The famous doctor of the heart Dr. Mehmet Oz is still the favourite to be the winner of the Pennsylvania Senate Republican primaries despite substantial increase in support from his rival Kathy Barnette
Prior to Tuesday’s election, the Donald Trump-endorsed Oz is the top candidate in the polls as well as among book publishers as well, with the former hedge fund chief David McCormick falling behind Barnette in third place. Trump has stated on that on Monday that he was not convinced that Barnette would be able to win the general election in the face of “Radical Left Democrats.”
Oz’s odds of winning increased by a significant amount compared to odds on the 12th of May, on the 13th of May as per Betfair. The bookmaker has named Oz the odds-on favorite at 2/9 to be the winner of the GOP Senate campaign in Pennsylvania after having been 8/11 in the week before.
Comparatively, Barnette remains the closest competitor and is given odds of 6/4 to take the title on Tuesday, a slight increase from 7/4. McCormick getting an “much lesser chance” at 13/2, previously being at 4/1 Rosbottom said.
Barnette who went from being a complete unknown to an aspiring Senate candidate that is making headlines across the nation within just a few weeks, has seen a an impressive improvement in the polls despite the plethora of controversy concerning her.
Barnette is identified as having posted numerous Islamaphobic homophobic, Islamaphobic and conspiracy theorist remarks online and there have been questions about her previous job as a military officer.
She also has often pushed the false notion in the past that 2020’s presidential elections were rigged to favor Trump as evidenced by images and images recently surfacing of her being spotted walking with people of the extreme-right proud Boys group in protests before the Capitol protest on the 6th of January 2021.
Barnette acknowledged that she was there at “Stop the Steal” rallies in Washington, D.C. but she denied in a statement Barnette “participated in or supported the destruction of property” that occurred during the violence. There is no evidence that Barnette was part of the horde made up of Trump supporters who proceeded to take over the Capitol.
The Susquehanna Polling and Research survey that was conducted between May 12-15 revealed that the fight of Oz and Barnette may be even closer. If asked what would happen if it was the case that the Republican primaries for this year’s Pennsylvania Senate election would be held “today,” 28 percent of respondents said they would support Oz while Barnette just to second at 27 percent.
The Fox News poll released on May 10 put Barnette third, with 19 percent. She was just behind McCormick with 20 percent and Oz leading with 22 percent. However, the poll showed that the support for Barnette had almost doubled to March, when she only had 9 percent.