John Fetterman holds a 13-point lead over Dr. Oz in the Pennsylvania Senate race: poll

John Fetterman
Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman.AP Photo/Keith Srakocic
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  • Lt. Gov. John Fetterman held a 13% lead over Dr. Oz in the latest Franklin & Marshall College poll.

  • In the survey, Fetterman earned the support of 76% of Democrats, while Oz's GOP support sat at 62%.

  • As a result of Sen. Pat Toomey's decision to retire, the Pennsylvania race is an open-seat contest.

Pennsylvania Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman has a 13-point lead over Republican Mehmet Oz in the state's open-seat Senate race, according to a recently-released Franklin & Marshall College poll.

The survey showed Fetterman with 43% support among registered voters in the Keystone State, while Oz earned 30%; twenty percent of respondents were undecided.

In the poll, Fetterman performed well with Democratic voters, earning 76% of their support, while Oz's support among Republicans (at 62%) lagged far behind what is required for a GOP candidate to win a swing state like Pennsylvania.

However, when respondents were asked which candidate they would likely end up supporting, the race became closer, with Fetterman leading Oz by 9 points (45%-36%).

Independents in the poll backed Fetterman by a 34% to 17% margin.

In terms of popularity, Fetterman remained on positive ground, with 43% holding a positive view of the Democrat, while 36% held an unfavorable view.

Oz received a negative rating among the survey's respondents; 57% viewed the former television personality unfavorably, while only 27% gave him positive marks.

Respondents by a 52%-28% margin felt that Fetterman best understood the concerns of the state's voters.

Oz — a cardiothoracic surgeon who received the endorsement of former President Donald Trump — narrowly won a May GOP primary over longtime hedge fund chief executive David McCormick. And Fetterman easily won the Democratic primary over Rep. Conor Lamb and state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta.

But in May, Fetterman suffered a stroke, and after spending weeks recuperating, returned to the campaign trail earlier this month.

During that time, Fetterman's campaign launched a social media strategy that poked at Oz moving from New Jersey to Pennsylvania to run for the Senate seat, in an effort to tag him as an outsider. (Fetterman even brought on "Jersey Shore" alum Nicole LaValle, better known as Snooki, to appear in a campaign message intended to troll Oz over the move.)

Trump has reportedly been less than thrilled at Oz's poll numbers and has privately called for major changes in the Republican candidate's campaign, per Rolling Stone. The former president even asked if the public polling was "phony," but several individuals informed him that the numbers were accurate, according to a source who spoke with Rolling Stone.

An Emerson College poll released earlier this week showed Fetterman leading Oz 48%-44%. (Emerson surveyed 1,034 likely votes, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.)

The Franklin & Marshall College poll also showed Pennsylvania Democratic state Attorney General Josh Shapiro ahead of state Sen. Doug Mastriano 44%-33%, or by 11-percentage points.

In that survey, Shapiro earned the support of 76% of Democrats, while Mastriano held 66% of Republicans; the state attorney general had a 40%-24% percent lead among independent voters.

The Emerson College poll had Shapiro ahead of Mastriano by three points (47%-44%).

Franklin & Marshall College polled 522 registered voters from August 15 through August 21; the survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 5.3 percentage points.

Read the original article on Business Insider