Dr. Mehmet Oz, one of several candidates vying to run on a Republican ticket for Senate in Pennsylvania this November, said during a debate this week that the party “cannot move on,” from the 2020 presidential election.
Oz – who is well-known from his Emmy award-winning TV show and books – was endorsed by former President Donald Trump earlier this month. Before the 2020 election results even came in declaring current President Joe Biden the winner, Trump began making unsupported claims about election fraud. Last year, a “Stop the Steal” rally that Trump held on the subject was held shortly before the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
“I have discussed it with President Trump and we cannot move on,” said Oz Monday in response to a debate moderator’s question.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is another prominent Republican who has recently made looking into election fraud a priority. According to a report this week in the Miami Herald, he asked the state legislature to create an office within the executive branch that would have the power to investigate and enforce election-related crimes. DeSantis is expected to sign a bill creating the office into law Monday.
“As all the other candidates up here have outlines, under the cover of COVID, there were draconian changes made to our voting laws by Democratic leadership, and they have blocked appropriate reviews of some of those decisions,” said Oz during the debate Monday. “We have to be serious about what happened in 2020, and we won't be able to address that until we can really look under the hood.”
Oz announced his candidacy late last year.
Other candidates who participated in the debate included conservative commentator Kathy Barnette, real estate developer Jeff Bartos, former hedge fund executive and undersecretary of the Treasury for International Affairs Dave McCormick and Carla Sands, who served as the US ambassador to Denmark under Trump.
Barnette, McCormick and Sands said they are interested in continuing to look into the 2020 election, though – as Business Insider noted – no evidence has been found to back up claims of fraud or widespread irregularities. Bartos also called the election a “catalyst” for what the country is facing at the moment and criticized Biden’s administration.
A poll conducted by Emerson College earlier this month, before Trump endorsed Oz, found that McCormick was in lead of the GOP candidates for the Pennsylvania Senate seat with 18% support, followed by Oz with 17%, Barnette with 10%, Bartos with 9% and Sands with 8%. George Bochetto, another candidate, had 4% and Sean Gale had 3%, while 33% were undecided, said the poll.
McCormick and Oz did not participate in another debate held Wednesday, but Bochetto and Gale did take part in that debate.
GOP candidates will face off in the May 17 primary election. Democratic primary candidates include John Fetterman, Malcolm Kenyatta, Alexandria Khalil and Conor Lamb. Voters will select one candidate Nov. 8 to replace the Senate seat currently held by Republican Pat Toomey, who first took office in 2011 and is not seeking reelection.
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