For years, Dr. Oz engaged millions of Americans as a television celebrity. Now his task is to connect with Pennsylvanians as a candidate.
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Dr. Mehmet Oz addressed a barn full of voters in Elizabethtown, Pa., on Wednesday, a rare large-scale public rally.
ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. — Throughout the Pennsylvania Senate race, Mehmet Oz has toggled across multiple political identities, from the conservative candidate pushing for former President Donald J. Trump’s endorsement to one who discusses bringing political “balance” to Washington and campaigns with Republicans who have sometimes distanced themselves from Mr. Trump.
But as he addressed a barn full of voters in Lancaster County on Wednesday evening at a rare large-scale public rally, Dr. Oz leaned into the identity voters have known the longest: celebrity physician.
Warm-up speakers reached for medical references, talking about the need to “cure” the economy or declaring a “code red” situation in the country. Dr. Oz spoke rapidly, in list form, about his priorities, as if offering a step-by-step guide to managing a condition. And, sounding much like the television personality who long offered self-help tips and dubious medical advice to the nation, he declared to the crowd, “I believe in you.”
“I’m not a politician,” he said to a whooping audience. “I’m a surgeon. And you know what surgeons do? We focus on something really important — in my case, the heart, which is pretty critical — and you unite to fix it.”
For years, Dr. Oz connected with millions of Americans as a smooth-talking, authoritative-sounding TV doctor and author. But in the final stretch of one of the nation’s most competitive and consequential Senate races, which could determine which party controls the chamber, polls show he still faces challenges in personally connecting with Pennsylvanians, even as he has made major gains in the race.
ImageLining up for Dr. Oz’s rally. A New York Times/Siena College poll found that 50 percent of Pennsylvanians surveyed had a somewhat or very unfavorable view of him, but he has made big gains since the summer.Credit…Hilary Swift for The New York Times
A Monmouth University poll released Wednesday found that 55 percent of Pennsylvanians surveyed thought he had little understanding of the concerns of voters like them. A Fox News poll showed that 44 percent of voters worried that Dr. Oz, whose longtime principal residence was in New Jersey, was not familiar enough with Pennsylvania to carry out the job of senator, while 53 percent said he was.
The State of the 2022 Midterm Elections
Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 8.
- Biden’s Speech: In a prime-time address, President Biden denounced Republicans who deny the legitimacy of elections, warning that the country’s democratic traditions are on the line.
- State Supreme Court Races: The traditionally overlooked contests have emerged this year as crucial battlefields in the struggle over the course of American democracy.
- Democrats’ Mounting Anxiety: Top Democratic officials are openly second-guessing their party’s pitch and tactics, saying Democrats have failed to unite around one central message.
- Social Security and Medicare: Republicans, eyeing a midterms victory, are floating changes to the safety net programs. Democrats have seized on the proposals to galvanize voters.
And a New York Times/Siena College poll released this week found that 50 percent of Pennsylvanians surveyed had a somewhat or very unfavorable view of him, compared with just 38 percent who had a somewhat or very favorable view. Forty-four percent of those surveyed had a favorable view of his opponent, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, and 47 percent had an unfavorable view of Mr. Fetterman, who is recovering from a stroke.
Still, Dr. Oz has significantly gained on Mr. Fetterman in the polls since this summer, leaning heavily on messages about public safety and the economy and boosted by a flood of outside spending (which has come in from both parties). As the political environment has worsened for Democrats, many observers regard the contest as effectively tied.
Dan Naylor, the chairman of the Republican Party of Lackawanna County, pointed to Dr. Oz’s celebrity status when asked to name his biggest challenge.
“Because of him having been on TV, they’re questioning, is he really going to represent us?” he said. But Mr. Naylor, who regards Dr. Oz as a skilled retail politician who can effectively work a room, continued, “That’s why he’s been the last one to leave, because as people get to talk with him and meet with him, they recognize that he is an individual that is approachable.”
