Rebrand of the Rebrand: MAGA Oz Pivots Back to Being Dr. Oz

For many shedding political candidates, the months that comply with defeat could be a time for reflection and dissection—time to select aside what went mistaken, to put in writing a guide, to safe a soft gig as a cable-news contributor, and even to plot a comeback.

However for Mehmet Oz, it’s been a time to faux his disappointing Senate marketing campaign, and his newfound political ambitions altogether, by no means occurred.

After a winter recuperating from his five-point loss to Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA)—and hidden from the web legions that had gleefully dragged him for months—Ouncesis slowly re-emerging.

Gone is Ouncesthe MAGA-acolyte partisan. Again is the well-known, pleasant TV physician—or at the least Ounceshopes.

As a substitute of doing Fox Information hits, Ouncesis as soon as once more working with HealthCorps, a teen-focused well being nonprofit group he based effectively earlier than his political profession. He’s posting photographs on social media and touting work that he says “has helped tens of millions of teenagers thrive, to help our nation’s subsequent technology.”

Past that, Oz attended a health conference. Tweeted about the need for more nurses. Promoted efforts for Individuals to recover from addiction.

In February, when an earthquake wreaked havoc in Turkey—the place Ouncesis a citizen—he traveled to the devastated space. It’s unclear what position he really performed in restoration efforts, however he did take a number of photographs subsequent to injured sufferers, generally exhibiting off his stethoscope.

On his YouTube web page, Ounceshas spent the previous 5 months recirculating previous clips of his tv present, dropping one or two per weekday. Previous to his election loss, the web page hadn’t posted something since 2021. Now, it’s re-upping the classics of the style, from “Causes And Cures For BLOATING!” to “Wonderful Tales Of Animals Saving Folks” to “Are You Addicted To Quick Meals?”

Judging by his and his household’s social media presences, it appears Ouncesisn’t nervous about sustaining the Pennsylvania model he tried, and largely failed, to cement in the course of the marketing campaign. For probably the most half, it seems he’s been morphing right into a Florida man, spending time in his Palm Seashore property.

Nowhere to be discovered, nevertheless, is any indication is identical one who spent final 12 months campaigning with Donald Trump, decrying the “failing financial system, crime-ridden streets, and our power disaster,” bashing transgender athletes, and vowing to struggle “against the woke liberal mob.”

Whereas different failed candidates from the 2022 cycle have toyed with working once more—together with Pennsylvania’s GOP gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano—Ouncesappears totally uninterested.

Maybe these candidates had much less to lose.

Oz, a protege of Oprah Winfrey’s, constructed a media empire and an array of connections with the wealthy and highly effective. Soccer mothers crammed his studio viewers and raved over his medical recommendation. All of it made him a fortune, which he boosted with deep ties to the businesses whose merchandise he pushed.

In working a polarizing political marketing campaign, Ouncesrisked all of that. Now, it seems he’s attempting to get it again.

Certainly, after the election, stories emerged that Ouncesattempted to restart his daytime present, which resulted in January 2022, earlier than he kicked off his Senate bid. However his jaunt into politics dirty his marketability with a mainstream viewers.

Maybe extra importantly, his Senate run entailed months of scrutiny from the press, and Ouncess opponents, dissecting his extra doubtful medical claims and enterprise practices, tarnishing his popularity additional.

All 13 seasons of his present had been additionally produced by Winfrey’s Harpo Productions. Winfrey endorsed Fetterman in November.

There’s one other query looming over Ouncess pivot: whether or not he stayed in Pennsylvania. His conveniently timed transfer from New Jersey to Pennsylvania—which occurred solely when there was a Senate emptiness—grew to become a key level of competition in his race.

Fetterman and Democrats repeatedly—and gleefully—attacked Ouncesas a carpetbagger and poser. At one level, Fetterman employed Snooki, of Jersey Shore fame, to name him out in a viral video. And the Democrat’s marketing campaign spent months posting memes trolling Ouncesfor the change in residence.

It’s tough to discern how a lot time Ounceshas really spent in Pennsylvania for the reason that November election. In at the least one submit shared to his social media accounts in April, Ouncesshowed himself visiting the Belmont Constitution Community in Philadelphia as a part of his work with HealthCorps.

However his household’s Instagram posts recommend he’s spent loads of time away from the Keystone State. His daughter, Daphne Oz, posted photographs this previous Thanksgiving from the household’s now-famed New Jersey mansion, suggesting Ounceshimself was probably in attendance. His son, Oliver, posted a photograph in early December from the identical residence.

This January, Ouncesposted a photograph of himself visiting a Discovery senior residing neighborhood. There aren’t any Discovery senior residing communities in Pennsylvania, or New Jersey, however there are greater than a dozen in Florida, the place Ounceshas one other residence.

In March, Ounceshimself posted a photograph celebrating St. Patrick’s Day from his Palm Seashore mansion. And in April, Daphne, a well being influencer in her personal proper, posted a photograph that confirmed the household—together with her father—spending time within the Florida residence, too

Ounceshas a number of mansions. He has 10 houses, actually—eight of which he forgot about whereas working for Senate final 12 months. Through the marketing campaign, he claimed to dwell in a $3 million residence in an upscale Philadelphia suburb that he purchased in late 2021.

The previous candidate’s ties to Pennsylvania aren’t the one remnant of his marketing campaign that appears to have disappeared: his marketing campaign web site is gone, too.

Ouncesused DoctorOz.com when he was a TV physician to advertise his present, earlier than remodeling it into his Senate marketing campaign’s homepage. Whereas it’s frequent for shedding candidates to keep up web sites lengthy after the race ends, Ouncess web site now redirects to his YouTube web page to amplify extra hit movies, like “The Purchaser’s Information To Rotisserie Hen.”

Notably, different web sites for shedding 2022 candidates, like Herschel Walker, Blake Masters and Adam Laxalt, are nonetheless dwell. Others, like Mandela Barnes’, have been repurposed to suit the candidates’ present work.

Ouncesdidn’t reply to a request for remark despatched to HealthCorps’ media contact.

However whilst Ouncesattempts to pivot again into the medical character that constructed his fortune, onlookers aren’t all the time so receptive. Whereas he nonetheless boasts followers within the remark sections who’ve lauded his semi-return to public life, many are nonetheless trolling the once-candidate with the identical jokes that hung over his Senate run.

Beneath Ouncess most up-to-date tweet exhibiting off his journey to the Philadelphia constitution college, one consumer merely stated, “OMG are you grifting faculties now?”

One other added, “Nice, now GTFO again to NJ.”