In the early hours of Wednesday morning, multiple media outlets projected that Democrat John Fetterman would win the open U.S. Senate seat left by retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey.
Fetterman, the state’s Lieutenant Governor who suffered a serious stroke just before the Democratic primary, won his party’s nomination and then defeated Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz for one of the only Democrat U.S. Senate pickups on the 2022 election cycle.
Democratic state Attorney General Josh Shapiro meanwhile clinched a decisive victory over state Senator Doug Mastriano (R-Gettysburg) in the Keystone State’s gubernatorial race with 57.4 percent of the votes tallied so far.
In the run-up to the election, Pennsylvania Acting Secretary of State Leigh Chapman asserted it was unforeseeable that the commonwealth could count all ballots cast this autumn because pre-canvassing absentee ballots cannot commence until 7 a.m. on Election Day. She also noted that military absentee and overseas civilian mail-in ballots will not be entirely tallied until next Wednesday. Determination as to who will get Toomey’s seat could therefore take several days.
Some conservative pundits voiced dissatisfaction at the fact that Oz has had such a difficult time besting Fetterman who has struggled to show himself mentally fit to serve in the Senate after developing severe communicative and perception problems as a result of a stroke he suffered this spring.
“If Oz actually loses… to a guy with brain damage —we talk about accountability — there has to be accountability for the Republicans [who] got behind Oz in the primary,” Daily Wire commentator Matt Walsh said in a webcast as returns were reported. “You’re going to actually lose to a guy who can’t even speak?”
Meanwhile, Shapiro, as Pennsylvania’s next governor, may need to work with a state House of Representatives and Senate both run by Republicans. Despite the political tide pushing against the Democrats this year, Shapiro’s party, which dominated the Pennsylvania Reapportionment Commission, managed to redistrict the House’s 203 seats in a way that gained the Democrats an electoral advantage in numerous suburban seats. Still, Republicans appear poised to remain at the helm in the state House and to maintain a comfortable majority in the state Senate.
Shapiro’s lead over Mastriano after 11 p.m. was 55.3 percent to 42.9 percent with third-party candidates receiving the rest of the votes.
What the Keystone state’s congressional delegation will look like remains to be seen at this writing. Of Pennsylvania’s 17 newly redrawn U.S. House districts, four are particularly competitive, but returns so far are too scant to indicate decisively who will prevail in those races.
Those contests include incumbent Republican Brian Fitzpatrick’s defense of his seat in the Bucks County-based First District, incumbent Democrat Susan Wild’s race against challenger Lisa Scheller in the Lehigh Valley-based Seventh District, Congressman Matt Cartwright’s contest against Republican Jim Bognet in the northeastern Eighth District and the matchup between Republican Jeremy Shaffer and Democrat in the Allegheny County-based 17th District.
By most accounts, elections in the commonwealth smoothly, save for a paper shortage in Luzerne County that led Judge Lesa S. Gelb to hold the jurisdiction’s 186 polling places open two hours past the standard 8 p.m. closing time. County Bureau of Elections Solicitor Paula Radick requested that polls remain open so ballots could be printed on the 80-pound weight paper that Dominion Voting Systems suggests is needed for use in its machines. Neither party in the Republican-run county raised objections to Radick’s request.
– – –
Bradley Vasoli is managing editor of The Pennsylvania Daily Star. Follow Brad on Twitter at @BVasoli. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “John Fetterman” by John Fetterman. Photo “Mehmet Oz” by Mehmet Oz.
