Oprah Winfrey dumps Dr Mehmet Oz! Stumps for Dem John Fetterman in crucial Pennsylvania Senate race
PENNSYLVANIA: On Thursday, November 2, television icon Oprah Winfrey endorsed Democrat John Fetterman in Pennsylvania's closely contested Senate election and snubbed Republican Dr Mehmet Oz, whom she had helped propel to stardom almost two decades earlier by bringing him on her well-liked daytime talk show as a frequent guest.
According to the Daily Mail, Winfrey previously stated that she would let Pennsylvanians decide the election, but later changed her mind after participating in an online debate on voting in the election. “At the beginning of the midterm campaigns, I said it was up to citizens to vote for who would represent them,” said Winfrey. “If I lived in Pennsylvania, I would have already cast my vote for John Fetterman,” she added. Winfrey was speaking during an Oprah Winfrey Network-hosted Zoom event that emphasized getting on voting turnouts, especially among young people and Black women.
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Since the Senate is evenly divided, Democrats have been eyeing Pennsylvania as their best chance to take up seats. Polls indicate a close contest between Fetterman and Oz, a well-known heart surgeon who has Donald Trump's support. Trump even took a trip to Pennsylvania to support Oz while former President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden support Fetterman, indicating how important the election is to both parties. At the event on Thursday, Winfrey also supported a number of other Democratic Senate candidates, including Cheri Beasley, a justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, Val Demings, a representative from Florida, Mandela Barnes, a lieutenant governor of Wisconsin, Catherine Cortez Masto, and Raphael Warnock, a senator from Georgia.
Oz and his wife Lisa had produced a medical program for the Discovery Channel called ‘Second Opinion with Dr Oz.’ The couple was introduced on Oprah’s show for the first time in 2003, about 20 years ago. After five years and 55 episodes, Oz quit Oprah's program to launch 'The Dr Oz Show,' a daytime TV program that ran for 13 seasons before he relocated from New Jersey to Pennsylvania to run for the Senate.
Oprah in an interview went on to say, "He educated us, gave us sound advice, and saved countless lives over the years—from heart attack victims who, thanks to him, recognized their symptoms in time...to a cancer patient who, mindful of his warnings about medical errors, realized that she still had the tumor her surgeon was supposed to have removed." Although Winfrey's backing for Democrats is expected, her rejection of Oz will have hurt.