Is Kathy Barnette’s momentum in Pennsylvania real? A new poll of the state’s GOP Senate primary suggests it is.

Barnette, who is essentially in a three-person race with Dr. Mehmet Oz and David McCormick, gained notoriety recently after she turned in a viral debate performance. Some of her noteworthy moments included calling both Oz and McCormick out for being associated with the World Economic Forum, perhaps the most disturbing globalist organization on the planet. She also hit Oz on his long history of holding pro-abortion views.

At the time of the debate, Barnette was within striking distance, but still in a solid third place. Now, she’s rocketed into second and is in a statistical tie with Oz.

Donald Trump’s endorsement of Oz doesn’t seem to be having the same effect his endorsement of J.D. Vance had. That’s because of the difference in quality between the candidates. Vance served in the Iraq War as a Marine, came from nothing, and built himself into a populist leader. One can quibble about some of his positions, but there’s no denying he’s a good candidate, especially in a state like Ohio.

The same can’t be said for Oz, who has a long history of being a man of the left, to the point where there’s almost no position he holds today that isn’t a contradiction. Every now and then, that works out, but I think a lot of Pennsylvanians aren’t wanting to take the chance.

Back to Barnette, I want to point out a smear that’s going around and debunk it. It involves the following tweet.

Was Barnette supporting Black Lives Matter and calling to defund the police back in 2020? The simple answer: No.

Rather, she used the hashtags, which were top trends at the time, to call attention to a video (which is what is linked in the post she’s retweeted) in which she criticizes BLM and the movement to defund the police. In short, don’t be fooled by anyone pushing the idea she was a “liberal” back in 2020. She wasn’t, and Oz is going to have to try a lot harder than that to get her out of the way.

Could we be looking at a major upset? I’m not going to make any grand predictions, but there’s certainly a real race going on in Pennsylvania now. If there has ever been a time that Trump’s endorsement should be eschewed, this is it.