The Democratic field has been stable since August and features candidates with far more electoral experience - although far less personal wealth - than the Republican field. Of them, none has won elective office before, and only Bartos has run statewide in Pennsylvania, as lieutenant governor on the GOP’s losing gubernatorial ticket in 2018. The most prominent Republicans running are conservative commentator Kathy Barnette, real estate investor Jeff Bartos and Carla Sands, Trump’s wealthy ambassador to Denmark and fundraiser who has recently returned to her native Pennsylvania after spending most of the past four decades in California. In any case, Oz is part of an influx of Republican candidates who, until recently at least, did not live in Pennsylvania, but, perhaps more important, are rich.Īs Oz entered the race, a hedge fund CEO who lives in Connecticut, David McCormick, is working his way across Pennsylvania this week meeting with Republican officials in expectation of returning to his native state to run. Researchers from the University of Alberta found in 2014 that, of 80 randomly selected recommendations from Oz’s shows, often dietary advice, roughly half was unsupported by evidence, or contradicted by it.
In the spring of 2020, he came under fire for comments suggesting that reopening schools might be worth the extra deaths because it “may only cost us 2% to 3% in terms of total mortality.”
Oz began making regular appearances on Fox News after the start of the pandemic. 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’s medical school. Oz’s appetite to expand his business portfolio is voracious, with critics saying he often promotes questionable products and medical advice. Oz became a household name after gaining fame as a guest on Winfrey’s show before starting his own show in 2009. His longtime home is above the Hudson River in Cliffside Park, New Jersey, overlooking Manhattan, where he films his TV show and practices medicine.
Still, 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. As Oz interviewed Trump on his show in 2016, Trump told him, “you know my wife’s a big fan of your show.” If support from Trump is important in the Republican primary, then Oz may have a leg up. In his video message, he touts his entrepreneurship, saying he “invented a heart valve that saves thousands of lives.” 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. Oz’s resumé is dizzying: heart surgeon, author of New York Times bestsellers, Emmy-winning TV show host, radio talk show host, presidential appointee, founder of a national nonprofit to educate teens about healthy habits and self-styled ambassador for wellness. His 1 percentage point victory put the swing state back in Democratic hands after Trump won it even more narrowly in 2016.
Oz in recent days has told associates and Republicans in Pennsylvania of his plans and, according to a TV show spokesperson, has lived and voted in Pennsylvania since last year.Īs one of the nation’s biggest presidential electoral prizes, Pennsylvania put Democrat Joe Biden over the top in last year’s election. “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.” “As a heart surgeon, I know how precious life is,” Oz says.