MALVERN, Pa.—Republican Senate nominee Mehmet Oz, M.D., held a rally that attracted hundreds of supporters on Saturday morning, Oct. 15, in Malvern, Chester County, a suburb of the northwest of Philadelphia. He spoke out against the Democrat Party and the Democrat Senate nominee, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, on the issues of economy, crime, and fentanyl.
Joined by Republican National Committee Chairman Ronna McDaniel, Republican Party Chairman of Pennsylvania Lawrence Tabas, and Republican U.S. House candidate for Pennsylvania Guy Ciarrocchi, Oz encouraged his supporters to walk around, knock on doors, and ask people one question: “Are we headed in the right direction?”
“If you’re not talking about the economy, talking about crime, and talking about fentanyl on the border,” said Oz, “you’re losing opportunities, precious moments are wasted because there’s no way that a voter can look at those three options and think the Democratic Party has answers.”
Oz invited Leslie Holt, a resident of Malvern, to the stage to share her tragic story. Holt held a picture of her late daughter Lana as she walked the crowd to the stage.
Holt said that since her early teens, for half her life, Lana suffered greatly from Lyme disease. She turned to methadone to ease the pain. In November 2018, Lana opened her family’s mailbox expecting to retrieve a fresh supply. Instead, she picked up poison: 3-methyl fentanyl, an opioid analog exponentially more deadly than fentanyl.
“A criminal came in from Philadelphia [and] brought 3-methyl fentanyl,” Holt told the crowd, “This criminal drove into this beautiful neighborhood in his Jaguar and delivered this poison into our mailbox. Our daughter took it because she had physical pain from Lyme. My husband found her the next morning.”
Lana was 32 years old at the time of her death. She had worked at the Veterinary Hospital at the University of Pennsylvania, caring for animals.
“The criminal [who] purposely drove to our home is appealing his sentence. And John Fetterman will be the person who says okay, this is fine. Give him another chance,” said Holt.
“This is happening throughout Chester County, and no one is addressing it or talking about it. And it’s all coming from Mexico and China,” continued Holt.
Oz said to Holt, “I can promise you that we will close the border with smart policies allowing legal immigration, but we have to close the border because fentanyl is not going to kill our kids anymore.”
The race has dramatically narrowed, with some pollsters saying it is too close to call. Fetterman is currently recovering from a stroke.
Oz stressed his energy policy: “The smartest thing we can do to preserve Pennsylvania’s environment is to make sure natural gas is safely being pumped, cleanly being pumped and pipe where it needs to be.”
Voices of Support
Supporters gathered inside Desmond Hotel in Malvern to hear and support the Republican Senate nominee.“People are concerned about the economy, inflation, jobs, and certainly the crime issue right now is the front and center on people’s minds,” said Duane Milne, a former representative of the Pennsylvania House. “Even out here in the idyllic suburbs. I’m hearing more people are concerned about the crime issue, want to make sure that our neighborhoods stay safe, and our schools stay safe.”
He said that Oz’s message resonated with people more and more, particularly his promise to create a prosperous economic climate and to focus on crime, drugs, and keeping the borders under control.
Inflation and crime are the top two issues for Gail Newman, who is running for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in Chester County. “People are very concerned right now about the inflation,” said Newman, who accused Governor Tom Wolf of joining a greenhouse pact, “where the electric bills are going to be going up to 45 percent.” She said safe, clean, and affordable energy is what people need.
“In Pennsylvania, here we are, the Saudi Arabia of natural gas. We can do this much cleaner than buying dirty oil from our enemies like Venezuela and Russia. We can have so many jobs here in Pennsylvania,” Newman told The Epoch Times.
Newman also condemned the Democrat Party for being “very, very weak on crime, letting out violent criminals, doing nothing to help the people.”
She said: “I believe in criminal justice, but you cannot have justice for everybody without a civil society. It seems an intentional kind of thing that’s being done. Unfortunately, we have a more chaotic environment in Philadelphia, moving out to the suburbs.”
Some of the rally attendees wanted to know more about Oz.
“I know that there’s been some reluctancy, with people thinking that he was just all Hollywood, and I wanted to see for myself and get that vibe,” said Julie Brown, who works in the oil and gas industry.
After listening to Oz during the rally, she said Oz was “way more for the people, way more invested in our energy sector, which is close to my heart” because “Pennsylvania has a lot at stake with our energy. So that’s something that I want to stay in tune with.”
Brown said she felt much more energized from the rally and predicted a big red wave coming soon. Brown said, “There are a lot of people that aren’t comfortable with touting how much they’re a Republican and for freedoms and because of the thought of persecution from friends and family and whoever else.
“So, I think it’s going to be more of a tsunami,” said Brown.
