Republican Pennsylvania U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz announced he would support legislation to codify same-sex marriage if he were elected.
“Dr. Mehmet Oz believes that same-sex couples should have the same freedom to get married as straight couples,” Oz’s communications director told The Hill on Tuesday.
Oz made his revelation after recent polls show him trailing behind his Democrat opponent, Lt. Governor John Fetterman, who has consistently hammered the celebrity doctor for being from New Jersey.
The Respect for Marriage Act passed the House last week with a vote of 267-157 and faces an uphill battle in the U.S. Senate where it would need the support of 10 Republican Senators. Republican minority leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (KY) has said he will wait for the bill to reach the Senate floor before commenting.
“I’m not going to make an observation about that until the issue is actually brought up in the Senate,” he said.
Sens. Roy Blunt (R-IA), Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Mitt Romney (R-UT) have not commented on the bill but are considered potential “Yes” votes, while Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) called the bill a stupid waste of time in the face of Americans facing problems like inflation and high gas prices.
“I’m not going to focus on the agenda dictated by a bunch of affluent, elite liberals and a bunch of Marxist misfits who sadly today control the agenda of the modern Democratic Party,” Rubio recently said.
Rubio was responding to criticisms from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
“Our marriage deserves to be treated equally. I don’t know why this would be so hard for a senator or a congressman,” said Buttigieg. “I don’t understand how such a majority of the House Republicans voted no on our marriage as recently as Tuesday, hours after I was in a room with a lot of them, talking transportation policy, having what I thought were perfectly normal conversations — just for them to go around the corner and say my marriage doesn’t deserve to continue.”