Dr. Oz stumbles out of the gate in Senate race - POLITICO - POLITICO

In his first three unofficial tests as a candidate in Pennsylvania’s Republican Senate primary, the celebrity physician known as Dr. Oz has been handily rejected by party activists.It’s a disappointing start for a cash-flush, top-tier candidate in one of the most important Senate races in the country.A little over a week ago, Oz met with GOP state committee members and answered their questions alongside other Republican Senate candidates at a hotel just outside Harrisburg. But the fact that Oz has stumbled out of the gate in this first test among GOP activists has exposed vulnerabilities in his past record and raised questions about whether rank-and-file voters will also turn their backs on him once they learn more about him.“There’s obviously a disconnect between the TV ads and the grassroots, and that’s what Dr. Oz is getting caught up in,” said Christopher Nicholas, a longtime Pennsylvania-based GOP consultant who is not working for a candidate in the Senate primary.It might not matter, though. Former President Donald Trump, whose endorsement is critical in GOP primaries, heard of Oz’s poor showing at the first caucus meeting, where he received a single vote: He was “taken aback” and “expected him to do better because of the celebrity,” a Trump-world adviser said.GOP activists and political consultants said Oz is struggling among state committee members partly because his past comments on critical policies are coming back to haunt him. A recent ad by Pennsylvania Patriots PAC also points out that he once starred in a commercial trumpeting former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.Another super PAC that is backing former hedge fund CEO David McCormick in the primary, Honor Pennsylvania, is also blasting Oz in spots as a “Hollywood liberal.” Rob Collins, chair of the group, said it is planning to raise and spend $50 million in the primary.Ray Zaborney, a Pennsylvania-based GOP strategist who is not involved in the Senate race, said: “I think Oz has had some challenges because in the last few weeks, you’ve seen questions about his issue positions. He has said he is now renting a home owned by his in-laws in southeastern Pennsylvania.Dick Stewart, co-chair of the Pennsylvania Republican Party’s Central Caucus, which voted over a week ago, said that meeting was “probably the first time people met [Oz], and he got some heavy questioning on, ‘How come you don’t own property here and are you associating with all these Hollywood liberals?’”Yet Oz is only one of a handful of candidates in the Senate primary who have recently lived elsewhere. Of all the candidates, I think he is the real carpetbagger and opportunist.”After meeting Oz, she said, she appreciated that he “admitted he didn’t know the party structure or tradition, he’s just catching on to that.” Though she is not predicting he’ll win as Trump did the first time he ran in Pennsylvania, she said they do have something in common: “I have never heard such bad stuff about a candidate in my life.