Dr. Mehmet Oz may be best known for his syndicated “medical advice” morning show “The Dr. Oz Show” which has been on air since 2009. He is also well known for his New York Times Best Seller book “YOU: The Owner’s Manual” which chronicled how to live a healthier lifestyle. Oz and his celebrity persona have joined a crowded Republican primary field in a bid for the open Senate seat currently held by retiring Republican Senator Pat Toomey.
Oz has been under attack in recent weeks with ads run by fellow Republicans calling him a Republican in name only (RINO) and insisting that he is just another Hollywood elite looking to spread a leftist agenda in Washington. Oz is running as the quintessential outsider candidate; he has no prior political experience and he lives in New Jersey. So why do so many of his fellow Republican candidates seem to despise him and what role will he play in the 2022 midterm elections?
According to Britannica, Oz was born in 1960 in Cleveland, Ohio to a Turkish family and raised in northern Delaware near Wilmington. He attended prep school in Wilmington and achieved his undergraduate in Biology at Harvard in 1982. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine with a Doctorate in Medicine and he attended the Wharton School of Business with a Master’s in Business Administration. Oz served in the Turkish military to achieve dual citizenship before returning to the United States and completed his residency for heart surgery and regular surgery at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City.
Oz’s celebrity status began when his book “YOU: The Owner’s Manual” about how to improve your life in a few easy steps was featured on the Oprah Show in 2005. He would go on to make frequent appearances on Oprah as a “health consultant.” Oz became so popular that he produced his own show from 2009 until 2021 titled “The Doctor Oz Show,” where he would deliver medical advice that would at times border on quackery. Whether it was “magical” weight loss cures, strawberry and baking soda-based teeth whitening remedies or generic fad diets, Oz pushed it all. Under inquiry for his dubious medical advice, Oz was questioned by a Senate panel in 2014 for falsely promoting his cure-all products under the guise of medicine.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, Oz gained notoriety by promoting questionable COVID-19 treatments like the malaria prevention drug Hydroxychloroquine. His run for Senate in Pennsylvania was launched primarily in response to the government’s handling of the virus. Oz said in a statement released in November, “I am running to cure our country’s ills. We lost too many lives, too many jobs, and too many opportunities because Washington got it wrong. They took away our freedom without making us safer and tried to kill our spirit and our dignity.”
Oz has also been endorsed by Donald Trump. His campaign seemingly came out of nowhere and now he is running a close second to hedge fund CEO David McCormick in Republican polls. In addition, his fellow Republicans do not view him very favorably, dubbing him a Hollywood elite carpetbagger from New Jersey with anti-fracking and pro-Affordable Care Act views. Oz has lived most of his adult life in Northern New Jersey and only recently switched his address to his in-law’s house in Montgomery County to run for Senate.
The questions around Dr. Oz and his Senate candidacy continue to swirl in the upcoming Republican primaries. Only time will tell whether a celebrity political outsider from New Jersey will be elected and become Pennsylvania’s Republican standard bearer in the fall midterm elections. The fall midterms take on renewed importance for both parties as they will determine who takes control of the 50-50 Senate and Congress for the next two years.
