Celebrity vs conservatives in Pennsylvania’s primary elections

The race for the Pennsylvania Senate
primary heated up. Several prominent conservative groups backed candidate Kathy
Barnette against Donald Trump’s pick Mehmet Oz, the celebrity heart surgeon.

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The anti-tax Club for Growth endorsed
Barnette on Wednesday and has begun airing TV ads on her behalf. That follows
the anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony List’s decision on Tuesday to back Barnette
over Oz.

But it is not known whether the
endorsements and advertising will be enough to take Barnette to Pennsylvania’s
May 17 Senate primary.

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Growing focus on Barnette suggested
concern among some conservative and pro-Trump circles that Oz doesn’t
sufficiently reflect their views on abortion, guns or the culture wars the GOP
is waging against Democrats.

If Oz losses next week that would mark
another huge setback for Trump since his preferred candidate for governor suffered a defeat in Nebraska’s Republican primary on Tuesday.

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Trump is still the most popular leader among Republican voters and his endorsement helped pull Vance to win in the
final weeks of the Ohio campaign. Both Trump-backed congressional candidates
also won in West Virginia’s primary.

But the latest poll conducted by Fox
News suggested a tight race in Pennsylvania’s Senate election.

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The poll found that 22% of GOP primary
voters supported Oz with former hedge fund CEO David McCormick and Barnette
bunched together at 20% and 19%. About one-fifth of voters, or 18%, said they
were undecided.

If elected, the 50-year-old would be the
first Black woman Pennsylvanians sent to the US Senate.

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She joined the race as a little known
name and with no deep pocket of money but gained support among some right-wing
groups by campaigning with allies of Trump’s baseless conspiracy theories that
Democrats stole the 2020 election in Pennsylvania.

In recent years, she has become a
speaker for anti-abortion causes, penned a memoir about being Black and
conservative, ran unsuccessfully for a congressional seat in a
Democratic-leaning district in suburban Philadelphia and gained a platform as a
guest on conservative news shows.