Oz loans his Pennsylvania Senate campaign another $1 million

By David Wright and Dan Merica, CNN

Mehmet Oz, the Republican nominee for US Senate in Pennsylvania, loaned his campaign an additional $1 million on October 20, according to a filing with the FEC.

Oz has loaned his campaign money from his personal fortune throughout his bid — including $7 million in the most recent third quarter — and his latest $1 million loan brings his cycle total to more than $22 million. Earlier this month, his opponent, Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, touted that none of his haul came from his personal bank account.

Oz has been consistently outraised by his opponent and Fetterman is banking on his financial advantage over Oz to pull him through the final weeks of the midterm campaign and secure one of Democrats’ best chances of flipping a Senate seat. Adding to Fetterman’s edge, President Joe Biden and other notable members of the party, including Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, fundraised for the Democratic candidate this week.

In the third quarter, covering July through September, Fetterman raised $22 million, while Oz raised about $8.9 million in addition to the $7 million he loaned his campaign.

At the end of the quarter entering October, Fetterman had a slight cash on hand lead over Oz, about $4.2 million to about $2.5 million. And over the final two and a half weeks of the race, Democrats are set to outspend Republicans by about $25.6 million to $18.7 million on the air, according to the latest totals from AdImpact.

Despite the significant fundraising advantage, Fetterman finds himself in a close race with Trump-backed Oz. After some polls found the Democrat with a double-digit lead over the summer, a CNN Poll of Polls average earlier this month showed Fetterman with the support of 50% of likely voters compared with 45% for Oz.

With nearly two weeks left until the midterm elections, Fetterman and Oz have zeroed in on undecided women voters in the Philadelphia suburbs where Biden outpaced Trump by nearly 300,000 votes.

In Chester County, near Philadelphia, Fetterman touted his support for codifying Roe v. Wade on Saturday.

“If you do believe it’s your choice, I certainly know that it’s your choice, and that is the sort of person in this campaign that is going to lean in on that and join in the support of whatever it takes to have my vote if that would be something that would help codify Roe v. Wade,” Fetterman told an audience at a campaign event.

“This is jarring. I am 53 years old and my entire life it was always assumed that was never going to change really,” Fetterman said of abortion rights.

The two Senate candidates will face off in their first and only debate Tuesday.

“I have conceded on everything possible to make sure he that he is able to participate in this debate. It is the only one he would agree to. He’s got closed captioning — whatever he needs,” Oz said on Fox on Saturday. “I just want him to show up on Tuesday so we can talk to Pennsylvania about our policies and let them see how extreme his positions have been.”

At Saturday’s campaign event outside Philadelphia, Fetterman said he was using closed captioning to “be specific” during the conversation.

“It is the elephant in the room,” Fetterman said of his stroke recovery. “Thankfully, I got to the hospital quickly, in about 20 minutes, and it was turning out to be the finest stroke facility in the state. If that would have happened in a different part of Pennsylvania … I wouldn’t have the honor of sitting on a stage with you right now. And that’s the truth.”

That practice was effectively a dry run for the debate, in which the same technology will be used. In addition to the technology, Fetterman laid the foundation for possible narratives to be used when the two face off.

Fetterman argued Oz “wouldn’t understand” what inflation is doing to average people and tied him to the Trump-backed conservative gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano.

“You can’t really fight inflation if you don’t really understand what inflation is or you don’t experience it yourself,” Fetterman said. “With Dr. Oz, that owns 10 gigantic mansions that wouldn’t understand what it really looks like and what it really feels like. This is a man who quite literally doesn’t understand how to shop for groceries.”

CNN has reached out to the Oz campaign for a response.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

CNN’s Kit Maher contributed to this report.