Midterm elections: Takeaways from top debates in Pennsylvania, New York

Yahoo Finance’s Rick Newman breaks down highlights from the Pennsylvania Senate debate between John Fetterman and Mehmet Oz as well as the New York gubernatorial debate between Kathy Hochul and Lee Zeldin.

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– The midterm election is only weeks away, and last night included some heated debates in both Pennsylvania and New York. Democrat, John Fetterman and Republican, Mehmet Oz clashed during a testy Pennsylvania Senate debate last night. The two disagreed over many issues, including the economy and abortion. Yahoo Finance’s Rick Newman joins us now with some of the takeaways.

This is one of the– I think one of the most watched races, right? Around the country. What was your impression of the debate last night?

RICK NEWMAN: One of the most watched races for two reasons. Number one, it could determine who controls the Senate, Republicans or Democrats? And also, because of John Fetterman’s health. He had a stroke earlier this year, and I think a lot of people who watched last night just wanted to know how was he going to do. So mixed reviews on that.

I watched it, I thought he held up pretty well. And I know how draining an experience like that can be for somebody recovering from a stroke. But the reviews were pretty weak. He did stumble over words. He got some things wrong. Some of his responses just were not very well developed. But on the other hand, he was somewhat coherent. So the real question is, could this guy do the job if he gets elected to the Senate?

And one of the most interesting things about this race, Julia, is going to be how much does his health actually factor in? Will voters in Pennsylvania, will they be inclined to vote against him because of health concerns or will they say, no, they don’t really worry about that? So quite interesting. And as you mentioned, they did clash on the issues over abortion and fracking and some things like that. So very interesting race in Pennsylvania.

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– Yeah only one of them actually lives in Pennsylvania as well. So that perhaps worth noting. Rick, additionally here, we know you’re following the races in New York. What was taking place there on the debates?

RICK NEWMAN: Well that was the governor’s race between Kathy Hochul, the incumbent and Lee Zeldin, the Republican Congressman who’s challenging her. You would think Hochul is a lock in this race, but this has also been tightening. Again, abortion was one of the big topics last night. So if Zeldin is able to win and become the Republican governor New York, that would be an upset for sure. And if we were to see that, I mean, that would be indicative of a complete wipeout for Democrats.

There are some new forecasts suggesting that the Democrats are going to do better in the house than expected. The Cook Political Report, which is one of the top forecasters, now saying they could pick up something like 25 seats or more in the house that’s up from their forecast, their prior forecast. So at the last minute here, things seem to be breaking in favor of Republicans.

– Yahoo Finance’s own, Rick Newman. Rick, thanks so much for breaking this all down and keeping an eye on the political spectrum.