Mehmet Oz, the celebrity surgeon with his own TV show, is the latest television personality to seek elected office, announcing his candidacy for Pennsylvania's open U.S. Senate seat as a "Conservative Republican."
Mehmet Oz attended the TIME Person of the Year Celebration at Capitale in New York.
Images for Time.
According to an announcement on his website, Oz is running for the Senate seat left vacant by Pat Toomey who decided not to run for reelection.
Donald Trump appointed Oz to the President's Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition twice.
Sean Parnell, the Republican Pennsylvania Senate candidate Trump endorsed, dropped out of the race last week after losing custody of his children and being accused of abuse.
Oz has been a resident of New Jersey for a long time, but only recently began voting in the Pennsylvania elections, according to the AP.
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Oz was a witness in a Senate hearing. In front of a health and science Senate panel, Oz was called to testify about over-the-counter diet pills and weight loss products, where he was slammed by lawmakers for hawking products as a "magic weight-loss cure" or "the No. 1 miracle in a bottle".
The key background.
Oz rose to fame in the early 2000's as a medical expert on "The Oprah Winfrey Show." In 2009, Winfrey offered him his own series on her network, "The Dr. Oz Show." Oz has come under fire for promoting pseudoscience, endorsing products and doling out health advice. A group of 10 prominent physicians sent an open letter to Columbia University's surgery department in 2015, demanding he resign for promoting quack treatments and cures in the interest of personal financial gain. Oz claimed his show presents multiple points of view, including mine, which is offered without conflict of interest. Oz is still a doctor. A study in the U.K. found that half of the claims made on The Dr. Oz Show are not supported by scientific evidence. Hydroxychloroquine was promoted as a coronaviruses treatment by Oz last year despite no scientific evidence that it works.
Sources say Dr. Oz will run for Senate in Pennsylvania.
