Dr. Oz fails to impress Pennsylvania GOP activists. [View all]
PHILADELPHIA — Mehmet Oz’s introduction to GOP grassroots politics is a code-red crisis. In his first three unofficial tests as a candidate in Pennsylvania’s Republican Senate primary, the celebrity physician known as Dr. Oz has been handily rejected by party activists.
A little over a week ago, Oz met with GOP state committee members and answered their questions alongside other Republican Senate candidates at a hotel just outside Harrisburg. Afterward, a straw poll was held. Despite his widespread name ID and deep pockets — he’s spent or booked $5.4 million on TV ads since Nov. 30 —
Oz received just one vote out of more than 100 cast.
This past weekend, Oz had a chance to prove it was a fluke. Two different groups of state committee members — one in the Allentown area and one in northeastern Pennsylvania — again peppered Senate hopefuls with questions at party events. But he underperformed expectations again:
He finished third in one straw poll and fourth in another.
Party members said it’s Oz’s tenuous connection to Pennsylvania, a famously parochial state, that is hurting him.
Oz was a longtime resident of New Jersey, and voted there as recently as 2020. He has said he is now renting a home owned by his in-laws in southeastern Pennsylvania.
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/01/25/dr-oz-senate-race-stumbles-00002056
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