“How does someone gain so much weight in one night?” said Mr. Ackelson. “I’m tired of this big cloud of smoke about what’s going on.”
However, that vote-counting phenomenon could repeat itself in the Pennsylvania Senate primaries. dr. Oz had a lead of about 2,500 votes over Mr. McCormick. But with tens of thousands of votes left to count, Mr. McCormick’s campaign has expressed confidence that he will prevail†
As in the past, Mr Trump has shown no interest in waiting for a candidate to have a decisive advantage before declaring a winner. On Wednesday, he urged Dr. Oz to declare victory and carry on. “It makes it much harder for them to cheat with the ballots they ‘coincidentally found’,” mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform†
In what could be a dangerous maneuver, Pennsylvania Democrats encouraged and sought to aid Mr Mastriano’s candidacy, despite his electoral stance and his calls to make voting more difficult. He has said he would try to end no-apologies voting in the state, appoint a secretary of state to deal with electoral fraud, increase the number of pollsters in Pennsylvania, a universal voter identification law and the state contracts with voting machine operators.
Josh Shapiro, the state attorney general who ran unopposed for the Democratic nomination for governor, spent more than $530,000 — more than Mr. Mastriano spent on television during his entire campaign — on a single TV ad that was designed to position the far-right Republican among the GOP base.
“He wants to end postal voting and he led the battle to control the 2020 elections,” the ad reads. “If Mastriano wins, that’s a win for what Donald Trump stands for.”
Many political observers, including some concerned Republicans, view Mastriano as an underdog to the better-funded Shapiro, but the current environment is much kinder to the GOP and Democrats across the country are haunted by Biden’s low approval ratings.
