Mehmet Oz, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, greets Republican congressional candidate Lisa Scheller while touring the Allentown Farmers Market on Thursday, July 21, 2022. (Joseph Scheller/The Morning Call)

Mehmet Oz — the former heart surgeon and TV talk show host who moved from New Jersey to Pennsylvania to run for U.S. Senate — on Thursday afternoon brought his campaign to Allentown, where he asked residents to support him if they want a change from Democratic leadership.

Focusing on the economy, Oz toured the Allentown Farmers Market in west Allentown, shaking hands and taking photos with both supporters and fans of his talk show. He was joined by other Republican candidates, including Lisa Scheller, the party’s nominee for the Lehigh Valley’s congressional district,

Asked to summarize his conversations with voters, he said the biggest concern of many is the high cost of living.

“The basics they pick here, the normal food they buy, they have to adjust because of the high cost,” Oz said.

Consumer prices increased by 9.1% in June according to the Consumer Price Index, the highest 12-month increase since 1981. The solution, in Oz’s view, is allowing drilling on federal land and loosening regulations on natural gas production, which would help bring down gas prices, as well as curbing federal spending.

[  MORE: In first media interview since stroke, John Fetterman says he’s ‘100% able’ to run for Pa. Senate despite some lingering difficulties ]

Oz, the son of Turkish immigrants, is the former host of “The Dr. Oz Show,” the daytime health-themed series that aired 2009-22. Oz launched his campaign for Senate in November, earning former President Donald Trump’s endorsement. He narrowly won the Republican nomination in May, edging out former hedge fund director David McCormick by around 1,000 votes.

Oz faces Democratic nominee Lt. Gov. John Fetterman in the general election in November for the open Senate seat being vacated by Republican Pat Toomey of Lehigh County, who decided not to seek reelection. Election forecaster FiveThirtyEight predicts a close race between the two candidates, with Fetterman ahead by 2 percentage points, well within the margin of error.

Denise Velez of Bethlehem, who plans to vote for Oz, said her biggest concerns as a voter are drug addiction, homelessness and poverty. She believes Republican candidates are best equipped to address those issues and a change in leadership is needed.

“For me, that is No. 1. Our country needs a lot of help,” Velez said. “We have an economy that’s just sinking. Right here in this town‚ a one-bedroom [apartment] can cost $1,500. If you’re by yourself and making $15 an hour, you can’t survive off of that.”

Daniel Wuchter, owner of several farmers market stands including Dan’s Bar-B-Qued Chicken, connected with Oz, but not about their political views. Wuchter recently underwent heart surgery to implant a medical device called the MitraClip. Oz helped develop the device’s technology.

[  MORE: Mehmet Oz brands John Fetterman as Bernie Sanders 2.0. How similar are they?  ]

Wuchter said he does not closely follow politics and did not name specific issues on which he agrees with Oz, but said he and his whole family plan to vote for Oz.

Not everyone Oz spoke with at the farmers market was a supporter. A man who did not identify himself approached Oz to ask, “Why are you so against abortion?”

Oz said he supports leaving the legality of abortion up to the states, in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court decision last month that struck down the right to abortion nationwide and left it up to the states to decide. Many Republican-leaning states have already moved to ban abortion.

Later Thursday, around 60 people packed into the Allentown RNC Community Center on Union Boulevard to hear from Oz. In a 20-minute speech, Oz touted his background as an immigrant and experience as a doctor, and appealed to voters’ frustration with high prices and perceived high crime.

“How many of you think Washington is getting it wrong?” Oz asked the crowd.

The crowd responded with a resounding “yes.”

“If you’re happy with where America’s going, then you have a person who wants to take Joe Biden further left,” Oz said of Fetterman.

As a senator, Oz would advocate for stricter border control, less government spending and stricter penalties for crime, he said.

Fetterman has been largely absent on the campaign trail since he won the primary, having suffered a stroke in May. He expects to return to campaigning soon, he said in a recent interview, but in the meantime has taken to Twitter to criticize Oz’s campaign, celebrity status and roots in New Jersey.

Morning Call reporter Lindsay Weber can be reached at 610-820-6681 and liweber@mcall.com.