NEWTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA - MAY 11: Pennsylvania U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz speaks during a Republican leadership forum at Newtown Athletic Club on May 11, 2022 in Newtown, Pennsylvania.
In the May 17 Republican primary to replace retiring Sen. Sensing a threat in Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate race, Donald Trump issued a warning Thursday that surging Republican candidate Kathy Barnette would upend the GOP’s chances of holding the seat in November and urged voters to back his pick, celebrity heart surgeon Mehmet Oz.The former president’s statement echoed growing panic among his allies and Barnette's rivals over her sudden and unforeseen rise ahead of the state’s Tuesday primary.Barnette "will never be able to win" in a general election matchup against Democrats, Trump said in a statement, adding that Oz "is the only one" who can defeat the Democratic nominee.Later, on a telephone townhall with Oz, Trump criticized Barnette for losing a 2020 congressional race — by nearly 20 percentage points, albeit in a heavily Democratic district — and said he had never heard of her."And the problem is, nobody knows what she stands for, who she is and that’s very risky because you're going to win this with Oz and you're not going to win it with any of the other candidates," Trump said.The seat is opening up with the retirement of second-term Republican Sen.