Just like Victor Frankenstein running away from his creature, Oprah Winfrey too has decided to disown her creation, saying she’d vote for Dr. Mehmet Oz’s rival in the race for U.S. Senator in Pennsylvania. On Thursday night, while hosting “A Virtual Voting Conversation” with other community leaders to discuss the importance of the midterms, Winfrey said, “If I lived in Pennsylvania, I would have already cast my vote for John Fetterman,” suggesting later that there were “clear choices out there” regarding “the values we hold dear.” Winfrey’s endorsement comes after years of extremely public friendship with Oz, beginning nearly two decades ago when she introduced him as “America’s doctor” on her show. Before Winfrey’s daytime show ended in 2011, she had helped usher in his own television project, The Dr. Oz Show. Her words mark a notable shift from the comment she offered New Yorkmagazine through a spokesperson last December: “One of the great things about our democracy is that every citizen can decide to run for public office. Mehmet Oz has made that decision. And now it’s up to the residents of Pennsylvania to decide who will represent them.”
