
The Republican said, “Together we will repair Pennsylvania and America, God bless you.”
In the other major Pennsylvania election, for governor, Democratic Attorney General Josh Shapiro defeated Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano by a larger margin, showing that some voters divided their ballots and voted for both candidates.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, a Republican, declared just after midnight on Wednesday that he will defeat John Fetterman in the Pennsylvania Senate election, despite Fetterman’s overnight advantage.
During the candidate’s election night party at Stage AE in Pittsburgh, supporters of Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman cheered when results showed he had won.
Early in the evening, Democratic Mayor of Pittsburgh Ed Gainey spoke at Lt. Governor John Fetterman’s election night party at Stage AE on the North Shore.
The contest to succeed retiring Republican Senator Pat Toomey has been one of the most dramatic in recent history.
Former President Donald Trump backed fellow television personality Oz over a more conventional conservative, David McCormick, resulting in a razor-thin Republican primary.
The Democratic primary was a cakewalk for Fetterman, but he suffered a stroke only days beforehand, which kept him off the campaign trail for the majority of the summer and left him with ongoing ‘auditory processing’ problems.
He had to use closed captions throughout his debate with Oz and still cannot respond spontaneously to reporters’ queries.
Exit polls from the Keystone State revealed positive signs for both parties.
The fact that 36 percent of Pennsylvania voters ranked abortion as the most important issue could provide Democrats with a boost.
The second-highest proportion, 28%, cited inflation, followed by 11% who cited criminality.
Roe v. Wade was overturned in June, and both Fetterman and Shapiro have supported a woman’s freedom to choose. While Oz has blasted Fetterman on crime and benefited from Democrats controlling all three arms of government as inflation climbed, Fetterman has been hammered by Oz.
A supermajority of Pennsylvania voters, according to exit polls, do not want Biden to run for president again.
69 percent replied no, compared to only 28 percent who said yes.
Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman (left) voted with his wife Gisele in Braddock, west of Pittsburgh, while sporting his signature gym shorts and blue puffy jacket (right)
Dr. Mehmet Oz, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, and his wife Lisa cast their ballots at the Bryn Athyn Borough Hall in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania.
Tuesday, Fetterman hailed a voter as he exited the polling location. He trails Oz by 0.1% in the Real Clear Politics average poll.
Fetterman and his wife Gisele return to their car Tuesday morning in Braddock, Pennsylvania, after casting their ballots.
In Pennsylvania, there is already a legal dispute over mail-in ballots, but on Tuesday, Election Day voters in Luzerne County will have two extra hours to cast their ballots due to a paper shortage.
Judge Lesa S. Gelb of Luzerne County ordered the extension, stating that voters were disenfranchised and denied the fundamental right to vote “through no fault of their own.”
In the remaining areas of the state, voters must be in line by 8:00 p.m. To vote is to cast a ballot.
Both in 2016 and 2020, former President Donald Trump won Luzerne County, but by a larger margin in 2016.
Biden was able to regain approximately 3% of the vote share.
Prior to Trump, the county voted Democratic in modern presidential elections.
In late August and early September, both Biden and Trump visited Wilkes-Barre, the county seat of Luzerne, underscoring the significance of northeastern Pennsylvania in the November elections.
Tuesday afternoon, a constant stream of voters flocked to the County Office Building in downtown Pittsburgh to drop off their mail-in ballots, while others ‘cured’ ballots that the county had tagged as undated or misdated.
Erika Karns, a nurse from West Mifflin who is 48 years old, stated that abortion was her “No.” She cast a ballot in support of Democrats Fetterman and Shapiro on the topic of No. 1.
‘I am a nurse. Therefore, I believe it is unjust to strip doctors and nurses of their privileges. Sadly, I am employed in the operation room. I witness the necessity for abortion every day,’ she told DailyMail.com.
And I feel it’s really terrible for someone to strip us of our rights, first as women and then as healthcare workers. No one else has the authority to determine what a woman may or may not do with her body. It is our physical form. It is not the body of a guy,’ she added.
She added that her knowledge in healthcare gave her confidence that Fetterman was fit to serve after suffering a stroke.
She explained, “When you suffer a stroke, you get trapped in your own head.” It does not impair your decision-making skills.
And Karns mentioned that Fetterman will be assisted by a staff.
She stated, “I believe that his mind is still intact.” The expression of an individual can always be supported and assisted.
Melanie Schultz, a 20-year-old student at Duquesne University from Plum, would not divulge who she voted for, but she did reveal why she came out.
She stated, “There are a number of key women-specific topics on the ballot this year that I believed were vital, especially for the younger generation, therefore I thought it was necessary to come out and have our voices heard.”
Schultz said, “It was one of the factors I considered today, yeah,” when asked if the abortion problem was particularly what prompted her to run.
Eric Bray, a 56-year-old resident of North Versailles, stated that he visited the downtown voting station to obtain a ballot for his ailing sister.
He stated that he had also voted in Tuesday’s election.
