Trump-backed TV doctor in cliffhanger vote count

A Trump-backed celebrity doctor's campaign to run as the next Republican senator for Pennsylvania has come down to a nail-biting vote count.

Mehmet Oz, a surgeon best known for his appearances on the Oprah Winfrey Show, is facing a cliffhanger vote count after the party primary.

He was neck and neck with former hedge fund executive David McCormick.

The winner of the Republican primary will face the Democratic nominee, John Fetterman, this autumn.

Tuesday's race in a key presidential swing state is being closely watched as a litmus test of former President Donald Trump's sway over the Republican party.

Earlier this month, Mr Trump's pick for the Ohio Senate primary cruised to victory against his opponents.

But Pennsylvania's primary has gone down to the wire.

The BBC's Nomia Iqbal, who attended Mr Oz's primary-night event on Tuesday, said the mood was quiet and lacking in optimism.

Despite Mr Trump's endorsement for the TV doctor, the race stayed in a three-way dead heat until polls closed.

The Republican contest was shaken up by a late surge from right-wing commentator Kathy Barnette.

But Mr McCormick came from behind to snatch a wafer-thin lead in Tuesday night's vote count. All three candidates sought to convince voters they were loyal to Mr Trump's "America First" ideology.

Mr McCormick won support from Mr Trump's former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and Republican Texas Senator Ted Cruz.

The eventual Republican winner will take on Lt Gov John Fetterman, who easily won the Democratic Senate nomination on Tuesday night - two days after announcing he had suffered a stroke.

On Monday, the left-wing Democrat's team said he had undergone surgery to implant a pacemaker with a defibrillator.

Mr Fetterman, a Harvard-educated former mayor who sported hoodie sweatshirts instead of suits on the campaign trail, remained in hospital on the night of his election victory, with his wife speaking at a campaign event in his place.

He defeated Democratic rival Conor Lamb, a moderate congressman.

This is the first open Senate seat in Pennsylvania in 12 years, with Republican Pat Toomey resigning at the end of his term.

With the Senate split 50-50, Democrats hope to shift the balance by picking up a second Pennsylvania Senate seat in November's mid-term elections.

In a White House statement on Tuesday night, Mr Biden congratulated Mr Fetterman and argued that the Republican candidates were "too extreme".

But a racially tinged controversy that dogged Mr Fetterman in his primary campaign is certain to be raised by Republicans during the general election.

In 2013, during Mr Fetterman's second term as mayor of Braddock, a town of around 2,000 outside Pittsburgh, he pursued an innocent black jogger who he wrongly thought had been firing a gun near his home.

Mr Fetterman, who is a hulking 6ft 8in and was armed with a shotgun during the confrontation, has refused to apologise for the incident.

Elsewhere in the state on Tuesday night, Republican state legislator Doug Mastriano won the party's nomination for the governor's race with the endorsement of Mr Trump.

Mr Mastriano has been a vocal backer of Mr Trump's baseless allegation that he was the real winner of the 2020 presidential election.

In November, Mr Mastriano will go up against state attorney general Josh Shapiro, who was unchallenged for the Democratic nomination.