Democrat John Fetterman will win the Pennsylvania Senate race, CNN projects, defeating Republican Mehmet Oz, flipping the seat and boosting Democrats’ hopes of retaining their majority.
Fetterman, the state’s lieutenant governor since 2019, and Oz, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, waged one of the nation’s most contentious and expensive Senate races — all while Fetterman continued his recovery from a stroke before the start often limited his ability to speak on the trail.
For Democrats trying to retain control of the 50-50 Senate, with Vice Speaker Kamala Harris as the tie, Fetterman’s victory could prove decisive.
Oz called Fetterman to concede the fight at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, according to Fetterman spokesman Joe Calvello.
The retirement of Republican Sen. Pat Toomey in a state President Joe Biden won two years ago created the best chance for Democrats to pick up a seat and salvage their narrow majority, and the commonwealth entered Election Day as one of the least nine states that were expected to be competitive Senate races.
Fetterman’s victory caps a remarkable rise from his time as mayor of Braddock, a district in western Pennsylvania, to the lieutenant governor’s office — which he won after unseating a fellow Democrat in a 2018 primary — to the U.S. Senate. A longtime progressive, he is an outspoken supporter of repealing the filibuster, raising the minimum wage, legalizing marijuana, criminal justice reform, and passing legislation to protect same-sex marriage, among other top liberal priorities.
His success will also be an inspiration to stroke survivors and other Americans with disabilities, some of whom took heart from his efforts to continue campaigning even as he showed the long-term effects of his stroke in May. Fetterman, though he has not released his full medical records, said he expects to be at or near full strength by the time he takes office early next year.
Although Oz himself largely avoided discrediting Fetterman for his stroke-related difficulties, his campaign was less circumspect, with the Republican repeatedly distancing himself from his own operatives’ statements. Asked late in the campaign if he would speak to his own patients the way his campaign addressed Fetterman, Oz responded with one word: “No.”
The White House did not dwell on individual races during election night. But after Fetterman’s predicted victory, he sent a subtle, if sharp, message: “The president had a great time with the senator-elect on Saturday,” a White House official told CNN.
While many Democrats in battleground seats tried to avoid Biden’s presence on the campaign trail, Fetterman embraced the president. Biden has made several trips to Pennsylvania, and each time in the final months of the race, Fetterman has appeared alongside him, including last weekend in Philadelphia.
Biden’s Pennsylvania roots are an integral part of his story, his 2020 victory is central to the presidency and now, after 20 visits to the state in his first two years in office, he marks the first Democratic rebound in the crucial battle for the Senate Majority.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
