Mehmet Oz blamed his fund-raising gap on the abortion decision. He was trailing well before that.
Democrat John Fetterman has relied an army of small-dollar donors while Republican Oz has mostly paid for his campaign himself.
Mehmet Oz had an explanation when he was asked Monday night about the fund-raising gap between himself and John Fetterman. Only it glossed over months of data.
Oz, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham that the millions of campaign dollars separating him and Fetterman, the Democratic nominee, are because Democrats have ginned up supporters over issues like abortion and guns.
“The Democrats have very cleverly taken all these issues that came up over the summer, the Dobbs decision, the concerns about guns, and they’ve used these as excuses to raise money from the Democratic loyalists,” Oz said when asked to explain why Fetterman, the lieutenant governor, is far outpacing the celebrity surgeon in donations. “And interestingly, when Republicans get mad, we go out and mow the lawn. Democrats, when they get mad, donate money to the party.”
But Fetterman was out-raising Oz well before the June 24 Dobbs v. Jackson Supreme Court decision overturning the constitutional right to abortion and the May 24 mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas. The candidates have been on completely different tracks when it comes to funding their campaigns.
» READ MORE: What we learned from our first look at fund-raising in Pennsylvania’s key Senate, House races
Fetterman has relied on an army of small-dollar supporters who have poured in checks of $10 or $20, while Oz has mostly paid for his campaign himself, raising relatively little for such a major race with national implications.
Donations help not just pay for what could be one of the country’s most expensive — and pivotal — Senate races, but hint at how much enthusiasm candidates are stirring.
Fetterman raised $11 million in April, May, and June, according to public disclosures filed Friday. And while he and other Democrats aggressively lobbied for donations based on their opposition to the Dobbs decision, that decision came just days before the end of the three-month cycle. He had $5.5 million in his campaign account as of June 30 — five times as much as Oz.
Oz, over the same three months, raised $1.7 million — and lent his campaign $3.2 million. Since joining the race on Nov. 30, Oz has lent his campaign $14.25 million while raising $4.1 million from supporters.
Fetterman joined the race earlier (February 2021), and Oz had the disadvantage of a long primary recount that prevented him from formally securing the GOP nomination until early June. But Fetterman had long proven to be a fund-raising force, bringing in $26 million since he joined the race, most of it well before the abortion ruling or Uvalde shooting.
Oz argued on Fox that he doesn’t need as much money, “because I’m a better candidate.”
He pointed out that he has been traveling the campaign trail, including a recent visit to Philadelphia, while Fetterman has been out of the public eye for more than two months after a May 13 stroke.
“John Fetterman has been hiding from voters for the last two months,” Oz told Ingraham, who was sharply critical of the surgeon during the GOP primary. “He’s stayed there focused on these snarky posts written by consultants. And no candidate for office of either party ought to be shielded from scrutiny.”
» READ MORE: Mehmet Oz stopped at barber shops, the West Philly jazz festival, and a GOP BBQ while campaigning in Philly
Fetterman has started to make some brief appearances on the trail, but so far only at events closed to the general public and media. He is scheduled to be in Wynnewood on Thursday — for a fund-raiser hosted by Democratic Jewish Outreach of Pennsylvania. Donors were asked to give a minimum of $100.
Staff writers Aseem Shukla and Jonathan Lai contributed to this article.