Mehmet Oz, celebrity physician and US Republican Senate candidate for Pennsylvania, speaks during a town hall in Bell Blue, Pennsylvania, US, on Monday, May 16, 2022.
The late surge by Kathy Barnette, a pundit known for her strident commentary as wel HARRISBURG, Pa. - The national Republican Party is taking the side of celebrity heart surgeon Dr.
Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania's neck-and-neck GOP primary contest for U.S. Senate and opposing a lawsuit that could help former hedge fund CEO David McCormick close the gap in votes.McCormick's lawsuit was filed late Monday, less than 24 hours before Tuesday's deadline for counties to report their unofficial results to the state.In it, McCormick asks the state Commonwealth Court to require counties to obey a brand-new federal appeals court decision and promptly count mail-in ballots that lack a required handwritten date on the return envelope.PREVIOUS: McCormick sues over counting mail ballots in Pennsylvania Senate raceOz, who is endorsed by former President Donald Trump, has pressed counties not to count the ballots and the Republican National Committee said it would go to court to oppose McCormick.In a statement, the RNC's chief counsel, Matt Raymer, said "election laws are meant to be followed, and changing the rules when ballots are already being counted harms the integrity of our elections."McCormick’s lawsuit is the first — but likely not the last — lawsuit in the contest between Oz and McCormick.Oz led McCormick by 992 votes, or 0.07 percentage points, out of 1,341,037 ballots reported by the state as of Tuesday morning.The race is close enough to trigger Pennsylvania’s automatic recount law, with the separation between the candidates inside the law’s 0.5% margin.