Dr. Oz declares himself ‘presumptive’ GOP Senate nominee as Pennsylvania recount gets underway

Republican Senate candidate Mehmet Oz says he’s "blessed to have earned the presumptive Republican nomination for the United States Senate" in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania.

Oz, the cardiac surgeon, author and well-known celebrity physician who until the launch of his Senate campaign late last year was host of TV’s popular "Dr. Oz Show," urged Republicans that it's "time to unite" as he  made his announcement Friday in a video released on social media.

The announcement came on the same day that Pennsylvania counties could begin their recount in the race between Oz and Dave McCormick, the top two vote-getters among the seven candidates in last week’s Republican Senate primary in Pennsylvania.

According to unofficial returns from the Pennsylvania Department of State, Oz leads McCormick by 902 votes, which is well within the .5% threshold for an automatic recount of the results. Acting Pennsylvania Secretary of State Leigh Chapman announced on Wednesday that the election was headed to a recount. Counties could begin recounting the vote as early as Friday but must start no later than June 1. And counties must conclude their tabulations by noon on June 7 and submit their recount results by noon the next day.

Even as the recount was announced, counting of the vote from the May 17 primary continues.

Deputy secretary of elections and commissions Jonathan Marks said on Thursday that an estimated 10,000 ballots have yet to be counted – including roughly 6,000 mail-in and absentee ballots (including as many as 3,000 overseas or military ballots) and 4,000 provisional ballots. No breakdown on how many of the remaining ballots to be tabulated were cast in the Republican or Democratic primaries was given... (Read more)

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