Mehmet Oz, the Republican Senate candidate in Pennsylvania, appeared to mistakenly say the state is on the Atlantic Coast during an appearance on the Fox News show hosted by Sean Hannity.
While Pennsylvania borders the Delaware River, which leads to Delaware Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, it isn’t actually a coastal state.
Dr Oz is in a competitive race against Democratic Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman to replace outgoing Republican Senator Pat Toomey in the Keystone State.
“Pennsylvania is too important,” Dr Oz told Mr Hannity. “This is important, we do not have a Republican senator north of North Carolina on the Atlantic coast until you get to Maine if I don’t hold this seat. And there has been a Republican senator in Pennsylvania most of my life. I’m gonna keep one here as well.”
The last time Pennsylvania was represented by two Democratic Senators was in 2009 when Republican Arlen Specter switched parties. Mr Specter then lost the Democratic primary, with the winning candidate, Navy Admiral Joe Sestak, losing to Mr Toomey in the 2010 midterms.
Democrat Bob Casey has represented Pennsylvania in the Senate since 2007.
Before Mr Specter switched parties, the last time Pennsylvania had two Democratic Senators was between 1945 and 1947.
Twitter users were quick to mock Dr Oz for his geographic miss, noting that he has lived in New Jersey, an actual coastal state, for decades, and only recently moved to Pennsylvania to run for Senate.
Mr Fetterman has blasted Dr Oz, accusing him of being a carpetbagger.
“Maybe he’s just confused since New Jersey is on the coast and that’s the state where he actually lives,” one Twitter user said.
“Maybe Oz thinks the Delaware River is the Atlantic Ocean?” another asked.
“If you want to be a senator on the east coast, you should have stayed in New Jersey, get a map please,” a third said.
“Hey ‘doc’ your home in NJ might be on the water, but PA has no coastline the last time I checked,” one account holder added.
“Dude. It’s Joisey Shore. Not Pennsylvanian Shore,” one Twitter user said.
“In fairness to Oz he’s thinking of NJ, where he actually lives,” another added.
Douglas Charles said Dr Oz’s comments were “what [people] from New Jersey say”.
“Dr Oz still thinks he lives in New Jersey. Little does he know, he’ll be ‘moving back’ very soon,” Grant Stern added.
“Make no mistake, Mehmet Oz lives in a coastal state... it’s just not Pennsylvania,” Craig Harrington, research director at watchdog Media Matters, said. “He owns like a dozen houses all around the country. People this rich don’t really ‘move to’ anywhere. A decent comp would be Mitt Romney, who lived almost exclusively in Massachusetts and California before running for office in Utah, but he at least actually had ties to Utah.”
