Dr. Oz announces run for US Senate
Dr. Mehmet Oz is entering the world of politics.
The "Dr. Oz Show" host, who is a trained cardiothoracic surgeon, announced Tuesday on his website and on Twitter that he will run for a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania in 2022.
Oz, 61, will enter the race as a Republican candidate seeking to fill the seat of Sen. Pat Toomey, who will retire next year. The Pennsylvania Senate race is among a handful of races that will decide the control of the Senate next year.
In a one-minute clip Oz tweeted to announce his campaign, he detailed how his parents emigrated from Turkey to the U.S. for a better life, thus laying the foundation for Oz, who was born in Cleveland, to achieve success both as a surgeon and a television host.
"I’m running for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania because America needs a Conservative Republican to cure what’s wrong with Washington. I’m a world-class surgeon, fighter, and health care advocate stepping forward to cure our country’s ills," Oz wrote in his caption.
Oz explained on his website that he decided to run for office because "America’s heartbeat is in a code red in need of a defibrillator to shock it back to life."
"In our time of need, we want to be surrounded by people of action more than armchair intellectuals, because a great surgeon never censors ideas and never shuts off the light that shines on our wounds, which is what happened while our nation battled the pandemic," he wrote.
In each of his announcements, Oz, who is a graduate of both the University of Pennsylvania’s medical school and its Wharton School of business, cited the government's response to the coronavirus pandemic as a motivation for him to enter the Senate race.
"Witnessing our nation’s failings of Covid, I learned that when you mix politics and medicine, you get politics instead of solutions," he wrote on his website.
Oz rose to fame more than a decade ago thanks to his frequent appearances as a medical expert on Oprah Winfrey's syndicated daytime talk show. (Winfrey's Harpo Productions went on to produce "The Dr. Oz Show.")
The Emmy winner, who was a guest host on "Jeopardy!" earlier this year, has not revealed what will happen to "The Dr. Oz Show" during his Senate race. In September 2020, The Hollywood Reporter reported that the series had been renewed through the 2022-23 season.
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