BETHLEHEM TWP., Pa. — Republican Senate candidate Mehmet Oz stopped by a Bethlehem Township warehouse for a rally alongside state Republican House candidate Lisa Scheller and other GOP figures Sunday night.
With just over 48 hours until polls close Tuesday, Oz focused on persistent inflation, concerns over public safety, and immigration policy, laying out a three-point plan for audience members to convince their friends and families to vote for Republicans.
“Those are your three homework assignments to get through to your friends,” Oz said. “The economy, problems you’ve got with crime, and the concerns we have over the border.”
- Oz and Scheller held a rally at a Bethlehem Township warehouse, as the midterms enter their final days
- Speakers emphasized inflation, anxieties over public safety and concerns about border security
- The rally ended with just over 48 hours until polls close Tuesday
Sunday’s rally took place in the Bethlehem Township warehouse headquarters of Flexicon, a company that manufactures industrial machinery. The stage sat in the middle of a concrete floor, the crowd flanked by parts of the machines the company makes.
The event’s speakers spent most of the night aiming attacks at Democrats such as U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman, congressional candidate Susan Wild and national figures like Majority Leader of the Senate, Chuck Schumer and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.
First, Oz took aim at Democrats on inflation and rising prices for gas and food. He then brought up Fetterman’s support for releasing certain prisoners, arguing it shows he would make Pennsylvania less safe.
“[Fetterman] seems to care more about criminals than the people they’ve hurt,” Oz said.
Oz also linked overdose deaths from fentanyl to the Biden Administration’s border policies, arguing that stricter policies would make drugs less available.
“Now the border, as you know, because it’s open, fentanyl is pouring across it,” he said. “There are, in rural parts of the Commonwealth, families who are worried about the mailbox, because that’s how the fentanyl gets delivered to their unsuspecting children.”
Tight races
Lisa Scheller, who is running to unseat the Lehigh Valley’s PA-7 Congresswoman Susan Wild, offered a variation on the same themes: inflation, concerns about crime and criticism of the Biden Administration’s immigration policies.
“With your help and your support,” she said, “We will be handing Susan Wild her walking papers and I will be knocking the gavel out of Nancy Pelosi’s hand," Scheller said.
Sunday’s rally was one of several Oz has held in the region in recent days.
Oz and Scheller are both in very close races: Recent polling by Insider Advantage finds Oz slightly ahead, within its margin of error. The most recent polling of the PA-7 race, from Muhlenberg College, found Scheller one point behind the incumbent Wild, well within the poll's margin of error.