Bray characterized himself as a “conservative, hard-core” individual and said that he supported Oz.
He told DailyMail.com, “He’s the lesser of two evils.”
Adam Selvaggio, a 30-year-old spice industry employee from North Hill, stated he was more persuaded by Fetterman’s message than Oz’s.
“If you’re going to run for something, you should probably live in the state you’re running in,” Fetterman said during the campaign as he targeted Oz for living in New Jersey. “That upsets me a little bit,” he told DailyMail.com of Oz’s status as a carpetbagger.
Selvaggio did not believe Oz’s claims that Fetterman was attempting to empty Pennsylvania’s prisons and send dangerous felons back into the streets.
‘They say he’s attempting to release thugs and other undesirables, but more people are in jail for marijuana…’ Now since it’s medical, I don’t think individuals should go in jail for such things,’ he said.
Selvaggio favored Fetterman because he’seems to be for the working class, it’s a blue collar city, a steel town, I feel like it was the better route, and I don’t really agree with Oz’s stances.’
Voters who spoke with DailyMail.com stated they preferred to drop off their mail-in ballots because it was convenient.
‘I don’t like standing in queues. I dislike individuals standing behind me who can likely see what I’m voting for. I am able to cast my ballot in private, and I can personally deliver it to the polling place and verify its receipt,’ Karns explained.
Schultz stated that because she attends school downtown but is from a Pittsburgh suburb, it was more convenient for her to vote by mail than to travel home to vote in person.
There was on-site parking for voters, and Selvaggio confirmed election authorities verified his mail-in ballot’s signature and date.
Wesley Gadsden, 36, of Point Breeze, declined to disclose who he voted for and added, “It was fairly cool because it was super quick.” He stated that he did not return his mail-in ballot because he is a procrastinator.
Gadsden, who has worked in Pennsylvania politics, expressed confidence that his vote would be tallied, but he found it “frightening” that hundreds of outdated ballots could be disqualified.
Voters wait in line at City Hall in Philadelphia on Monday to make corrections to their votes for the midterm elections, as roughly 2,000 ballots were shipped in without a date and another 400 may have an inaccurate date.
Thousands of voters in the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia areas have been notified that they must ‘cure’ their ballots after the Republican National Committee and other GOP groups won a lawsuit in state court that would invalidate undated mail-in ballots.
In Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is located, roughly one thousand voters were on a list of those who failed to date their ballots or did so improperly.
In Philadelphia, over 2,000 voters were notified that their ballots lacked a date. Nearly 400 more voters may have erroneously dated their ballots.
In addition, approximately 150 Philadelphia voters failed to sign their mail-in ballots, while another 1,000 voters failed to enclose their ballots in a sealed envelope.
Officials instructed these voters to visit their county’s election office to correct their ballot, seek a fresh mail-in ballot, or vote provisionally on Election Day to rectify these errors.
Pennsylvania voters have until November 14 to ‘cure’ their ballot.
The Fetterman campaign filed a lawsuit in federal court to contest the divided Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision.
Attorneys for Fetterman and other Democratic groups argued, “The Date Instruction imposes unnecessary hurdles that eligible Pennsylvanians must clear to exercise their most fundamental right, resulting in otherwise valid votes being arbitrarily rejected without any reciprocal benefit to the Commonwealth.”
‘Therefore, the date printed on a ballot envelope has no influence on a voter’s eligibility and serves no purpose other than to construct impediments in the way of qualified citizens exercising their fundamental constitutional right to vote. This unnecessary barrier violates the Civil Rights Act as well as the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Constitution,’ they went on to say.
In addition, a judge in Monroe County, Northeast Pennsylvania, on Monday authorized the notification of voters whose ballots contained errors.
There were concerns that the counting of mail-in ballots might take several days.
Monday, Fetterman’s campaign manager advised reporters to ‘strap up for a long week’ in a message.
Brendan McPhillips, the campaign manager for Fetterman, stated, “This election is close, and we should all be prepared for a process that takes several days before all eligible voters are properly tabulated and the results are apparent.”
During this election cycle in Pennsylvania, 1,400,000 ballots by mail were sought.
Spotlight PA reports that around 70% of these inquiries originated from registered Democrats.
The Pennsylvania legislature, dominated by Republicans, enacted a regulation that prohibits election workers from counting mail-in ballots before 7 a.m. Tuesday morning, which means that results from in-person voting are likely to be published before those from mail-in ballots.
This, according to Fetterman’s team, was “a calculated effort to help Republicans cast doubt on the election results when it suits them.”
Similar to 2020, when former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden were on the ballot, Oz’s lead might be eroded when more mail-in ballots are tabulated.
‘Because Pennsylvania is one of the only states that reports Election Day totals before ballots cast by mail, and because more populous counties around Philadelphia can take longer to report, we should anticipate one of the country’s most dramatic shifts from initial Republican support in early results to stronger Democratic gains as more votes are processed,’ Fetterman’s campaign warned.