For TV personalities-turned-politicians, Pennsylvania delivered a stinging rebuke in this election. Not only for Mehmet Oz, the celebrity doctor who came to fame on The Oprah Winfrey Show, but for Donald Trump too, the – well, you know the back story.
Mr Trump lent Dr Oz his endorsement in April, saying that his chosen candidate for the crucial Senate race would help “stop the Radical Left maniacs from destroying our country”.
Instead, he’s gone down to a convincing defeat at the hands of his Democratic opponent John Fetterman, who successfully courted blue-collar Pennsylvanians with a traditionally left-wing raft of policies, including a promise to tackle corporate greed.
And – in a further twist that could be right out of a Hollywood script – the slick TV physician came up short against a candidate who’s been struggling to overcome the debilitating effects of a stroke on the campaign trail.
Dr Oz’s political demise arguably leaves Mr Trump’s role as Republican kingmaker on life-support, and the ex-president’s chance of a third tilt at the White House in 2024 now the subject of serious probing.
Even his staunchest of allies are advising that he puts on pause a widely anticipated announcement, earlier teased to come next week.
It is the highlight of an election that looks to have been about rejecting the Trumpian alternative at least as much as any condemnation of President Joe Biden’s handling of the economy.
Livid Trump, triumphant Fetterman
And it is with no small degree of relish that insiders are sharing tweets – unconfirmed – suggesting that the former president is furious, with one claiming he has even begun blaming his wife Melania for the choice of Dr Oz.
Mr Biden took Pennsylvania in the 2020 presidential vote by a narrow margin after appealing to white working-class voters and winning them back from Mr Trump.
The hoodie-wearing, tattooed Mr Fetterman – once mayor of the former steel-town Braddock, and director of its youth programme – has used those credentials to do the same.
But the health setback introduced a huge note of uncertainty on the campaign trail, particularly after he was seen to be struggling to articulate fluently in last month’s TV debate.
How much would his stroke weigh on the minds of voters and raise questions about his fitness to govern?
When we caught up with Mr Fetterman before polls opened, his minders were working hard to keep reporters at bay as he posed for photos outside a United Steelworkers Union chapter in Coatesville, a suburb of Philadelphia.
“Are you feeling confident?” I shouted out over their heads, but there was no reply.
However, as votes were counted into the early hours of the morning, it was clear he had overcome the doubters, and the personal and the political came together in an emotional victory speech.
“I’m proud of what we ran on,” he told supporters.
“Protecting a woman’s right to choose, raising our minimum wage, fighting for the union way of life, healthcare as a fundamental human right. It saved my life and it should be there for you if you all ever need it.”
Did abortion help win it for Fetterman?
Pennsylvania also brought another key election issue into sharp focus – the central role that abortion is playing across the US political landscape.
Mr Fetterman referenced it in his victory speech, and it was something female voters we spoke to outside the polling stations mentioned, too.
One young woman told us it was the only issue she was voting on – turning out for Mr Fetterman for his pro-choice stance.
Another woman – an anti-abortion Republican mother – said she could no longer speak about politics to her voting-age daughter because they were so firmly in opposite camps.
In his televised debate, Dr Oz’s weakest moment was seen by many to come when he said that abortion was an issue for “women, doctors [and] local political leaders” to decide.
His strong anti-abortion stance was already known, but that formulation – seeming to conjure the image of lawmakers in the room alongside women and doctors – was considered a major blunder.
Democrats may be buoyed by the midterm results, but they would be wrong to be complacent.
Mr Trump still holds significant sway with a large swathe of the Republican base and still has a major financial war-chest at his disposal.
And even if he is now politically weakened, he may have to face bigger threats out there.
The triumph of Ron DeSantis in Florida – re-elected governor with a massively increased majority – is a victory for a culture warrior promising to make Florida a place where “woke comes to die”.
The result is seen as raising his chances of winning the Republican 2024 nomination for the presidency.
Some argue he may be a far more formidable rival for Democrats than Mr Trump – but harbouring the same anti-democratic instincts.
The former president is certainly treating Mr DeSantis as a threat, warning this week that he would reveal things about the governor that “won’t be very flattering” if he does launch a presidential bid of his own.
For now, though, Republicans appear to have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory as their predicted “red wave” is turning into little more than a ripple.
And perhaps more than anywhere else, it is the victory in Pennsylvania of a man who – just a few months ago suffered a stroke that nearly killed him – that has kept Democrat hopes alive.
Source: BBC.com