Two Elections, the Same Candidates
Mariacristina Calcagno (10-1)
Photo courtesy of Masterman Fetterman Campaign
The campaign flyers hint at the kickoff, igniting excitement. The following week ushers in heightened competition between the two camps as each tries to outdo the other with charisma in the halls and food served at campaign events. The fast-paced debate tensely focuses on voters’ top priorities this year. And on Monday, just a little over a week after the kickoff, high-school students head to the 4th-floor polls to cast their ballot.
The Masterman Mock Election paralleled the senate race in Pennsylvania. The two candidates were John Fetterman and Mehmet Oz. Rebukes between the two parties pushed tension and heightened one lone debate. Coverage in the communities, one being Masterman and the other being Pennsylvania (but also the broader United States) sparked discussions about pressing issues, conversations about which candidate was better, and what the next two years and beyond could look like. The only difference was that one election served to educate the community, while the other one sent the ultimate winner to the United States Senate.
But, first, who are John Fetterman and Mehmet Oz, anyways? Though Mock Election covers this, here is a refresher.
Photo courtesy of Masterman Oz Campaign
Beginning with a brief overview about Fetterman, his first position in office was as mayor of Braddock (later running for U.S. Senate in 2016, losing the seat with a third-place finish, then making his way to Pennsylvania’s Lieutenant Governor in 2018).
Prior to becoming mayor, he experienced two tragedies that turned him to service: his close friend died in a car crash while studying at the University of Connecticut. After this, the mother of an 8-year-old boy that Fetterman mentored in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program lost her life to AIDS (which had also previously killed the boy’s father.) “What stopped me from being the guy driving to his house and dying in a car accident? What’s to say that it wasn’t me who would bury both of my parents from a horrific disease like AIDS before my ninth birthday?” Fetterman reflected. He then worked for Americorps, choosing service over his paid job in finance, and matriculated into an M.A. program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
Fetterman was initially stunned by the plight that enveloped Braddock. “When I decided to run, I didn’t expect to win…I wasn’t even following the race, frankly,” he remembered. Winning the race by a single vote (proving that every vote counts indeed!), Fetterman was elected. In his thirteen years serving, among other projects, he worked to reduce gun violence (“One of my proudest achievements as Mayor was when Braddock went five and a half years without a gun death,” he states on his website), expand housing, improve education (e.g. by starting a GED program), and implement new businesses. He advocated for LGBTQ+ rights, criminal justice reform, immigrant-friendly approaches, and other left-leaning policies.
Photo courtesy of the Internet
Mehmet Oz was born in Cleveland and raised in Wilmington, Delaware. He grew up in a Turkish household, later serving in the Turkish military. After attending Harvard and then the University of Pennsylvania, his main career centered around surgery. The Philadelphia Inquirer summed up his career as a practicing surgeon in this paragraph:
“Most of his professional career was spent in New York — he has practiced at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and was director of the Integrative Medicine Center at Columbia University’s Irving Medical Center. He’s now a professor of surgery emeritus at Columbia, according to his campaign.”
Oz’s name became well known as he appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show for multiple seasons in the early 2000s. He then founded his own show, The Dr. Oz Show (still with Oprah’s support), which aired from 2009 until he decided to focus on the election in 2022. Dr. Oz, nicknamed “America’s Doctor,” has been criticized for his medical advice built on unscientific claims.
In terms of politics, Oz’s policies hope to: “have a secure border with a barrier [either physical or not]”; initiate early financial literacy; lowering drug costs; tighten abortion laws; and protect the Second Amendment along with the right to free speech.
The election was a tense one. This was because of the large ideological divide between the candidates, but more specifically, because it could determine which party would control the Senate. Republicans were leading in the polls to gain the majority, but this prediction was not certain: in the first minutes of November 8, FiveThirtyEight favored Republicans at 59%, while Politico deemed the race a tossup with a slight conservative advantage. Prior to the election, the Senate was split evenly between Dems and the GOP, with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris serving as the tiebreaker; thus, Democrats held control. In a time where parties disagree increasingly with stronger opinions, both sides wanted to secure the Senate for themselves. And just like in 2020, one of the closest races was in Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania has been considered a swing state for years, but its spotlight intensified when Fetterman had a stroke in May 2022. Voters, besides ranking abortion and inflation as their top-of-mind issues, began debating whether Fetterman was fit to be a U.S. Senator as he continued his online campaign until August. Ads and social media became primary methods to criticize the other candidate, as this Washington Post article featured in September. And then Fetterman decided to debate.
The debate streamed on October 26, 2022, and the candidates went back and forth on issues such as abortion, inflation, crime, and fracking. They heavily criticized each other, Oz accusing Fetterman of misinformed ads, tax fraud, and being too far left (using the word “extreme” profusely), and Fetterman using the term the “Oz rule” to establish that Oz is a constant liar.
Democrats were concerned about Fetterman’s execution, as Fetterman, using a closed-captioning system to assist in language processing, faltered over words, appeared disoriented, and lost crucial time. On CNN, Charlie Dent commented, “He was flustered, he was confused, he should not have been out there…[people are] going to question his capacity to serve.” Reporter Olivia Nuzzi tweeted with “There is no amount of empathy for and understanding about Fetterman’s health and recovery that changes the fact that this is absolutely painful to watch;” furthermore, many journalists discussed a question on fracking to which Fetterman struggled to explain a change in his opinion on the topic. (You can read The Philadelphia Inquirer’s opinions on the debate—which slightly favor Fetterman—here.)
As predictions and polls, such as this one, tracked the Pennsylvania Senate Election, the Pennsylvania Senate Election seemed like it could go to either candidate. Then election day rolled around.
The winner was announced in the early morning of November 9, 2022, paralleling the outcome of the Masterman election. Though at Masterman he garnered 58% of the vote the number dropped nearly 7% in the full Pennsylvania race, according to The Associated Press reported.
With a victory speech and Oz’s concession, Fetterman is now the Pennsylvania Senate-Elect, and Democrats have retained control of the chamber, while Republicans took the House.