Dr. Oz is running for US Senate as a Republican in Pennsylvania

Dr. Mehmet Oz has announced that he is running as a Republican for a U.S. Senate seat in the state of Pennsylvania.

"Pennsylvania needs a conservative who will put America first, one who can reignite our divine spark, bravely fight for freedom, and tell it like it is. That's why I'm running for Senate," the celebrity television personality who hosts "The Dr. Oz Show" declared in a video.

"I’m a world-class surgeon, fighter, and health care advocate stepping forward to cure our country’s ills," he tweeted.

GOP Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania announced last year that he would not run for re-election during the 2022 contest.

In making his pitch to Pennsylvania voters, Dr. Oz is discussing issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Covid-19 became an excuse for government and elite thinkers who controlled the means of communication, especially social media and our major news agencies, to suspend debate. Dissenting opinions from leading scholars, even Nobel Laureates, were cancelled and ridiculed so their ideas could not be disseminated. Doctors were forbidden from prescribing legal medications for the first time in our nation’s history. I tried to fund clinical trials to re-purpose an already widely used drug for possible benefits against Covid-19, but they were banned. Instead, government mandated policies that caused unnecessary suffering," he said in a post about why he is running.

"The American public was patronized and misled instead of empowered," he wrote. "And the arrogant, closed-minded people in charge closed our schools, shut down our businesses and took away our freedom."

Oz is joining the GOP primary field after Sean Parnell, a Republican candidate who had been endorsed by former President Donald Trump, suspended his campaign earlier this month.