In recent weeks, much of that activity has happened out of the national spotlight. The candidate has favored meet-and-greets and sporting-event drop-bys that were not widely advertised ahead of time over the kinds of rallies he is holding in the campaign’s final days. The Wednesday event was one of six Oz rallies in the lead-up to Election Day.
Mr. Fetterman, who returned to the campaign trail after his stroke with a major rally in Erie, Pa., has held such events regularly in recent months, even as he has faced challenges in reassuring Democrats about his recuperation.
At his event on Wednesday, Dr. Oz signed at least one baseball and posed for selfies but did not linger. From the podium, in a 10-minute speech, he shared small personal details, noting his time as a football player at Harvard or invoking his immigrant parents (who came to the country legally, he said, to applause.).
ImageDr. Oz with supporters in Bensalem, Pa., on Tuesday. He has a busy schedule of rallies before Election Day, but events for the news media are usually carefully managed.Credit…Hilary Swift for The New York Times
Chuck Vucetich, 63, an attendee from Red Lion, Pa., said he regarded Dr. Oz “not as a politician at all, more as a celebrity” — which can be a good thing, he said.
“I look at people, former celebrities, that have excelled in their political careers, like Ronald Reagan,” he said.
When Dr. Oz does do events that are open to the news media, they are often carefully stage-managed, made-for-camera moments. Earlier Wednesday, he held a sparsely attended event in Allentown with Senator Patrick J. Toomey, the retiring Pennsylvania Republican whose seat Dr. Oz wants, about public safety. But even though the event was aimed at the press — there was no apparent seating for voters — Dr. Oz, who has hammered Mr. Fetterman over transparency questions, did not stick around for questions.
And sometimes the details of his settings can pose political problems. The Wednesday rally was at a venue that indicates on its website that it does not host same-sex weddings, The Washington Post first reported. At another event, Dr. Oz had an emotional, attention-grabbing exchange with a woman who turned out to be a paid staff member.
Some Republicans simply want to see more of Dr. Oz in retail politicking mode.
“I had a thousand people in my own county, said they wanted to see him personally and they didn’t get to,” said C. Arnold McClure, the chairman of the Huntingdon County Republican Committee. “We’re real disappointed that there weren’t opportunities for all of our voters to hear him and see him.”
Brittany Yanick, an Oz spokeswoman, said that “since Labor Day, we’ve had over 40 events,” and that “we’d love to have more debates to share our points of view on the issues.” Mr. Fetterman and Dr. Oz debated just once, last week.
“This past week, he went to a high school football game in Bucks County, met with voters in Lower Moreland and attended the Eagles-Steelers game,” Ms. Yanick said on Monday when asked about his weekend activities. “The weekend before, he went to a women’s event in Gladwyne, dropped by a Korean church and attended a Diwali celebration.”
She did not answer follow-up questions about Wednesday’s event venue. Dr. Oz has said he supports same-sex marriage.
The Republican is maintaining a careful balancing act, seeking to appeal to more moderate voters with a pitch heavily focused on the economy and public safety while working to keep engaged a conservative base that has been skeptical of him.
He is slated to appear at a rally with Mr. Trump and the hard-right nominee for governor, Doug Mastriano, on Saturday. Mr. Fetterman has been seeking to remind voters at every turn of Dr. Oz’s far-right associations and conservative positions while casting him as a New Jerseyan out of touch with the needs of the state.
Onstage, Dr. Oz threw out some lines meant to appeal to the conservative base — alluding to “cancel culture,” for instance — and he sounded themes that many Republicans have embraced about the cost of living, crime and border security.
But Dr. Oz, who broadly framed himself as an agent of change at a time when many are unhappy with the direction of the country, also sounded plenty of conciliatory notes.
“We’ve got to have less extremism, more balance in Washington,” he said.
And if he had any concerns about the New Jersey associations Democrats are trying to drive home, they were not evident on Wednesday.
As he concluded, Dr. Oz walked off to the song “We Take Care of Our Own” by Bruce Springsteen, who is famously associated with the Garden State.
Source: nytimes.com
