ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. — The closer the race, the more frantic the final sprint.
With six days to go until the election, the Senate race in Pennsylvania remains a toss-up.
FiveThirtyEight polling averages show Democrat John Fetterman leading Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz by just 1 percentage point, which is a statistical tie.
Because of the tight polling margins, voter turnout will be crucial to winning on Tuesday. Accordingly, both candidates are jamming their final campaign days with events and get-out-the-vote rallies.
Fetterman spoke to a crowd in Carlisle on Wednesday afternoon. He touched on a variety of hot-button topics for Democrats, like codifying abortion rights and raising the federal minimum wage. He also encouraged supporters to make sure their friends vote on Election Day.
“Thank you all for the GOTV that you’re willing to do,” he said. “And I just have one favor of all of you. We can send him [Oz] back to New Jersey and please send us to D.C. so I can stand and fight for all of you.”
Mirroring that strategy, Dr. Mehmet Oz held a campaign event Wednesday evening in Elizabethtown. He mentioned several hot-button issues for Republicans, like inflation, increased crime, immigration and dissatisfaction with the Biden presidency.
“The reason Pennsylvania is so important is we’re perfectly purple,” Oz said. “Our neighbors are Democrats. We’re going to win this election because we’re going to get those neighbors, conservative Democrats in particular, independents, to vote with us, because they don’t like what’s happening to the country.”
Carla Sands, the former U.S. ambassador to Denmark who ran against Oz in the Republican primary, also came to support him and promote turnout.
“There’s a lot of old folks in Lancaster County. There are a lot of Amish brothers and sisters. I want you to offer to drive them to the polls on Tuesday,” Sands said.