PHILADELPHIA — In his U.S. Senate primary campaign, Republican Mehmet Oz clung close to former President Donald Trump, wielding his endorsement to help sway Republican voters.
But after rallying again with Trump on Saturday in northeastern Pennsylvania, Oz this week has featured a different brand of allies. In Philadelphia on Tuesday, he was joined by Sen. Pat Toomey, a fiscal conservative who broke with Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. In Delaware County on Thursday, he brought in Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations. And this Saturday, he’ll rally in Bucks County with help from Sen. John Kennedy, a wisecracking Louisianan.
The surrogates, and locations, point to a political reality that Oz and nearly every Pennsylvania Republican faces: Trump’s voter base, on its own, almost certainly isn’t enough to win statewide.
