Former president Donald Trump endorsed television celebrity Dr. Mehmet Oz as the Republican candidate for a Pennsylvania Senate seat Saturday.
Oz will square off with other contenders in an upcoming GOP primary.
“This is all about winning elections in order to stop the Radical Left maniacs from destroying our Country,” Trump said in the statement.
Oz has been in a heated primary contest with finance executive Dave McCormick to win the party nomination. Trump’s endorsement could boost Oz’s prospects among Republican voters in Pennsylvania, where the former president won decisively in 2016 but lost narrowly to Joe Biden in 2020. Trump had originally favored Sean Parnell for the Pennsylvania Senate seat, but Parnell withdrew from the race late last year.
“The Great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has a tremendous opportunity to Save America by electing the brilliant and well-known Dr. Mehmet Oz for the United States Senate,” Trump added about Oz, a fellow aspiring politician with TV experience. “I have known Dr. Oz for many years, as have many others, even if only through his very successful television show. He has lived with us through the screen and has always been popular, respected and smart.”
Some Republicans weren’t pleased by Trump’s choice given that Oz is new to the political arena and doesn’t have a proven record of conservative policy making.
Parnell, who had endorsed McCormick, tweeted, “I’m disappointed by this. Oz is the antithesis of everything that made Trump the best president of my lifetime—he’s the farthest thing from America First & he’d be very bad for PA.”