Mehmet Oz, the Republican nominee for US Senate in Pennsylvania, was again mocked by his Democratic opponent John Fetterman after he appeared to shoot a recent campaign video at his longtime home in New Jersey.
Dr Oz moved to Pennsylvania just before competing for the Republican nomination for the senate there. After securing the endorsement of former president Donald Trump, Dr Oz narrowly won the Republican primary over former hedge fund chief executive David McCormick by an exceedingly thin margin of less than 1,000 votes.
Dr Oz’s reward is a general election matchup against John Fetterman, the 6’9 former mayor of the western Pennsylvania town of Braddock and current lieutenant governor who won the Democratic nomination in a landslide and has led every general election poll of the race taken so far.
Mr Fetterman has relentlessly attacked Dr Oz for his loose ties to Pennsylvania on social media since winning the Democratic nomination in a landslide, mocking the veteran television host as an out-of-touch carpetbagger.
He was not the only politician eager to amplify the campaign video shot in Dr Oz’s opulent New Jersey home. Rep Bill Pascrell, who represents New Jersey in the US House of Representatives, tweeted that Dr Oz’s “commercials help showcase our beautiful Garden State”.
Though it is expected to be a favorable midterm environment for Republicans, Dr Oz — whose net worth is estimated to be around $100m — trailed Mr Fetterman by nine, six and four points in three June polls of the race.
The election prognosticator FiveThirtyEight currently rates Mr Fetterman as a slight favorite to win the race to replace retiring Republican senator Pat Toomey despite president Joe Biden’s unpopularity in the state.
Dr Oz’s slow start in the general election campaign has left some Republicans pointing fingers in the press. Politico on Thursday ran an article with the headline “Where in the world is Dr Oz?” noting that while Mr Fetterman has continued to air television advertisements, Dr Oz has been off the air since his narrow primary victory.
Some Republicans are also calling on Dr Oz to pump more of his own money into the campaign after he spent some $12m of his personal finances in the primary.
More spending to bolster his image may be necessary: one recent poll found that just 28 per cent of Pennsylvania voters saw Dr Oz favorably, while 50 per cent held an unfavorable view of him.
Mr Fetterman’s favorability numbers were nearly the inverse of Dr Oz’s, with 45 per cent of voters holding a favorable view of him compared to just 27 per cent who view him unfavorably.
