Fetterman Defends 'Winning' Campaign After Race With Dr. Oz Deemed Toss-Up

Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman defended his "winning" campaign to Newsweek after the Cook Political Report moved the race in Pennsylvania back to a "toss-up" with five weeks to Election Day.

"In the past month the GOP threw everything they had at John, they spent millions in negative ads against John, Fox News has attacked John almost every night, but here we are, not only still standing but still winning," Joe Calvello, the director of communications for Fetterman's campaign, told Newsweek.

On Tuesday, the nonpartisan election forecaster declared the Senate race was back in its "toss-up" category just two months after the contest was moved into the "lean Democratic" column. Citing recent polls that show "the margin clearly closing between the two," Cook's Jessica Taylor said that the race is once again "winnable" for Fetterman's opponent, Dr. Mehmet Oz.

"Republicans and Democrats alike admit the race has tightened and that Pennsylvania could be the tipping point for the Senate majority," Taylor wrote, adding that despite the move to a toss-up, "There are still plenty of red-blinking warning signs for Republicans."

Although Fetterman remains ahead of Oz in the polls, the Democrat is no longer commanding an advantage as large as he had in mid-September. As of Tuesday afternoon, FiveThirtyEight shows Fetterman with a 5.8-point lead over Oz, while RealClearPolitics has the Democrat with a 4.3-point lead over his Republican rival.

"Oz's own approvals may have gotten a tad better in some polls, but he's still underwater. And while Fetterman's positives have been driven down, he still has clung to a lead and is right-side up, albeit narrowly, in many surveys," Taylor wrote Tuesday.

Over the last month, Republicans have ramped up their efforts to give Oz a boost over Fetterman as the GOP's chances of taking control of the Senate have diminished. Top Republicans, like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, have cautioned that "candidate quality" could deter the GOP's ability to flip critical seats in battleground states like Pennsylvania.

A Media Matters review found that Fox News' prime-time shows mentioned Fetterman more frequently than the Democratic nominees in six other competitive Senate races combined, and that Oz was mentioned twice as many times as his fellow GOP candidates.

In a three-week period last month, Fetterman's name was mentioned at least 120 times on the shows of Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, compared to Oz's name at 48 times. The Democrat with the second-highest number of references was Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, with 34 mentions.

There are now four Senate races classified as a "toss-up"—Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia and Nevada. The latter two races feature incumbent Democratic senators, while the incumbent in Wisconsin's race is a Republican. Pennsylvania is an open seat.

Of the 35 seats up for grabs, the Cook Political Report predicts that 12 are currently leaning Democrat and 19 are leaning Republican, with the four toss-ups to be decided.

Newsweek reached out to Oz's campaign for comment.