Celebrity surgeon Dr. Oz announces run for U.S. Senate
HARRISBURG — Dr. Mehmet Oz, the celebrity heart surgeon best known as the host of TV's Dr. Oz Show after rocketing to fame on Oprah Winfrey's show, announced Tuesday that he is running for Pennsylvania's open U.S. Senate seat as a Republican.
Oz, 61, will bring his unrivaled name recognition and wealth to a wide-open race that is expected to be among the nation's most competitive and could determine control of the Senate in next year's election.
Oz — a longtime New Jersey resident — enters a Republican field that is resetting with an influx of candidates and a new opportunity to appeal to voters loyal to former President Donald Trump, now that the candidate endorsed by Trump has just exited the race.
In a video message on social media, Oz casts himself as a sort of champion for people's health, who “took on the medical establishment to argue against costly drugs and skyrocketing medical bills” and is prepared to fight a government that he said has mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic.
Oz also makes a pitch to Trump loyalists — and possibly Trump, too — by invoking Trump's slogan for his governing philosophy, “America first.”
“As a heart surgeon, I know how precious life is,” Oz says. “Pennsylvania needs a conservative who will put America first, one who can reignite our divine spark, bravely fight for freedom and tell it like it is.”
According to a TV show spokesperson, Oz has lived and voted in Pennsylvania since last year.
As one of the nation's biggest presidential electoral prizes, Pennsylvania put Democrat Joe Biden over the top in last year's election. His 1 percentage point victory put the swing state back in Democratic hands after Trump won it even more narrowly in 2016.
Oz's resume includes heart surgeon, author of New York Times bestsellers, Emmy-winning TV show host, radio talk show host, presidential appointee, founder of a national non-profit to educate teens about healthy habits and self-styled ambassador for wellness.
He was appointed by Trump to the presidential Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, guest-hosted the “Jeopardy!” game show and helped save a dying man at Newark Liberty International Airport last winter.
If support from Trump is important in the Republican primary, then Oz may have a leg up. As Oz interviewed Trump on his show in 2016, Trump told him, “you know my wife's a big fan of your show.”
Oz may have to explain why he isn't running for office in New Jersey, where he has lived for the past two decades before he began voting in Pennsylvania's elections this year by absentee ballot, registered to his in-laws' address in suburban Philadelphia.
His longtime home is above the Hudson River in Cliffside Park, N.J., overlooking Manhattan, where he films his TV show and practices medicine. Oz became a household name after gaining fame as a guest on Oprah Winfrey's show before starting his own show in 2009.
He has been dogged by accusations that he is a charlatan selling “quack treatments and cures in the interest of personal financial gain,” a group of doctors wrote in 2015 in a letter calling for his firing from Columbia University. He wasn't fired.
Oz was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of a heart surgeon who emigrated from Turkey.
