HARRISBURG (CBS) — Democratic Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman is the winner of the U.S. Senate seat that was held by Republican Pat Toomey. Fetterman beat Republican Mehmet Oz in one of the most expensive races in the country, with more than $300 million was spent by both candidates, according to the Federal Elections Commission.
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The Democrat overcame a stroke to defeat Oz and flip the seat. It also gives Democrats hope of retaining control of the upper chamber of Congress. The Keystone State was viewed as a prime opportunity for Democrats to flip a seat previously held by Republicans.
“We launched this campaign almost two years ago, and we had our slogan — it’s on every one of those signs right now — every county, every vote. Every county vote, and that’s exactly what happened. We jammed them up, we held the line. We never expected that we were going to turn these red counties blue,” Fetterman said in an acceptance speech. “We did what we needed to do and we had that conversation across every one of those counties, and tonight that’s why I’ll be the next U.S. senator from Pennsylvania.”
Fetterman’s stroke became the focus of the campaign in the closing stretch after attacks from Oz and a shaky debate performance that raised more questions about his ability to serve in public office. He has to use closed captioning to deal with auditory processing issues after his stroke in May during interviews and during his lone debate with Oz.
Oz also attacked Fetterman for his stances on crime and tried to pin inflation and the state of the economy on him and other Democrats. Fetterman used the outrage over the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and promised voters he would vote to pass key pieces of President Joe Biden’s agenda. He also used social media to troll Oz as out of touch and being a carpetbagger.
