John Fetterman defeats Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania’s Senate race

PITTSBURGH — Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the former mayor of Braddock, who cast himself as a working-class hero who would fight for forgotten communities, is projected to defeat Republican opponent Mehmet Oz, a longtime celebrity doctor, in the state’s critical U.S. Senate race.

Fetterman, 53, was declared the winner just before 2 a.m. Wednesday by the Associated Press based on unofficial results and will become the state’s second Democratic senator alongside Bob Casey.

He told a crowd of bleary-eyed supporters: “I never expected that we were going to turn these red counties blue, but we did what we needed to do, and we had those conversations across every one of these counties. And today, that’s why I’ll be the next U.S. senator from Pennsylvania.”

Fetterman called the race one “for the future of every community all across Pennsylvania. For every small town or person that ever felt left behind. For every job that’s ever been lost. For every factory that was ever closed. For every person that works hard but never get ahead. I’m proud of what we ran on.”

The race left Democrats’ chances of hanging onto the Senate intact. President Joe Biden texted Fetterman to congratulate him, according to the White House press pool.

Most polls were neck and neck headed into Election Day, which officials warned could end without a declared winner in the race to replace retiring GOP Sen. Pat Toomey.

At a campaign party in Bucks County around 11:30 p.m., before the race was called, Oz told supporters, ”When all the ballots are counted, we believe we will win this race. We’ve been closing the gap all night.”

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Pennsylvania’s Senate race was the most expensive in the country — with the two candidates and their allies spending a combined $312 million. That dwarfed the next highest contest, Georgia’s Senate race, by about $100 million.

Both candidates sprinted to the finish line with events across the state on Monday. On Tuesday, all they could do was watch things unfold — and vote.

“I’m very proud of how we ran this campaign,” Oz told reporters outside of his Bryn Athyn polling place. “Pennsylvanians are sending a very clear message to Washington: less radicalism, and more balance.”

He did not take questions, but as he walked back toward his car, a reporter asked, “Will you accept the results, no matter what?”

“Yes, of course,” Oz replied.

Fetterman overcame a stroke four days before the May primary, which kept him off the trail throughout the summer. He returned to campaigning in August, and his speaking and auditory processing challenges have been thrust into the spotlight — including on a debate stage last month.

He worked his personal recovery into his pitch to voters — calling himself a champion for the knocked down and the forgotten, including people in communities like Braddock, where he was mayor for 13 years. He also vowed to be the 51st vote for Democrats, to eliminate the filibuster, raise the minimum wage, and protect abortion rights.

Oz, who moved to Pennsylvania’s Montgomery County from New Jersey shortly before declaring his run, had made up considerable ground in the run up to the election, a reflection of Democratic headwinds and aggressive attacks on Fetterman as soft on crime.

But he struggled to crawl out from the avalanche of “carpetbagger” attacks Fetterman heaved upon him throughout the campaign as Fetterman argued Oz, a successful doctor and longtime daytime TV host, couldn’t understand everyday Pennsylvanians.

In Pittsburgh, Fetterman supporters celebrated his win after a long night in a concert venue on the city’s North Shore. A large screen played CNN between an American flag and a Pennsylvania state flag and under a Fetterman banner sign featuring Pittsburgh’s yellow Roberto Clemente Bridge.

A spread of food included crudités, a likely homage to a viral moment from the campaign, which has been light on policy and heavy on personality.

”Jubilation, I think, is the best word to describe it,” said Lynne Alvine, a Fetterman supporter from Indiana County. “I feel like I can breathe again. Everybody I know has been living with, it’s not even free floating anxiety, it’s active angst all the time.”

Oz’s election party was at the same venue as his primary party — a private gym and sports facility owned by Jim Worthington, a controversial backer of former President Donald Trump who paid for buses to shuttle supporters from Pennsylvania to Washington for the Jan. 6, 2021, rally at the Capitol that became an insurrection.

If Oz’s election-night preparations were any indication of his success, he appeared to have higher hopes heading into the general election than the primary. In May, when Oz was in a bitter three-way race for the GOP nomination, he joined a hundred or so supporters in a small tucked-away room at the facility. On Tuesday, his event was held in a large gymnasium decked out in American flag banners.

Oz had hoped to capitalize on frustrations many voters Tuesday expressed at the polls over inflation and crime.

Oz, who was endorsed by Trump in the primary, announced his candidacy as a true conservative more than a year ago, but in recent months had aimed to cast himself as more of a centrist, saying he’d bring balance to Washington in contrast to Fetterman, whom he’s called extreme.

Andrew Adams, 56, a registered Republican in Bryn Athyn, said he’s known Oz for 38 years through Oz’s wife, Lisa, and described the celebrity doctor as “caring and intelligent.” Adams said the economy, crime, and election integrity were the top issues he considered. He also worried about Fetterman’s stroke recovery after watching the Senate debate last month.

“If John Fetterman was a pilot, would you let him pilot your plane?” he asked.

In Langhorne, a few miles from Oz’s results watch party, Theresa Rittenour hugged her 4-year-old granddaughter, Kayla, tight after voting at Neshaminy High School. A one-time Democrat and 50-year resident of Bucks County, Rittenour said that this election, she voted for the entire Republican ticket because she was concerned about the economy, crime, and “what they’re trying to teach in public schools.”

”As far as I’m concerned, it’s going the wrong way,” she said. ”There’s no respect of life.”

Fetterman positioned himself as a “true Pennsylvanian,” compared to Oz, who lived for a long period in New Jersey, and that resonated with many voters at the polls.

Delia Lennon-Winstead, the mayor of Braddock, said at the polls there that having a senator from the tiny borough would matter beyond Western Pennsylvania.

“There’s 67 counties. In each county, there’s a little town in the corner like Braddock, and those are the people that have been looked over,” she said. “When John came to Braddock … he ignited it, he gave it that spark. … I think he will ignite that, in every county in the state of Pennsylvania.”

In Monroeville, near Pittsburgh, Bill Malus, 67, a retired Pittsburgh Port Authority mechanic, voted straight Democrat, including for Fetterman, whom he said would protect unions. He also said recent election denialism from some members of the Republican Party has largely closed him off from considering GOP candidates. He called Fetterman “a good guy, a local guy who is actually from Pennsylvania.”

Staff writers Ellie Rushing, Oona Goodin-Smith, and Wendy Ruderman contributed to this article.