Kathy Barnette neck-and-neck with Trump-endorsed Dr. Oz in Pennsylvania GOP Senate primary, poll shows

Kathy Barnette has surged in the Pennsylvania Republican Senate primary, shooting past former hedge fund CEO David McCormick and drawing almost even with the Trump-endorsed Dr. Mehmet Oz, a recent Trafalgar Group poll shows.

The poll shows Oz in first place with 24.5 percent of the vote, Barnette in second with 23.2 percent, and McCormick in third with 21.6 percent.

Barnette — a Black army veteran, author, and political commentator — previously ran for the House of Representatives in 2020. Politico suggests that Barnette "is likely benefiting from a smashmouth primary that features Oz and McCormick going nuclear on each other on TV." Steve Bannon, previously an adviser to former President Donald Trump, has described Barnette's political alignment as "ultra-MAGA."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

During a primary debate held at Grove City College on Wednesday, Barnette came out swinging. First, she took aim at Dr. Oz's pro-choice past, announcing that she was the product of a rape that took place when her mother was 11 and that she "was not just a lump of cells."

She then accused both Oz and McCormick of being "globalists" with ties to the World Economic Forum, which she said aims to impose a Chinese-style social credit system on the United States.

The Trafalgar Group surveyed 1,080 likely GOP primary voters between May 6 and May 6 with an error margin of 2.99 percent.

Pennsylvania's primaries will be held on Tuesday, May 17, after which the GOP nominee will likely face Lt. Gov. John Fetterman in the general election.