Dr. Oz is Having the Best Week of His Campaign

Dr. Mehmet Oz finally seems to be catching a break.

Once a double-digit underdog to Democrat John Fetterman in his bid for U.S. Senate, Oz now trails by a single point in aggregated polling despite a months-long barrage of unflattering memes on social media, revived memories of questionable medical advice he made during his years as a daytime television personality, and accusations of animal abuse by staff under his purview dating to his days at Columbia Medical School.

And as questions have mounted around Fetterman's health as he recovers from a recent stroke, Oz—who has faced questions about his residency in the state—has begun to see the first signs he might actually win the race to represent Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate.

Following Fetterman's performance in Tuesday night's debate, three polls showed Oz with a narrow lead, his first in any polling since an outlier in early October estimated that he was ahead by five points.

National Republicans, meanwhile, are putting their foot on the gas.

Former U.N. Ambassador and potential presidential candidate Nikki Haley campaigned for Oz in Pennsylvania this week along with members of law enforcement. And on Tuesday, a pair of political action committees aligned with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's Senate Leadership Fund—American Crossroads and the Faith and Power PAC—announced they were sending a combined $6 million plus to back Oz in the closing days of the race, according to CNBC.

Whether the marginal advantage Oz has in recent polls can sustain itself in the campaign's final days is an open question. A Franklin & Marshall College poll on Friday showed Fetterman with a five-point lead, albeit within its five-point margin of error.

However, one of the three polls showing Oz leading Fetterman this week by Insider Advantage was marked by criticism among some politicos online who said the sample of the electorate the pollster took substantially undercounted the number of young voters that the Fetterman campaign has targeted throughout the campaign, and where he has his strongest levels of support.

"This is the first poll of the cycle that actually made me laugh out loud," Tom Bonier, CEO of the political consulting firm TargetSmart and an adjunct lecturer at Howard University, tweeted in response to the poll. "The likely voter sample has voters under the age of 40 at 14%. They were 25% of the electorate in '18 and 28% in '20. This poll should be entirely ignored."

Meanwhile, Fetterman's campaign said it raised more than $1 million in just three hours following the debate despite what he admitted was a "rocky" performance.

Newsweek reached out to the Oz campaign for comment.