NEWTOWN, Pa.— The banners and big red video screen all said Dr. Oz, the host gave a rousing introduction and in strode the candidate, Mehmet Oz, to take up the microphone and become the center of attention for more than an hour.
Welcome to Oz’s campaign for U.S. Senate, where the celebrity heart surgeon and former host of daytime TV’s “Dr. Oz Show” is making his way around Pennsylvania in town hall-style settings that seem very much like the TV studio where he once presided.
Even his campaign logo looks just like his TV show logo.
At one recent event, he spent more than a half-hour confidently telling people about himself and the world according to Oz, no teleprompter and no notes.
He kicked it off, with a bit of self-awareness for a guy who has barely ever lived in Pennsylvania and is being hit by attack ads daily on TV.
“I know this is not a pep rally,” he said, pacing in front of seated rows in an events room at the Newtown Athletic Club in suburban Philadelphia. “It really is for you to understand who I am, which is exactly what I want. I want skeptical people kicking the tires. ‘Is this guy legit? Does he represent my values? Yeah, I know him from television, but what is he really about?’”
Oz checked one questioner’s blood pressure. He high-fived another. Afterward, he spent 45 minutes signing autographs and posing for photos.
Oz is, at least in part, relying on his celebrity and comfort speaking to people contemporaneously to help distinguish himself from his Republican competitors heading into the May primary and position himself as a strong contender for the fall general election.
The strategy is similar to the one used to great effect by Donald Trump, a former television star himself, during his successful 2016 presidential bid.
But it’s unclear whether Oz can harness broad appeal — many have never seen his TV show — and the daytime talk show vibe may lack heft at a moment when the country is facing economic headwinds and a burgeoning war in Europe.
Oz’s themes — “a dose of reality” or “the doctor is in” — spin off his TV doctor reputation.
To a great extent, Oz’s political campaign comes off as an extension of his TV show, a 13-year enterprise that he has conjured as a long and successful battle to advocate for the health care needs of average people by going against the medical establishment.
The show, he tells the crowd, “had tremendous success. A hundred countries. Number one health show in the world for 13 years. The shows have 10 Emmy Awards, so I’m proud of what we achieved.”
Late last year, Oz — a longtime New Jersey resident who rocketed to fame on Oprah Winfrey’s show — announced that he was running as a Republican for Pennsylvania’s open U.S. Senate seat, one of the country’s premier races that could determine control of the Senate next year.
He has led off his campaign with a lengthy critique of how the government and medical establishments handled COVID-19, trampolining from the early days of the pandemic when he became a regular guest on Fox News.
Like his competitors, he has largely concentrated his interviews with conservative media outlets.
But where his competitors for the Republican nomination have looked to standard campaign fare, Oz has out-flanked them with showmanship.
