Val Arkoosh, Running For U.S. Senate, Calls Out TV Personality Dr. Oz For Announcing Run

PENNSYLVANIA — On Tuesday, celebrity physician Dr. Mehmet Oz announced that he was running as a Republican to become the next U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania.

One day before, another doctor who is running for the exact same seat cautioned voters against seeing Oz as anything other than an opportunistic television personality.

"We've seen what happens when TV personalities gain power in Washington and Dr. Oz is the last thing we need when our Commonwealth faces real challenges — like getting past COVID-19, helping folks get back to work, and tackling the climate crisis," Val Arkoosh said in a statement. "I'm the doctor in this race with a proven track record, from fighting for my patients in the operating room to fighting to lead our Commonwealth's third-largest county through COVID-19."

The battle of the doctors pits Arkoosh, whose candidacy has been playing out for months, against Oz, a political newcomer with wide name recognition because of his celebrity status.

Arkoosh, a Democrat who currently serves as one of three Montgomery County commissioners, is a Springfield Township resident, while Oz doesn't even live in Pennsylvania — news reports say the longtime New Jersey resident has been voting in Pennsylvania elections via absentee ballot and that he uses his in-laws Huntingdon Valley address for mail.

In her statement, Arkoosh said that Pennsylvanians need real leadership in the Senate, "not a TV personality who has peddled fake diet pills for-profit and pushed unproven COVID-19 treatments."

Oz, who following his campaign announcement was scheduled to have his first interview on Tuesday night with Sean Hannity of Fox News, has a new campaign website that lists as the contact address a location on Philmont Avenue in Huntingdon Valley, Lower Moreland Township, which is apparently the town where his wife's parents reside, according to local media.

A look at Google maps show that that address is located in a commercial strip center off of Philmont Avenue and Pine Road.

On his campaign website, Oz, whose slogan is "The Right Medicine," says that, "Today, America's heartbeat is in a code red in need of a defibrillator to shock it back to life."

He goes on to state that, "Witnessing our nation's failings of Covid, I learned that when you mix politics and medicine, you get politics instead of solutions. That's why I am running for United States Senate — to help fix the problems and to help us all heal."

Meanwhile, Arkoosh, who has been a physician for more than two decades and has taught in several southeastern Pennsylvania teaching hospitals, said her background would serve her well as a U.S. Senator.

She says that if she won election, she would be the first woman physician in the United States Senate.