On November 8, Democratic candidate John Fetterman and Republican candidate Doctor Mehmet Oz will face one another for retiring Senator Pat Toomey’s seat in Pennsylvania’s midterm elections. A month before voters cast their ballots, polls show Oz trailing only a few points behind Fetterman. Oz, a Columbia University professor and TV show host, has been remarkably successful in his first attempt to run for office, winning Pennsylvania’s Republican primary over hedge fund executive David McCormick.
So far, Pennsylvania’s Senate race has consisted more of Twitter-based lampooning than policy-focused debate. Although the line between celebrity and politician is always blurry, Oz has approached his campaign almost entirely as a celebrity.
Oz has reaped the benefits from his TV doctor persona in an intentionally theatrical campaign but consequently distanced himself from Pennsylvania residents. In the end, Oz’s political beliefs and party affiliation may outweigh his background and character for Pennsylvania’s voters.
His campaign assumes that the Pennsylvania voter base will scrutinize his presentation over his politics. A Republican correspondent from suburban Philadelphia, who prefers to remain anonymous, described Oz at a recent Blue Bell, PA, rally. “You could tell he had rehearsed every gesture, every syllable in the mirror,” he said. However, “there was no citing of the Constitution, no discussion of philosophy or bodily autonomy. He just threw a big piece of culture war red meat to the hungry wolves.” The Pennsylvania voter base reacts to Oz as a celebrity, intensifying the stage-likeness of his campaign.
Philadelphia resident Michael Willen ‘26 reflected that Oz tries to portray himself as the “helpful doctor, the huge humanitarian.” Oz broadcasts his medical education to garner approval in a state where voters prioritize healthcare. While this brings in supporters, for many voters, Oz’s TV doctor persona makes him less appealing. The advertisements he launched on media platforms throughout his career for phony medicines and miracle cure pills like “Raspberry Ketone,” and “sea buckthorn” undermine his credentials.
Additionally, Oz’s condescending attitude toward healthcare and disease call into question Oz’s humanitarian persona. In May, Fetterman had a stroke that hospitalized him and temporarily halted his campaign. The Oz campaign’s notorious comment, “if [Fetterman] had ever eaten a vegetable in his life, he wouldn’t have had a stroke,” painted Oz in a negative light. “As a medical professional, undoubtedly you agree to certain morals and sort certain ethics,” said Philadelphia resident Viktor Kagan ‘24, “Oz still claims the title ‘doctor,’ but has completely circumvented these moral and ethical codes.” While a candidate with a medical education should with greater reason advocate for a healthier Pennsylvania, “Oz has done the exact opposite,” Kagan said.
Though Oz’s background has fueled fraught discourse in the run-up to the election, it may be eclipsed by his political affiliation as the deciding factor for many voters, whose primary goal is to win a Senate majority. A Republican correspondent from suburban Philadelphia said in an email to The Politic, “Ultimately, Oz is not an admirable man.” He stated, however, that Oz’s character flaws will not sway his vote. “Oz is a political neophyte, so he’ll vote how Minority Leader Mitch McConnell tells him to. I will vote for Doctor Oz not so that he can actually do something of his own, but simply so that he can contribute to the Congressional majority which will stop Biden from doing what Biden wants to do.”
Though Oz has been criticized for being a “RINO” — a Republican In Name Only — his position as a non-traditional Republican enables him to garner moderate votes yet maintain the support of hard-line Republicans who see Fetterman as a far-left ideologue. Accordingly, Oz made an effort to qualify his pro-life beliefs. He announced at a campaign event in September of 2022, “I’m pro-life, but I believe in three exceptions: life of the mother, rape, and incest.” Kagan explained how Oz has brought voters: “Suburban women, which used to be a strong Republican voter base, have now shifted completely to Democrats. The logic here was that Doctor Oz is one of the few people who can regain this constituency for Republicans.”
Trump’s endorsement in April also contributed significantly to Oz’s success. The Trump branding smoothed the concerns of many voters, particularly the die-hard Trump supporters who otherwise would not approve of a moderate outsider with Turkish citizenship. Oz beat McCormick by less than 1% in the Republican primaries. “It was so close,” Kagan said. He emphasized the weight of Trump’s endorsement, “without that endorsement, I’m pretty sure McCormick would have won.” Ironically, according to Kagan, Oz has been “hiding Trump’s endorsement” to appeal to moderates.
Eliot Smith, a student at Brown University from the Philadelphia suburbs, explained that Trump endorsed Oz as a fellow “media star.” Oz’s career, even more so than Trump’s, shows how effortlessly a celebrity can march into the political realm in America. However, there is an incorrigible gap between a celebrity and a politician. Celebrities like Oz struggle to prove that they are grounded in local experience. When both sides of the political spectrum are fighting for personal freedoms, “having a politician that really represents you that way is so important,” Willen remarked.
Oz is widely perceived as “out of touch” and has so far failed to convince either side of his relatability. Despite attending the University of Pennsylvania and living less than ten miles from Philly’s suburbs, Oz is still perceived as an outsider. He was widely ridiculed for telling Fox News he grew up “just south of Philadelphia”—the area south of the city is in New Jersey. “He is the definition of a carpetbagger,” both Smith and Kagan reflected, verbatim.
“Regional identity is crucial,” explained Kagan. “It means you support one of the two Pennsylvania football teams, it means you have a regional dialect. Historically, you’d have to have a cultural identity to at least one large group in Pennsylvania. And Doctor Oz does not have any of that.”
The double-edged sword of Oz’s wealth and fame enabled his entry to the political arena; now, it bars him from securing the final votes needed to defeat Fetterman. A simple mistake like confusing the name of regional grocery store Redners with Wegmans was able to damage Oz’s credibility because it drove home the point: He’s not from here. Oz is the opposite of the “everyman” image that Fetterman constructs for himself. Despite his effort to relate to local populations, the complaints of inflation and expensive root vegetables can’t help seeming disingenuous from a Mr. Moneybags who eats crudités with dinner.