Pennsylvania’s Republican U.S. Senate primary is in a three-way tie between Mehmet Oz, Dave McCormick, and Kathy Barnette, according to a recent Fox News poll.
At the top of the pack is the former President Donald Trump-endorsed Mehmet Oz, who received 22 percent support among Pennsylvania GOP primary voters. Trailing closely behind Oz is McCormick at 20 percent and Barnette at 19 percent. All three candidates are within the poll’s margin of error, making the race a statistical tie.
Mehmet Oz takes part in a forum for Republican candidates for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania at the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference in Camp Hill, PA, April 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
Carla Sands polled eight percent, and Jeff Bartos polled seven percent.
Fox News’s Republican pollster Daron Shaw believes each of the top three candidates has a serious shot at winning the primary election.
“Oz has closed the gap, and the parallels with J.D. Vance in Ohio are obvious. But McCormick and Barnette have considerable support, and with one out of five voters uncommitted, odds are that the vote will be very close,” Shaw said.
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick from Pennsylvania holds a campaign rally at Frosty Valley Resort on April 20, 2022, in Danville, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Mark Makela/Getty Images)
A significant portion of the electorate remains undecided ahead of the primary on May 17, with 18 percent of voters still mulling over whom to support. Additionally, the poll found that 51 percent of voters could change their minds about their Senate primary vote.
Although Oz received a boost in the polls after Trump endorsed him, Fox News’s Democrat pollster Chris Anderson said Barnette has “more momentum.” Among the voters who are extremely interested in the election, 25 percent support Barnette compared to 22 percent for Oz and 21 percent for McCormick.
As Fox News reported:
McCormick (+22 points) and Barnette (+29) have strong favorable ratings, with voters viewing both of them more positively than negatively by over 20 points. Conversely, the net difference between favorable and unfavorable views of Oz is negative by 1 point.
“Even though Oz got Trump’s endorsement, Barnette has more momentum. Her support doubled in two months, her supporters are the most interested, and her negatives are much lower than Oz or McCormick,” Anderson said.
Kathy Barnette speaks during a debate with other Republican Party candidates seeking to win the party nomination in the 2022 election for the U.S. Senate in this photo made on Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2022, in New Castle, PA. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)
Despite Trump’s endorsement of Oz, some former Trump administration officials have thrown their support behind McCormick, including former Secretary of State and CIA Director Mike Pompeo, former White House advisers Kellyanne Conway and Stephen Miller, and former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Fox News surveyed 1,001 Pennsylvania Republican primary voters from May 3 to 7. The poll has a margin of error of ± three percent.
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