If you have an interest in politics or read daily newspapers, you must have noticed that Dr. Oz, a famous Turkish-American TV personality well-known for The Dr.Oz Show, is the Republican candidate for Pennsylvania senatorship. It is not a surprise since last year in November he declared his candidacy “for the Republican nomination for the United States Senate seat in Pennsylvania in 2022” (“Mehmet Oz.”). According to the polls, he is ahead of all of his rivals with 21.4% which is higher by 2.4% than his closest rival McCormick (“Dr. Oz Polls: Mehmet Oz leads by 2.4% in a close contest vs Barnette and McCormick.”) And he has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump. Trump calls Dr.Oz “Smart, tough, and someone who will never let us down”. But several Trump supporters do not agree with Trump. To understand this better, we need to look at Dr.Oz’s background.
Mehmet Cengiz Öz, known as Dr. Oz, was born on June 11th of 1960 in the United States of America (See “Mehmet Öz.” ). He is a child of Muslim and Turkish parents who emigrated to the United States. Like his parents, Oz identifies as Muslim. Specifically, a Sufi. He has dual citizenship from both the United States of America and Turkey. But if elected, he will renounce his Turkish citizenship (even though his mother, who has Alzheimer’s disease, lives there). For his undergraduate degree, Oz went to Harvard and studied biology. In 1986, he got his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Throughout his academic career, he was active and successful in many fields. He played many sports and was even “awarded [with] the Captain’s Athletic Award for leadership in college”. His success continued in his adulthood. He has a successful medical career as well as an outstanding media/television career. With his media career, he achieved quite a lot. He has eight books that were in the New York Times bestsellers (seven of these books are co-written by Michael F. Roizen). He was named a “Global Leader of Tomorrow” by the World Economic from 1999 to 2004. According to Time Magazine, he was among the “100 Most Influential People’’ of 2008. And he was a nominee for the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host for nine years. During these nine years and nominees, he won the award four times. Of course, in his career, he had a few controversies (“Mehmet Oz.”). They added even more popularity to him.
“Mehmet Öz.”
As mentioned, Oz is a Muslim. However, Trump supporters, Trump, himself included, are mostly anti-Muslim. This is one of the reasons that some of his supporters do not agree with Trump. They do not only disagree but think that Trump made a mistake by endorsing him. Strangely enough, these same Trump supporters watch the Dr. Oz Show and love it.
While reading and listening to Oz’s speeches a question comes to mind. How did his opinions change that drastically? Before the campaign, he was an ally of the LGBTQ+ community, he supported abortion and marijuana usage (medically), and he pointed out that climate change is there and urgent. But now, he is anti-abortion, does not support transgender women playing in women’s sports or marijuana usage, and downplayed climate change. Will these drastic opinion changes give him what he wants? Or will Trump’s endorsement help him to win the Senate for Pennsylvania? We will see it together. If he gets elected, he will be the first Muslim who will serve in the U.S. Senate.
Works Cited
“Dr Oz Polls: Mehmet Oz leads by 2.4% in a close contest vs Barnette and McCormick.” Crowd Wisdom, crowdwisdom.live/us-politics/dr-oz-polls/. Accessed 10 May 2022.
“Mehmet Oz.” Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehmet_Oz. Accessed 10 May 2022.
Mehmet Öz. www.dunya.com/hafta/dr-ozun-kalbi-bu-kosuya-dayanir-mi-haberi-657727. Accessed 16 May 2022.