Race to the Senate

Mehmet Oz — better known as Dr. Oz — rose to fame thanks to appearances with Oprah Winfrey and his own talk show. Now he’s bringing that star power to the Senate race. Oz, who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s medical and business schools, has long lived in New Jersey, but registered to vote in 2020 at his in-laws’ Montgomery County home, where he now lives. He’s touting himself as a doctor who can help the country move past a failed and restrictive response to the coronavirus pandemic. But he'll face questions about his ties to Pennsylvania and conservative bona fides. He would be the first Muslim to serve in the Senate.

Sean Gale is part of a pair of Montgomery County brothers who focus much of their fire on their own party’s establishment. He ran for county commissioner in 2019 and finished fourth in a five-way GOP primary, but now he’s seeking an even bigger prize. Gale, an attorney, is running for Senate while his brother, Joe Gale, runs for governor. (Joe Gale did win a seat on the county board, claiming the slot reserved for the minority party). Sean Gale’s campaign site mostly focuses not on criticizing Democrats or President Joe Biden, but on incumbent Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, whom he blasts for not being conservative enough. Despite joining the race early last year, Sean Gale raised less than $35,000 for his campaign in 2021, underscoring the long-shot nature of his bid.

A longtime Republican donor with ties to some of the party’s top establishment and business-friendly figures in Pennsylvania, Jeff Bartos ran in 2018 as the GOP nominee for lieutenant governor. He lost, but drew some praise for his genial approach to politics. After creating a nonprofit to aid small businesses during the pandemic, Bartos is back on the ballot, this time with some sharper rhetoric. But critics wonder whether the real estate developer from the Main Line can excite GOP voters.

As a commentator who has appeared on right-wing cable news and wrote a book about being a Black conservative, Kathy Barnette took an unusual path to the Senate campaign. She lost a long-shot bid for U.S. House in 2020, but made waves by promoting false election conspiracies and backing lies promoted by Trump. She has also impressed some party leaders with her vigorous campaigning and surprisingly strong early fund-raising. She’d be Pennsylvania’s first Black woman elected statewide, but has to show she can appeal to a wider audience than Fox & Friends.

After raising significant money for Trump and donating heavily to his inauguration, Carla Sands became a White House economic advisor and, in 2017, Trump’s ambassador to Denmark. She’s moved back to Pennsylvania to run for Senate and has intrigued some Republicans with the prospect that she could use her considerable wealth to fund her campaign. But after growing up in Cumberland County and becoming a chiropractor, Sands has spent much of her adult life outside Pennsylvania, most recently in Southern California, where she led the real estate company founded by her late husband. She has never run for public office.

George Bochetto is running after a long legal career that has often drawn him into battles over cultural flashpoints. Most recently, Bochetto has defended the Christopher Columbus statue in South Philly and filed a lawsuit accusing Mayor Jim Kenney of discriminating against Italian Americans, in part by changing Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day. His law firm also worked on a brief defending former President Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial. Bochetto starts with ground to make up. He entered the race after several rivals had either spent heavily on television or spent months campaigning. But the Philadelphian who was once the state boxing commissioner came out swinging: He accused all his rivals of being “pretenders.”

David McCormick, CEO of the world’s largest hedge fund, has been courted by some Pennsylvania Republican insiders and in December launched a statewide television ad. McCormick's resume — he’s a business leader who went to West Point and served in the Gulf War and the George W. Bush administration — might appeal to the kind of traditional Republicans who supported the state's current GOP Senator, Pat Toomey. And he could bring significant personal resources to spend on the race. He spent more than $2 million on television ads before officially entering the race. But after growing up in Pennsylvania, he has been living in Connecticut, and it’s unclear whether his finance background, including his firm's major investments in China, will hurt him with the GOP’s increasingly populist primary voters.