One recently published poll highlighted that Republican Pennsylvania Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz has officially taken the lead over Democrat candidate John Fetterman.
The poll questioned a sample of 1,013 likely voters and was carried out by Wick, a market research firm, between the 9th and the 13th of October. It discovered that Oz, a celebrity heart surgeon, now leads Fetterman, the lieutenant governor, by roughly 4.5 points just as we hit the two-week run-up to the 2022 midterm elections. This poll marks the point that Oz could be pushing his way through a poling wall, as he had been squarely behind Fetterman across most polls for the vast majority of the polling cycle.
As expressed by the results of the poll, Oz sits ahead of Fetterman at 49.1% to 44.6%. Another 3.4% are choosing to vote for someone else, and roughly 2.9% still remain undecided. When questioned, the undecided voters expressed a substantial lean towards Oz at 59%-41%.
The poll also expressed that another Republican, Doug Mastriano, also sits within the normal margin of error against Democrat Josh Shapiro in the Pennsylvania Governor’s race. Shapiro currently leads Mastriano at 48.5% – 46.4%; which is a level that is well within the poll’s 3.1% margin of error. Mastriano also sports a fairly slight lead with undecided voters with 50.9% of the undecided breaking for Mastriano, and 49.1% breaking for Shapiro.
The Wick poll was chased by another poll that highlighted the race as effectively tied. One InsiderAdvantage/Fox29 news poll showed that both Fetterman and Oz sat with about 46% apiece. Matt Towery, the chairman of Insider Advantage, expressed that Oz’s massive surge was coming mostly from groups of self-labeled independent voters, who were seemingly breaking towards Oz by roughly 20 points.
“Oz is also picking an unusually high 14% of the African American vote and Asians and Hispanics prefer Oz[,] say they are voting for Oz by a wide margin,” stated Towery. “Fetterman continues to enjoy a ten-point lead among female voters, while men prefer Oz at that same rate.”
The very same poll discovered that Mastriano is also taking strides to catch up in the governor’s race. Shapiro holds a lead ahead of Mastriano 49%-42%, with roughly 6% stating they were undecided, but Towery expressed that Mastriano is experiencing another wave of support from various independents: 18% of those independents are expected to break for the Republican, the poll found.
Oz has also managed to garner a shocking level of support from the black community. While most Republicans sport roughly 20% of black support, Oz has managed to reach about 30% support. “And that is completely unique to any other race that we’re watching,” stated Cahaly.
