by Arjun Singh
Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman and Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz are statistically tied in a new survey of Pennsylvania voters, five days before they hold their first and only debate of the Pennsylvania Senate race and less than three weeks before voting begins, per a survey released on Thursday.
Fetterman and Oz gained 46.3% and 45.5%, respectively, of the support of respondents, according to a poll conducted by Insider for FOX29, Philadelphia’s Fox affiliate. Around 5% of voters remained undecided, according to the poll.
However, the poll showed favorable metrics for Oz, with him having a 21.7% advantage among independent voters and an 8% advantage among voters between the ages of 40 and 64, the age demographic with among the highest propensities to vote, according to the U.S. News and World Report.
Ahead of the Steelers-Buccaneers game, opinions generally fell along geographic lines: Pittsburghers said they would side with Democrats, while rural voters favored Republicans.
Sarah Gibson, 25, is splitting her ticket between Democrats and Republicans. https://t.co/eY0rdCf6Wapic.twitter.com/25UOPGX5QW
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) October 19, 2022
“Oz is also picking an unusually high 14% of the African American vote and Asians and Hispanics prefer Oz and say they are voting for Oz by a wide margin,” said Matt Towery, InsiderAdvantage’s Chairman, to FOX29. Observers agree that Fetterman has been “struggling with non-white voters” compared to Oz, whose medical career and business success have been attractive to minority voters, per Newsweek.
Among younger voters between the ages of 18 and 39, Oz and Fetterman are tied, with 42.5% supporting either man. Towery added that “Fetterman continues to enjoy a ten-point lead among female voters, while men prefer Oz at that same rate.”
Most major polls have shown Fetterman in the lead, though the gap between both candidates has narrowed over time, with InsiderAdvantage’s poll being the first to show a tie. Its survey is graded “B” by FiveThirtyEight for reliability.
The survey also showed a tightening race between Democratic Attorney General Josh Shapiro and Republican State Senator Doug Mastriano, who are running for Pennsylvania’s governorship. Shapiro garnered 48.5% to Mastriano’s 42.2%, a difference considerably smaller than the 9.6% average advantage for Shapiro, per RealClearPolitics.
Furthermore, the survey showed that 44.6% of voters approved of President Joe Biden’s performance in office.
The survey polled 550 likely voters in Pennsylvania on Oct. 19 and had a margin of error of 4.2%.
The Oz and Fetterman campaigns did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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Arjun Singh is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “John Fetterman” by Governor Tom Wolf. CC BY 2.0. Photo “Mehmet Oz” by Dr. Mehmet Oz.
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