Did Dr. Oz Just Sink His Senate Campaign By Bucking Trump?

Republican Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz risked angering Donald Trump and the former president's supporters on Tuesday by saying that he would have certified President Joe Biden's 2020 election victory, but several experts believe that his stance won't ultimately sink his chances in the November midterm elections.

Oz held a press conference on Tuesday with Senator Pat Toomey, who is not seeking re-election in Pennsylvania and is one of a handful of senators who voted in 2021 to convict Trump on an article of impeachment following the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Oz, who received Trump's endorsement in the race, said that he "would not have objected to" approving Biden's election victory if he had been in the Senate at the time.

"By the time the delegates and those reports were sent to the U.S. Senate, our job was to approve it, which is what I would have done," he was quoted by The Hill as saying.

Despite the Homeland Security Department's Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) saying that the 2020 election was the "most secure in American history," Trump and his supporters have continued to spread unproven claims of election fraud. Trump allegedly tried to pressure former Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the results by using his largely ceremonial role for formalizing them.

During the riot that disrupted the election certification, Trump also criticized Pence on Twitter for not doing "what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify."

So Oz's remark that he wouldn't have objected to upholding Biden's win appeared to put him at odds with Trump's beliefs about the 2020 election, raising questions on whether it could cause him to lose needed votes from the former president's base in the state. Newsweek did not receive a response on Tuesday when it reached out to a Trump spokesperson for comment about what Oz said, and Trump had not posted anything about Oz's press conference on his Truth Social page as of Wednesday morning.

But several experts weighed in on what impact, if any, Oz's statement could have on his campaign against John Fetterman.

Christopher Nicholas, a GOP consultant and principal at Eagle Consulting Group, told Newsweek that he thinks Oz's opinion "will not ultimately make any difference to GOP voters and could help with independents here."

As of August 31, FiveThirtyEight's polling average showed Fetterman with support from 48.3 percent of voters compared to 40.2 percent supporting Oz, an 8.1-point difference. But while Oz is trailing Fetterman in polls overall, he might have an edge with Independent voters. A Susquehanna Polling and Research survey released on August 30 found that among registered independents, Oz was leading Fetterman 50 to 40.

Samuel Chen, an assistant professor of political science at Northampton Community College in Pennsylvania, believes that while Oz's statement might have mattered in the primary elections, that's not the case now.

"In the primary election, such a statement would have sunk him, as there were several GOP candidates running who stated they would not have voted to certify the 2020 election results," Chen told Newsweek. "Now that we're in a general election, however, those voters have nowhere else to go."

Oz's top challenger in the GOP primary, David McCormick, conceded the race as the celebrity surgeon was shown to be leading by a razor-thin margin of less than 1,000 votes.

Chen added that voters "may have been willing to stay home if Dr. Oz was up against a more moderate Democrat like Congressman Conor Lamb, but it is highly unlikely that a Trump-supporting Republican will stay home when the opponent is progressive Lt. Governor John Fetterman."

"By making this statement, however, Oz moves toward claiming the moderate label before Fetterman does," Chen said. "He has shown his willingness to buck his party, which Fetterman has not demonstrated. Voters in the middle who are concerned with the MAGA movement and also concerned that the Lt. Governor is too far left may begin to see Oz in a more favorable light or, in the least, as a compromise candidate."

Fetterman, the Democratic nominee, supports abortion rights, LGBTQIA+ rights and legalizing marijuana nationwide, among other issues.

When asked about Oz's press conference remark, Mark Nevins, a partner at the Dover Strategy Group, told Newsweek that he thinks Oz is angering people on both sides of the aisle.

"I think this is what happens when you have a candidate like Dr. Oz who has no real moral compass," Nevins said. "You don't really stand for anything specific. You just kind of blow with the wind.

"The thing is, being with Donald Trump is like being in a cult. You're either 100 percent in or you're not. You can't be on stage with Trump one week and then the next week act like you're not part of the cult. Oz is in the cult. All he's doing now is pissing off everyone on both sides."

Trump spoke at a rally in Pennsylvania over the weekend in support of Oz and Doug Mastriano, a Republican gubernatorial candidate whom he has also endorsed.

Newsweek reached out to Oz's campaign for comment.