Pennsylvania Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz appears to be distancing himself from former President Donald Trump now that he’s won his primary race.
The Daily Wire reports:
According to a Tuesday report from Axios, Trump was a “near-ubiquitous fixture” in the Oz campaign’s advertisements, with a series of issue-centered videos about gun rights, abortion, and energy beginning with the phrase “endorsed by President Trump.” On social media, Oz’s cover photo was a banner image of himself alongside Trump, his Twitter account “mentioned Trump more than 70 times,” and his team ran Trump-centered ads on Google and Facebook.
However, according to Axios, Oz has not mentioned Trump on Twitter since May 17 — the day of the Republican primary. The cover photo now says, “Thank you, Pennsylvania” on a solo photo of the candidate, and the website no longer features a pop-up fundraiser window featuring Trump. Oz has also reportedly stopped running the Trump ads on Google and Facebook.
Axios noted that Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) used the same tactic during his recent campaign against Democratic nominee Terry McAuliffe. Rather than emphasizing Trump’s endorsement, Youngkin focused on kitchen table issues such as education and the economy.
The Oz campaign, however, has not ditched all ties to Trump. “The endorsement is the first endorsement listed on our website and we changed the banner to thank Pennsylvanians after the recount was completed,” Oz spokesperson Brittany Yanick told Axios.
Oz’s appeared distancing from Trump comes as some have begun to wonder if the former president is losing his grip on the Party. Despite Trump’s repeated hints at launching another presidential campaign in 2024 some conservatives have claimed Trump is disconnected from the base.
Amy Kremer, the co-founder of Women for Trump, is urging conservatives to begin looking at other candidates to take on Biden in the next election.
According to The Washington Examiner:
“It’s time for those of us in the movement to get back to basics, back to our first principles,” Kremer told Politico. “We were here long before President Trump came along, and we’re going to be here long afterward.”
Kremer had backed Brooks in his Senate bid, maintaining that Trump was “way wrong” in reversing course. The former president claimed he revoked his endorsement because of Brooks’s comments to move past the 2020 election, but it’s likely Trump wanted to avoid having an endorsed candidate lose in a state where he is heavily favored.
Kremer’s comments pile on to other cracks within the Republican Party, particularly as Trump has criticized House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for not picking additional Republicans to sit on the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol after Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) rejected some of his choices.
“I think in retrospect [McCarthy should’ve put Republicans on] to just have a voice. The Republicans don’t have a voice. They don’t even have anything to say,” Trump told Punchbowl News. “I think it would’ve been far better to have Republicans [on the panel]. [Jim Banks and Jim Jordan] were great. They were great and would’ve been great to have them. But when Pelosi wrongfully didn’t allow them, we should’ve picked other people. We have a lot of good people in the Republican Party.”
