(WHTM) — Two years ago, Dave McCormick and Dr. Mehmet Oz rivals on the campaign trail. Now they can be colleagues in Washington DC

Senator-elect McCormick congratulated Oz after President-elect Donald Trump nominated the former TV doctor to lead The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

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Oz tight defeated McCormick 2022 Republican Senate Primary with less than 1,000 votes. A late-race endorsement of Trump in favor of Oz likely tipped the scale Oz would go on to lose to John Fetterman in the general election.

During his Senate primary debate on abc27, McCormick called Oz a liberal flip-flopper “on all the important issues of the campaign,” especially abortion and the covid-19 response.

“The problem, Doctor, is that there is no miracle cure for flip-flopping,” McCormick said as he stood next to Oz on the debate stage.

The tone from McCormick was very different in response to Trump’s nomination of Oz.

“Congratulations @DrOz on taking on this important role!” McCormick said Tuesday. “Looking forward to working with you.”

McCormick is the projected winner of the 2024 Senate race, which is currently undergoing a recount with McCormick’s leading US Senator Bob Casey by less than half a percent.

Fetterman reacted to the nomination of his former campaign rival by saying “If Dr. Oz is about protecting and preserving Medicare and Medicaid, I’m voting for the dude.”

4 takeaways from the Fetterman-Oz debate

Before running for the Senate in 2022, Oz hosted the Emmy-winning “The Dr. Oz Show” for 13 seasons and was a frequent guest on Oprah Winfrey’s show, providing medical advice that opponents called “quack” medicine. Oz graduated from Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the Wharton Business School.

President-elect Trump said he has known Oz for “many years” and believes the heart surgeon will fight to ensure everyone in America receives the best possible health care, so our country can be great and healthy again!

“Our broken health care system is hurting everyday Americans and crushing our nation’s budget,” Trump said in his announcement Tuesday afternoon. “Dr. Oz will be a leader in driving disease prevention, so we get the best results in the world for every dollar we spend on health care in our great country. He will also reduce waste and fraud in our nation’s most expensive government agency, which is a third of our nation’s health care spending and a quarter of our entire national budget.”

Since losing the 2022 Senate race, Oz became a “global advisor and stakeholder” to health supplement company iHerb and filmed a commercial with Mike Tyson before his fight with Jake Paul.

During the 2022 debate, Oz demanded that Dr. Anthony Fauci was to be fired for his response to the covid-19 pandemic, blaming “mid-level bureaucrats who make rules and regulations, even if they are unelected, that dramatically change our country.”

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