Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge endorsed Republican Mehmet Oz for U.S. Senate on Thursday, giving the cardiothoracic surgeon and TV celebrity the stamp of approval from a longtime mainstay of the GOP's establishment.
A Republican official endorsing a Republican candidate in a massive federal race may come as no surprise to political observers, but when it's Ridge, it hits different.
He's seen as a conservative stalwart — a political moderate — in an age when the Republican Party is embracing former President Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again" movement and hoisting up candidates further to the right.
