PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate Mehmet Oz described himself for the first time Friday as the party’s ”presumptive nominee,” even though a recount in his razor-thin primary contest is only getting started.
Oz, the celebrity doctor, leads former hedge fund executive David McCormick by fewer than 1,000 votes — or one-tenth of one percentage point — well within the 0.5% margin that triggers an automatic recount. It’s the seventh such recount since a 2004 state law set that threshold.
And while each of those recounts ended with the candidate who initially led as the final victor, the margin in this race is the slimmest to ever head to a recount in Pennsylvania.
