If you haven’t heard already, after winning the GOP primary last June, Dr. Mehmet Oz is one of the candidates for Senate in Pennsylvania. Yes, that Dr. Oz. From actor-turned-president Ronald Reagan, to Kanye West’s ill-fated presidential campaign, to former President Donald Trump, the United States is no stranger to celebrity candidates. While his candidacy may seem like a joke at first, Dr. Oz is running on a platform of dangerous ideology, spreading misinformation about COVID-19 and taking harsh conservative stances on issues like abortion access and Second Amendment rights. Politics may be complicated, but one thing’s for sure: Dr. Oz has no place in the Pennsylvania State Senate.
Dr. Oz seems an easy candidate to discount. He’s a TV celebrity, having made his name with a program showcasing everything from recipes to psychic mediums. Yet it is exactly because of that show that he is a dangerous candidate, as the Dr. Oz show is notorious for spreading medical misinformation. Throughout the show’s run Dr. Oz’s claim to fame has been so-called “miracle cures,” having advocated for all sorts of supplements for everything from weight loss to teeth whitening. While on the surface it all looks like a bunch of baloney, the show’s audience is very real and very much buys into these falsehoods. In 2020, Oz advocated for hydroxychloroquine, a COVID drug with then-unproven effects, turning his medical misinformation from odd to dangerous considering the pandemic at hand. If Oz wins a Senate seat, he will only be given a larger platform to spread this sort of misinformation, creating an even more dangerous environment as the pandemic still rages.
The most dangerous parts of Dr. Oz’s candidacy are his right-wing stances on issues. Dr. Oz is running on a pro-life stance, and while he doesn’t outright support an abortion ban, he notoriously said that he wants “Women, doctors, [and] local political leaders,” to make decisions concerning abortion in the October 25th PA Senate debate. Furthermore, Oz has stated that he will block any attempts to strengthen gun control laws, and has put on his website a photo of what looks to be a border wall beside the issue of immigration. In terms of education, the language on Oz’s website about protecting against indoctrination of children with anti-American ideology screams of censorship and book-banning, both of which are issues that have plagued the education systems in many other US states. Oz is also directly endorsed by former President Donald Trump, who Oz has previously had on his show and served under on the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition. As the icing on the cake, Dr. Oz isn’t even from Pennsylvania. A longtime resident of New Jersey, Oz still owns a mansion there and voted in the state as recently as 2020.
While a harmless celebrity candidate on the surface, Dr. Oz’s Senate candidacy is no joke. If Oz wins, the repercussions will be far and wide, from right-wing overhauls of Pennsylvania schools to draconian immigration laws. On the national level, the PA senate seat poses the best opportunity for Democrats to pick up a Republican seat, therefore gaining a 50-50 power balance between the parties even without Vice-President Harris’s tie-breaking vote. The national repercussions make it more important than ever in Pennsylvania to get out the vote for the opposing Democratic candidate John Fetterman. While Fetterman isn’t perfect, it’s plain to see that Dr. Oz spells disaster for Pennsylvania if he is elected to the Senate.
Right on Maddie Raymond, right on! Keep up the great work. We (the nation) needs your voice!