Oprah Winfrey issued a short, noncommittal statement about Dr. Mehmet Oz running for a Pennsylvania U.S. Senate seat as a Republican.
“One of the great things about our democracy is that every citizen can decide to run for public office. Mehmet Oz has made that decision,” Oprah told New York magazine. “And now it’s up to the residents of Pennsylvania to decide who will represent them.”
The 67-year-old entertainment powerhouse introduced the world to Dr. Oz when he began regularly appearing on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” But Winfrey confidants don’t expect her to back his senatorial campaign.
“There is no way that Oprah is going to help turn Pennsylvania red,” a source told New York magazine. “Oprah is not gonna do that.”
Oz, 61, got his own show in 2009 and is attempting to parlay that fame into a new career as a senator. Sen. Pat Toomey, a Pennsylvania Republican, is retiring at the end of his current term, and the battle for his seat in the tightly divided Senate is expected to be one of the biggest races of the 2022 cycle.
Oz’s show is scheduled to end in January so he can focus on his Republican primary campaign.
