Dr. Oz on the cusp of history as first Muslim American senator

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Dr. Oz on Pennsylvania's tight Senate race with one week to Election Night

Pennsylvania U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz joins 'Tucker Carlson Tonight' to discuss the difference between his positions and those of his opponent Lt. Gov. John Fetterman.

Republican Mehmet Oz will make history on Tuesday if he wins a closely contested race for the United States Senate in Pennsylvania.

Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon and former television personality, would be the first Muslim American elected to the Senate – a possibility that has won little attention given voters' focus on crime and the economy.

"This is poised to be a big moment and shows how far we've come," said Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform and someone who has served as a GOP surrogate to the Muslim American community in years past. "Even in the 2000s, there were bigots who would attack any Muslim for getting a job within the Bush administration."

Some Republicans say the historic nature of Oz's candidacy has been largely ignored by the media. They argue that national outlets have shown little interest in profiling Oz's rise after spending years writing about candidates like Stacey Abrams, who is once again vying to become the first African American and woman elected governor of Georgia.

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"This is poised to be a big moment and shows how far we've come," said Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform. (Rachel Wisniewski/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

"If he was a Democrat with the same background running against a Republican that looked just like how John Fetterman looks, it's all the media and Democrats could talk about," said a top Republican strategist. "Yet, now it's dead silence."

Norquist argued that the media wasn't covering the historic nature of Oz's run because it didn't fit with the stereotype of Republicans being the party of "old, white Christian men."

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"Democrats always want to break the glass ceiling first and the media loves to embellish that narrative," he said. "Republicans had the first female Supreme Court justice, but somehow that didn't count."

Oz, a secular Muslim whose wife and children are Christian, has not made his background a top talking point. The son of Turkish immigrants has instead centered his campaign around combating crime, given Philadelphia’s exploding murder rate and Democratic nominee John Fetterman’s support for overhauling cash bail.

Oz has centered his campaign around combating crime, given Philadelphia’s exploding murder rate and Democratic nominee John Fetterman’s support for overhauling cash bail. (Branden Eastwood/AFP via Getty Images)

The issue-focused campaign strategy has put the race into toss-up territory, but Oz seems to have the momentum going into Election Day. A recent Fox News Poll found that enthusiastic support for Fetterman had dropped four percentage points over the past month.

G. Terry Madonna, a senior fellow of political affairs at Millersville University in Pennsylvania, said the issue has not been salient in an election cycle where crime, abortion and 40-year-high inflation dominate the concern of voters.

"Oz has a strong brand that was burnished by decades on television. He didn't have to spend as much time introducing himself to voters and was able to focus on issues," said Madonna. "Democrats, on the other hand, were not going to attack his religion when they could score more political points by attacking him for being pro-life."

Oz's candidacy comes at a time when Muslim Americans are increasingly responsive to traditional GOP messaging on education and social issues. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Oz's candidacy comes at a time when Muslim Americans are increasingly responsive to traditional GOP messaging on education and social issues. Last month, a viral video showed a school board meeting in Michigan in which Arab American parents castigated education officials over the inclusion of LGBTQ books in school libraries.

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"It’s not just explicit materials in schools, but they're concerned about [COVID-19] lockdowns, distance learning, the quality of education, woke politics in classrooms, and the achievement," said Preya Samsundar, a regional communications director for the Republican National Committee.