Turkish-born Dr. Mehmet Oz has won the Republican primary in the US state of Pennsylvania.
He will now run for the Republican Senate seat in the November by-elections. If elected, Dr. Oz will be the country's first Muslim senator.
He had a 1000-vote lead over his rival David McCormack. He will now run against Democratic candidate John Fitterman, who is recovering from a stroke.
Dr. Oz, a TV personality and heart surgeon who has appeared several times in the Oprah Winfrey show, released a video before the recount began, calling himself a "potential Republican" nominee.
His political mentor, former President Donald Trump, urged him to declare victory before the official results.
David McCormack, who opposed Oz in the primary, announced that he had accepted Oz's victory.
"I called Mehmet Oz today to congratulate him on his victory," McCormack said in a statement on Friday.
Oz thanked McCormack and said, "We will do everything we can to prevent the Senate from falling into the hands of John Fitterman and the radical left."
 |
| The Democratic candidate for the Senate seat said in a statement on Friday that he was on the verge of dying from a stroke last month. |
"If I win, I will give up my Turkish citizenship."
Dr. Oz has announced that he will renounce his Turkish citizenship if he becomes a senator.
The state's results in the November midterm elections in the United States are significant. The midterm elections are held halfway through the presidency of the United States and determine who controls the two chambers of Congress (the Senate and the House of Representatives).
The Democratic Party's Senate Campaign Committee has criticized Oz for being a "fraud and scheme artist" and a "self-interested millionaire."
The Democratic candidate for the Senate seat, meanwhile, said in a statement on Friday that he was on the verge of dying from a stroke last month.
Fitterman, who is serving as Pennsylvania's deputy governor, said it was a mistake not to take the medicine prescribed by his doctor in 2017.
The former Harvard-educated mayoral candidate is likely to face a controversy.
During Fitterman's second term in 2013, as mayor of a town near Braddock, Pittsburgh, he pursued a black man who he thought (proved wrong) to be shot near his home.
Has run Fitterman, who was armed with a shotgun during the confrontation, has refused to apologize for the incident.
0 Comments