Dr. Mehmet Oz, best known as the television personality “Dr. Oz,” endorsed lockdowns and complimented China’s strategy for defeating the coronavirus at the outset of the pandemic — seemingly harmless remarks for a prominent doctor to make when so little was known about the disease.

Nearly two years later, those comments stand to haunt Oz as he seeks the Republican Senate nomination in Pennsylvania, a state with a blue-collar conservative base loyal to former President Donald Trump. These crucial voters are suspicious of Beijing and have chaffed under business closures and other coronavirus restrictions.