Dr. Oz Announces PA U.S. Senate Bid

PENNSYLVANIA — Celebrity physician Dr. Mehmet Oz announced Tuesday he will run for a Pennsylvania U.S. Senate seat, instantly becoming the most well-known candidate in the race.

"We are angry at our government and at each other," Oz stated in a message on the Washington Examiner website early Tuesday afternoon.

"We have not managed our crises as effectively as past generations. During the pandemic, I learned that when you mix politics and medicine, you get politics instead of solutions. That’s why I am running for the U.S. Senate: to help fix the problems and to help us heal."

Oz, 61, was scheduled to deliver his first interview as a political candidate on Tuesday night on Fox News' Sean Hannity talk show, Fox News reported. Hannity told viewers Monday night that Oz would be making a "huge announcement" related to next year's mid-term elections

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on Monday that the cardiac surgeon, author and host of TV’s “Dr. Oz Show” has already hired campaign staffers and reached out to Pennsylvania GOP leaders.

He will be running to replace Republican incumbent Pat Toomey, who is not seeking re-election and will leave office at the end of 2022.

Oz has been a New Jersey resident for decades but switched his voter registration in 2020 to Montgomery County in Pennsylvania, where his wife's family lives.

Oz instantly is the most widely-known Republican candidate in the race, which also includes real estate developer Jeff Bartos and Carla Sands, former ambassador to Denmark.

Sean Parnell, a GOP candidate endorsed by former President Donald Trump in September, suspended his campaign last week after losing a contentious child custody case to his estranged wife in which physical abuse allegations against him surfaced. Parnell denied any wrongdoing.

Oz has won nine Daytime Emmy Awards for "The Dr. Oz Show" and is an attending physician at New York Presbyterian-Columbia Medical Center, according to his President's Council on Physical Fitness biography.

Previously a featured health expert on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," Oz makes regular appearances on NBC's "Today," and also appears on network newscasts and late-night comedy shows.

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