We here at Victory Girls have been openly skeptical of Dr. Oz, both before and after his endorsement by President Trump.

Trump’s endorsement of Oz felt eerily familiar, and indicative of some of the former president’s early choices in his administration. If they were reality TV famous, or Trump felt like he understood them, then he either hired or endorsed them. Remember the days of having Omarosa in the White House, which turned out to be a disaster? It took a couple of years for the hiring and firing within the Trump White House to settle down with reliable people in place. But the Oz endorsement felt like a weird return to form, and one that took many conservatives off-guard.

This latest news is not going to help the situation.

Pennsylvania Senate candidate Mehmet Oz skipped a Senate primary election in June 2018, but cast his ballot in the Turkish presidential race days later, according to voter records obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.”

Voting records from New Jersey, where Oz lived until last year, show the TV physician did not participate in the Republican Senate primary election on June 5, 2018. The records, obtained through a public records request, show he voted in seven general elections and primaries in New Jersey since November 2014. He voted in the primary and general elections in 2016, but only in the general election in November 2018.”

Complicating this situation is the fact that Trump’s former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is supporting a different candidate in the Pennsylvania Senate primary, and brought up Oz’s Turkish vote during a rally for Dave McCormick.

The former secretary of State, who served under Trump, said McCormick is a “patriot,” unlike Oz, whom Pompeo accused of having ties to the Turkish government.”

The briefing marks a notable escalation by Pompeo, who has fueled speculation in recent months that he’s mulling a presidential run in 2024. Trump is also widely expected to mount another White House bid.”

“Dave would make an extraordinary United States senator,” Pompeo said during the briefing.”

“We criticize American candidates all the time because they didn’t vote,” Pompeo said. “This is different from that. Not only did he not engage in the American [process] but he engaged in the Turkish political process. That raises in my mind a lot of judgments about his priority.”

While some commentators want to cast this as some kind of proxy war between Trump and Pompeo, Oz has some explaining to do. And it needs to come from his mouth, not from a campaign spokesperson.

A spokeswoman for Oz’s campaign did not respond to questions about his lack of participation in the Senate primary. The spokeswoman, Brittany Yanick, said Oz cast his vote in the Turkish election while he was visiting the consulate for meetings about humanitarian work.”

“It was during an election season, so he voted. He does not regularly vote in Turkish elections,” Yanick said. She said Oz voted against Turkey’s authoritarian president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in the Turkish election. ABC News reported that Oz claimed he voted for a Turkish politician named Muharrem Ince.”

Oz’s voting record has become a focal point of an intense GOP primary race. Critics of the TV physician say his vote in the Turkish election highlights a pattern of troubling ties to Turkey. Oz has come under fire for serving in the Turkish military, holding dual Turkish-U.S. citizenship, and rubbing shoulders with Erdogan.”

I really don’t care about a turf war between Trump and Pompeo. What everyone SHOULD care about is the fact that Oz is running to be a United States senator while STILL VOTING in another country’s election. An election which is a farce to begin with, as everyone knows that Erdogan is a strongman and will not willingly give up power. Just ask Enes Kanter Freedom about his struggles with the Turkish government. It must be nice to be Mehmet Oz and not be enough of an American to be a threat to Erdogan. After all, Enes Kanter Freedom had his Turkish passport revoked and his father imprisoned because he spoke out, and was so thrilled to become an American citizen that he actually changed his last name. Somehow, Mehmet Oz, also a Turkish-born Muslim, doesn’t have the same problems with the Turkish government as Enes Kanter Freedom did. And it is a fair question to ask WHY THE HELL NOT.

Oz has said he would give up his Turkish citizenship if he was elected. That’s not good enough. He’s running for elected office in THIS country and needs to make a show of committing to the United States. His current stance of straddling the fence is not winning him the hearts and minds of Pennsylvania voters, the Trump endorsement notwithstanding.

Carrie Hamley, a Greensburg small business owner supporting Kathy Barnett, explained to me why they’re booing. pic.twitter.com/B4N5Pqwf2E

— Daniel Marans (@danielmarans) May 6, 2022

And why isn’t Kathy Barnette getting more attention in this race? Her story is one that should resonate far and wide with voters.

I’m the byproduct of rape. My mother was eleven when I was conceived.

In the world the Left desires, I would never have been born.

We need leaders with a steady hand to direct our nation through these difficult discussions.

Help me by sharing my story:https://t.co/JNGw8gNts0 pic.twitter.com/lqzufvxzQR

— Kathy Barnette (@Kathy4Truth) May 3, 2022

Maybe Trump and Pompeo are BOTH wrong and Barnette is the candidate that can win hearts and minds in the Senate primary. The primary is scheduled for May 17th. We shall see how this continues to play out, and if Oz finally gives up his Turkish citizenship. He currently holds the lead in the most recent polls, but polls aren’t votes, and the right candidate in this race can make life a lot easier for the GOP and a lot harder for Democrats. Having Oz as the candidate will not make life easier for the GOP.

Featured image: On Being via Jim Gillooly/PEI on Flickr, cropped, Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)