Oprah Ditches Dr. Oz, TV Celebrity Whose Career She Made, to Endorse Dem in PA Senate Race

The battle for the Senate seat in Pennsylvania has become one of the most-watched races in the 2022 midterm elections, with TV’s Dr. Mehmet Oz facing off against trust-fund kid-turned politician John Fetterman, who suffered a debilitating stroke earlier this year that left him with severe difficulties communicating.

John Fetterman has expressed elation over Oprah Winfrey’s endorsement of his Senate run.

“She’s an icon. It’s unbelievable,” the Democratic candidate told The View on Friday morning. “It’s an honor and I’m so grateful and she understands what’s at stake here in this race, and as like I said it was just incredibly, incredibly honored to have her support in this race, truly,” he said.

Oprah told a virtual town hall on Thursday that while it was “up to the citizens of Pennsylvania” who they’re going to vote for, “I would tell y’all this – if I lived in Pennsylvania, I would have already cast my vote for John Fetterman for many reasons,” she said.

The billionaire did not elaborate on what these reasons were.

An Oz campaign spokeswoman issued a statement Thursday saying the candidate still “loves Oprah and respects the fact that they have different politics,” but “believes we need more balance and less extremism in Washington.”

Oz had publicly asked Oprah to “stay out” of the race last December, but assumed that she supported anybody, it would be him. “Don’t support me because if you get involved in any way, you’ll get hurt and I don’t want my friends hurt,” he said at the time.

Winfrey made Dr. Oz’s career’s career, endowing him with celebrity status after making him a regular guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show, which eventually led him to launch his own hit vehicle, the Dr. Oz Show, in 2009. The program lasted for 13 seasons, with Dr. Oz ending it in January 2022 to move to Pennsylvania to pursue his Senate career.

Mrs. Winfrey is an incredibly popular celebrity, with her endorsement of Barack Obama helping to propel him to victory in the Democratic primaries against Hillary Clinton in 2008, and the mention of various products leading to billions in sales for companies both big and small. Her popularity is known as the ‘Oprah Effect’ or the ‘Oprah Bump’, and has failed only once – when she joined Obama in pushing for Chicago to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Chicago (Rio de Janeiro won instead).

Fetterman and Oz are running an extremely tight race for the Pennsylvania Senate seat, with pollsters calculating that the race remains too close to call.

Oz has been endorsed by former president Donald Trump, who plans to give a stump speech for the Republican candidate on Saturday. President Joe Biden and Barack Obama are expected to travel to Pennsylvania to campaign for Fetterman the same day.

The Pennsylvania Senate race has received national attention, owing to Oz’s celebrity status and past hocking miracle herbal pills, and to Fetterman’s health concerns after he suffered a debilitating stroke in May which left him unable to communicate coherently without the aid of a special machine.

The candidates had their only debate in Harrisburg on October 25, with Fetterman opening the debate by saying “Hi, goodnight everybody,” struggling to complete sentences, taking long pauses and stumbling over words. “I do support fracking and I don’t, I don’t – I support fracking, and I stand, and I do support fracking,” the Democratic candidate said when asked whether he supports fracking. Oz had a few flubs of his own, getting his foot caught in his mouth while answering a question about abortion, saying he wants “women, doctors, local political leaders” involved in determining whether a woman can abort her fetus.

Unlike the race for the House, where Republicans are expected handily defeat Democrats, and take a majority of at least 228 of the chamber’s 435 seats, the race for the Senate is much more of a close call, with Real Clear Politics listing 8 of 34 races (including the Fetterman-Oz race) a tossup.