Dr. Mehmet Oz has taken a big lead in the hotly contested Republican Senate primary in Pennsylvania, garnering more than 27% support among likely voters, according to the latest Trafalgar Poll.
Trafalgar Group was one of most accurate pollsters in 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns, having the ability to get to America First supporters of former President Donald Trump and making Oz's 11½-point edge over the next closest competitor a significant development.
Oz leads a field of candidates that includes former U.S. ambassadors and a member of the Trump administration. Oz's next closest competitor is David McCormick, who was an under secretary of the Treasury for international affairs in the George W. Bush administration.
McCormick has been endorsed by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.
The complete poll results:
- Mehmet Oz: 27.4%
- David McCormick: 15.9%
- Carla Sands: 14.8%
- Kathy Barnette: 8.9%
- Jeff Bartos: 6.6%
- Sean Gale: 1.9%
- George Bochetto: 1.6%
- Everett Stern: 1.5%
There were still 21.6% of likely GOP Senate primary voters undecided.
Oz has led the polls on the power of his fame, having been a wide broadcast TV doctor.
"People know who I am," Oz told Newsmax's "Spicer & Co." "I've been in your living room every day for 13 years.
"I have the best chance of beating the Democrats in the fall because I will bring together a coalition of independents and conservative Democrats who come along with all the Republicans who know what's going on."
While Oz's message is strong on COVID-19 response, having said "Washington got it wrong," McCormick is selling his campaign as someone who has negotiated with China, telling host Sean Spicer he is "someone who's negotiated, gone toe to toe with the Chinese, and someone that will take the fight to China."
"We need a whole of nation strategy that reduces our dependence on China, and also ensures that we're not doing things with our trade or investments that are ensuring Chinese military modernization or its rise," McCormick said. "And so we need tough-minded leaders in Washington that can take that fight to China."
Sands is the third choice in the poll, meanwhile, having been the candidate who has worked in the Trump administration as the U.S. ambassador to Denmark.
"I fought for President Trump's America First agenda," she told Spicer. "I'll be the only one that can hold our base together and also track suburban voters. They love the agenda and they want safe streets and safe cities."
The Trafalgar Group polled 1,070 likely GOP primary voters between Feb. 1-4, and the results have a margin of error of 2.99 percentage points.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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