Mehmet Oz stopped at barber shops, the West Philly jazz festival, and a GOP BBQ while campaigning in Philly

Mehmet Oz took his Senate campaign to Philadelphia this weekend, crisscrossing the city to talk to potential voters and barbershop owners, and to pose for a cheesesteak photo op that got him mixed reviews.

Oz spent most of Saturday in West Philadelphia and Kensington, where his campaign said he talked primarily with Black and Latino business owners. On Friday, he stopped by Sarcone’s Bakery, Pat’s and Geno’s in South Philadelphia, and a Center City restaurant where he was spotted chatting with a Democratic state representative.

“He heard a lot about crime, issues with access to …quality care and services, about what people need in those neighborhoods,” campaign manager Casey Contres said of the Kensington stop.

The blitz of campaign events wasn’t pre-advertised, and the campaign has ignored numerous requests by The Inquirer to follow Oz on the trail. But Contres said in the case of Kensington, the campaign wanted to give Oz a more intimate and private experience walking around and talking to voters and people struggling with addiction.

“Those people don’t really get heard, and that’s something he wants to talk about, is how to talk to these communities and make sure they have a voice,” Contres said. “It doesn’t matter that he’s a Republican. There was some media throughout the day, but we didn’t do an advisory for that reason.”

Still, most of Oz’s events — including visits to eat a cheesesteak or talk to small-business owners — have been carefully controlled, with either specific media invited or none at all. The events are shared after they occur in emails and on social media in posed photos.

While Oz stumps in something of a bubble, his opponent, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, has yet to get back on the trail in earnest at all. Fetterman has been away for 10 weeks recovering from a May 13 stroke. He popped into a volunteer event near Pittsburgh earlier this month and delivered brief remarks there. But he has yet to return with consistency, and he hasn’t done an interview with the press since winning the nomination.

Oz often points to his opponent’s absence, posting Fetterman’s face on a milk carton online and calling for him to stop hiding in a video released last week.

Fetterman’s campaign has said only that he is due back soon. Several fund-raisers are slated for the next week, but it’s unclear if Fetterman will attend in person.

Oz, who won a tightly contested GOP primary that went to a recount, is aiming to improve his favorability among voters. In early polling, the majority of voters surveyed said they viewed him negatively, and he had to bat back criticisms that he wasn’t an authentic conservative throughout the primary campaign. His campaign stops in Philly are among a string of stops around Southeastern Pennsylvania and come at a moment when the field is clear with Fetterman off the trail.

On Saturday, Oz stopped at ESPM Hair Zone and the Lancaster Avenue Jazz & Arts Festival in West Philly. He went to On Point Hair Studio in Kensington and then walked through the neighborhood talking to residents there.

In the late afternoon, he attended a barbecue with GOP leaders in the Northeast, where he talked about crime in the city and the need for the party to reach across the aisle on the issue.

“I had big concerns about crime in Philadelphia. And as you travel around, it is the number one thing people tell me about,” he said. “And I think to myself, ’What can we do to make it better?’ Well, one of the issues is obviously to enforce the law, but our police officers are demoralized because … they don’t feel like they’re valued by our community.”

“If you just put your ears to the ground in Philadelphia, you hear something over and over again. ... the Democratic Party does not have an agenda for prosperity — we have to get the message out that we do,” Oz said.

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Oz encouraged Republicans at the Philly BBQ to have the courage to speak out in a city dominated by Democrats.

“I’m asking you to say what you see,” he said. “I know it’s hard. I know people will cancel you. They’ll come after you. I’ve been attacked plenty before I entered politics for saying what I saw.”

He said he sees a country “out of gas, literally. I think [Joe] Biden’s out of time, and I think Fetterman’s out of the question.”

Jabari Jones, president of the West Philadelphia Corridor Collaborative, a network of businesses in the neighborhood, said he was surprised to see Oz at the jazz festival but noted the celebrity doctor was mostly warmly received.

“Look, very rarely do Republicans in a statewide race ever come to West Philly,” Jones said. “It’s rare Democrats post-primary visit because they kind of just think, ‘They’re a Democratic city, they’re gonna vote for me.’ I got to have a little respect for someone that at least shows up, even though he knows there was a good chance he might not have been widely received.”

Jones, a conservative Democrat and likely candidate for City Council next year, said he will probably vote for Fetterman but worries about the amount of time the lieutenant governor has been off the trail.

”You gotta build momentum up, especially now with the way our city is operating,” Jones said. “He needs to get out there into the community or he’s gonna lose support. People will recognize the people who showed up vs. people who didn’t.”

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The weekend events followed trips to Pat’s and Geno’s on Friday, where Oz posted a picture at both locations, to mixed reaction. Geno Vento, the owner of Geno’s, posed with Oz in a photo, but Pat’s ownership had a more scathing reaction to seeing the candidate had stopped by.

“Do you even live in Pa? And can you spell the town you live in?” the official @PatsSteaks account tweeted, referencing Oz’s long-standing roots in New Jersey and the misspelling of his hometown, Huntingdon Valley, on his official declaration of candidacy. Fetterman’s campaign seized the moment, too, calling Oz’s stop a standard act of “tourism.”

Politicians, cheesesteaks, and the faux pas that often follow have a long history in the city.

Also over the weekend, Oz addressed the state GOP committee in Valley Forge and met with Montgomery County party leaders at an event with Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity in North Wales. He toured small businesses in Delaware County earlier this month.

Staff writer Chris Brennan contributed to this article.