PHILADELPHIA (TNS) — Four leading Pennsylvania Republican candidates for Senate clashed over who has true conservative credentials and ties to the commonwealth in a forum Wednesday morning, as the two front-runners appeared together on a public stage for the first time.

The event in Erie brought together Dave McCormick and Mehmet Oz at the same public event after months of hammering each other with millions of dollars of television ads. They were joined by rivals Kathy Barnette and Jeff Bartos. And while they mostly stuck the rules against personal attacks, several took opportunities to dig at Oz, the celebrity surgeon better known as “ Dr. Oz.”

”You should all ask yourselves: Why is everyone attacking me?” Oz, said at one point.

”Because he’s a liberal,” interjected Barnette, sitting directly to his right.

When the moderator from The Manufacturer & Business Association tried to stop the attack, Barnette, a conservative commentator who has run a grassroots campaign, said she had no choice but to hit out at the candidates Wednesday, since the ultra-wealthy Oz and McCormick have largely waged their campaigns on television and infrequently appear with other rivals during an already brutal primary.

”This is not a talk show. This is reality,” Barnette said. “And we need people who understand what the issues are, that don’t don’t simply sit in a room, learn our talking points, and then come back and parrot them to us.”

}The stakes for both parties’ primaries are huge: Pennsylvania’s Senate race is one of the most crucial in the country, with the outcome likely to help decide control of the chamber and President Joe Biden’s ability to shape policy in the final two years of his term.

Despite polls showing McCormick now leading the race, Oz absorbed the most fire, directly and indirectly.

David McCormick surges past Mehmet Oz and other takeaways from a new Pennsylvania Senate race poll

When all of the candidates talked up Pennsylvania’s energy industry and argued for unleashing it with fewer environmental regulations, McCormick pointed to Oz’s past comments raising concerns about health risks around fracking sites, including air and water contamination, breathing problems for people who live nearby, and other problems.

”That is a lie, and you know it’s a lie,” Oz shot back, though McCormick’s campaign pointed to news reports detailing Oz’s past statements. Oz also pointed to his recent endorsement from Rick Perry, the former Texas governor and energy secretary under former President Donald Trump.

McCormick, a former hedge fund CEO and Army veteran, largely escaped direct attacks, and worked to promote his Pennsylvania roots, having grown up in the state, despite most recently living in Connecticut and only moving back in recent months as he launched his Senate campaign.

”I have a deep commitment to what I see happening in our state,” he said.

But Bartos, a real estate developer from Montgomery County who ran for lieutenant governor in 2018, made subtle digs at both Oz and McCormick while repeatedly promoting his own work supporting conservative causes over the last five years.

”When we look to our televisions and see people, as I’ve been calling them, ‘political tourists’ … they’ve come in and they’re spending tens of millions of dollars,” Bartos said, while arguing that he and Barnette have been travelling the state listening to voters. “For me, this campaign has always been, from day one and always will be, about a deep love and a commitment to our commonwealth.”

Oz, who has lived in New Jersey for decades, moved to his in-laws’ home in Montgomery County in late 2020, after it became clear the Senate seat would be open.

Speaking to a largely business-oriented audience, the candidates largely agreed on policy: They urged more natural gas extraction in Pennsylvania, pointing to Russia’sactions in Ukraine as evidence of the risks of relying on on foreign oil. They called for making the Trump tax cuts permanent.

Bartos even offered a rare moment of public praise for the incumbent Republican senator, Pat Toomey, who wrote much of that law and is not seeking reelection. He has not played an active role in the primary, after absorbing GOP criticism for voting to convict Trump in the former president’s second impeachment trial.

The candidates argued against government spending and the $1,400 relief checks President Joe Biden sent last year, blaming both for inflation.

McCormick, in a move unusual for a Republican, also called for better focusing current defense spending, instead of increasing it, and said both parties bear some blame for the national deficit.

To varying degrees they all criticized what they called “woke” culture on the left.