David McCormick admits to Dr. Mehmet Oz in the PA GOP Senate primary

McCormick said he called Oz to relent.

“Now that the recount is largely complete, it’s clear to me that we have a candidate,” McCormick said at a campaign party at a Pittsburgh hotel. “Tonight is really about us all coming together.”

Before the recount, Oz McCormick led by 972 votes, or 0.07 percentage point, out of 1.34 million votes counted in the May 17 primary. The Associated Press has not declared a winner of the race as an automatic recount is underway.

Friday’s development leads to a general election between Oz, who was backed by former President Donald Trump, and Democrat John Fetterman in one of the nation’s most important Senate contests. Racing could help determine control of the tightly divided chamber.

Fetterman, the state’s lieutenant governor, admitted in a statement on Friday that he nearly died just days before his elementary school after suffering a stroke. He said he ignored warning signs for years and ignored a doctor’s advice to take blood thinners.

Oz, best known as the anchor of the daytime show The Dr. Oz Show” has had to overcome millions of dollars in attack publicity and concerns among hardline Trump supporters over his conservative credentials on guns, abortion, transgender rights and other key Republican issues.

SEE ALSO: Pennsylvania court orders contested ballots to be counted in Senate primary

Oz, 61, relied on Trump’s support as a show of his conservative credibility, while Trump attacked Oz’s rivals, claiming Oz had the best chance of winning on the presidential battlefield in November.
Rivals made Oz’s dual citizenship in Turkey an issue in the race. If elected, Oz would become the nation’s first Muslim Senator.

Born in the United States, Oz served in the Turkish military and voted in the 2018 general election. Oz said he would give up his Turkish citizenship if he won November’s election and he accused McCormick of carrying out “bigoted” attacks.

For months, Oz and McCormick flooded state airwaves with political ads while spending millions of their own money. McCormick, who was virtually unknown four months ago, had to introduce himself to voters, and he sifted through Oz’s long history as a public figure for assault allegation material. He got help from a super PAC who backed him and spent $20 million.

Like McCormick, Oz moved to Pennsylvania from out of state.

Oz, a Harvard graduate, New York Times bestselling author, and self-proclaimed wellness advocate, has spent the last few decades living in a mansion in Cliffside Park, New Jersey, overlooking the Hudson River overlooking Manhattan — drawing accusations of being a schemer and politician to be tourist.

The famed cardiac surgeon stressed his ties to Pennsylvania, saying he grew up just across the state line in Delaware, attended medical school in Philadelphia, and married a native of Pennsylvania.