more than 250 soldiers, some severely wounded, have been evacuated to russian-held territory. ukraine hopes to get them back in a prisoner exchange. all right, turning now to politics. it s primary day in five states today. voters headed to the polls in pennsylvania, north carolina, kentucky, idaho, and oregon. robert costa looks at the key races and whether former president trump s endorsement will help a celebrity doctor turn political candidate. reporter: voters headed to the polls early here in pennsylvania, a key battleground state. the main event is the republican senate primary election where, in the final days, the three top contenders have been locked in a tight race. celebrity doctor mehmet oz won trump s backing but faces competition from businessman and former george w. bush administration official david mccormick. and from conservative
but where does this race stand? reporter: it is a wide open contest as you note. a fox news poll put out this week showed the top three candidates, david mccormick, dr. oz, the celebrity doctor and kathy barnette, the conservative candidate all within one another within the margins of each other. a three-person race with a whole lot of undecided voters which makes this wide open and really puts a lot of pressure on the last final days of campaigning here in the commonwealth. it is unexpected that kathy barnette jumped like this. i caught up with dave mccormick said he didn t see this coming and the reason is because of the way that mccormick and oz have run their campaigns. they have spent millions of dollars and a long with super pacs and making this a two person race and allowing someone like barnette who is focused more on the gop grassroots going
live here. reporter: celebrity doctor mimic oz. . it is ultra maga or reasonable political believes where you can have some mild disd disagr disagreements. we believe we ll come down on the right side of history of policy and that s the kind of campaign we are running. reporter: it is going to depend who he s running against on the republican side. it depends on how excited democrats going to be to get out and vote for him. fetterman may have some work to do. he confronted an unarmed black jogger with a shotgun. anderson.
i have discussed with president trump that we cannot move on. we have to be serious about what happened in 2020. we won t be able to address that until we can look under the hood. we are monitoring pennsylvania as part of our 2022 project. she also watched the debate with some undecided voters there. so tell us about it. reporter: chuck, three weeks from today voters will be casting their ballots in this high-stakes primary. and you know this race has it all. it has big money, big celebrity. there s been wear warfare on the airways. all of that spilled over on to the debate stage last night. the front runners facing off in person for first time. most of the debate consisted of fierce fight between those two. oz. the celebrity doctor, touting his trump endorsement that he received that over his
the other day. talk to us about this divide in the maga world that seems to be deepening. reporter: well, look, the two front-runners on the gop side, mehmet oz, a celebrity doctor, and dave mccormick, former hedge fund manager, they have both been pushing really hard for that coveted trump endorsement. that endorsement went to dr. oz. but last night at the mccormick rally we very much saw a candidate who was shaping himself in the mold of the america first candidate, the trumpian candidate. and the headliner for that event, you mentioned it, trump s former secretary of state mike pompeo. and we got a moment to ask secretary pompeo about his support and about trump s support for oz. take a listen to what he told us. president trump did not endorse mr. mccormick. do you think that was a mistake? dave mccormick s the right person to be the next senator for pennsylvania. he s a good friend and a great patriot and a hardcore conservative who will put the american agenda first.