(RoyalPatriot.com )- Pennsylvania’s Republican Senate primary race remains too close to call days after Tuesday’s election. With 99 percent of the votes counted, Dr. Mehmet Oz is clinging to a razor-thin lead of 31.2 percent with David McCormick close behind at 31.1 percent.
According to election data from the Associated Press, by Thursday the two candidates were separated only by about 1,100 votes with an estimated 8,700 Republican absentee ballots yet to be counted.
Among the mail-in ballots already counted, David McCormick has a 9-point advantage over Dr. Oz. And if that advantage holds, it is looking very likely that McCormick could pull out ahead of Oz when the final ballots are counted.
Despite the math, on Wednesday, former President Donald Trump suggested that Dr. Oz declare victory in the race.
In a post from his Truth Social account, the former president said declaring victory would make it “much harder for them to cheat with the ballots that they ‘just happened to find.’”
It is unclear how exactly preemptively declaring victory when the margin is far below the 8,700 ballots still to be counted would make it “much harder” to cheat. Though, it could make it much harder to take Dr. Oz seriously, which may be why, as of Thursday night, Dr. Oz has not taken Trump’s advice.
Appearing on Sean Hannity’s program Wednesday night (where else?), Dr. Oz said he believes in the end, he will win the race, adding that his campaign has people in every county making sure the ballots are “correctly counted.”
But those looking at the math don’t share Dr. Oz’s certainty.
On Thursday, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who endorsed David McCormick in the race, tweeted that the math makes it “very likely” McCormick will come out on top once the “valid absentee ballots” are counted.
According to Pennsylvania law, a recount can be requested if the margin is 0.5 percent or smaller. And since right now the candidates are separated by a margin of only 0.1 percent, there is a strong likelihood a recount is coming.
