Black voters in Pennsylvania are at the center of an increasingly competitive battle for the U.S. Senate. Republican Mehmet Oz is aiming to capture support in one of the Democratic Party’s most loyal voting blocs from Democrat John Fetterman.
There’s no evidence of a looming mass defection to Republicans like Oz. But if he can peel off even a small share — or a critical mass of Black voters choose not to vote — it might prove consequential in a race that polls show as close.
“There’s just not this realization that’s occurring that Pennsylvania is a national battleground and Philadelphia is the cornerstone in that,” Ellison said. “And the only way you’re going to get Philadelphia and the only way you’re going to get Pennsylvania is through maximum Black voter turnout.
Republicans frequently point to gun violence in Philadelphia and have sought to undercut one of Fetterman’s avenues of appeal to Black voters: his efforts as lieutenant governor to free the over-incarcerated, rehabilitated or innocent. Republicans cast it as freeing dangerous criminals to roam the streets.
“He did it as a mayor in Braddock and understands what it is to have to sit and stand with grieving Black families after such a tragic incident,” Tyler said. Oz-allied groups have also aired TV ads reviving a 2013 incident in which Fetterman — as Braddock’s mayor — grabbed his shotgun and pursued a jogging Black man whom he suspected had been involved in gunfire nearby. No one was charged in the incident and Fetterman has said he didn’t know the man’s race before he confronted him.
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