Oz jumps ahead of Fetterman overnight in major election forecast of Senate race
Republican Pennsylvania Senate hopeful Mehmet Oz jumped ahead of Democratic challenger John Fetterman literally overnight in trackings of a major election forecaster, a sign that the GOP candidate has a better-than-average shot of winning the contentious race.
Oz is now "slightly favored" to win the Senate race, FiveThirtyEight said on Monday, with the election analyst giving Oz a 57/43 chance of winning the race.
Those numbers flip-flopped literally overnight from Sunday into Monday, with Fetterman being given a 54/46 edge on Sunday before the projection reversed on Monday.
Polling collected by FiveThirtyEight over the last several months shows a definite shift in Oz's favor: From August through most of October, most polls heavily favored Fetterman, sometimes with strong double-digit leads; starting in late October after the two held their one and only campaign debate, polls began shifting in Oz's favor.
The debate was wildly seen as a disaster for Fetterman, who frequently had trouble speaking and articulating his thoughts. The state lieutenant governor suffered a stroke earlier in the year and has been public about his struggles with recovering from it.
RealClearPolitics likewise predicts that Oz will take the Senate seat, establishing Pennsylvania as a "GOP hold." The race is meant to secure the seat being vacated by GOP Sen. Pat Toomey, who is retiring in January.