An American football star, a multimillionaire surgeon, an ex-journalist who denies Biden’s election: For the midterm elections, ex-President Donald Trump has named candidates with the most unlikely profiles who swear absolute loyalty to him.
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dr Oz, the superstar surgeon
Surgeon Mehmet Oz, 62, has long been the head of a very popular medical program and is coveting the Pennsylvania senatorship, one of the most contested seats in the midterm elections.
“I’ve known Oz for 25 years, I was on his show a few years ago,” Donald Trump said at a recent campaign meeting. The candidate told him that he was “in the best of shape” but could “lose around ten kilos,” the ex-president said happily.
“Dr. Oz,” an American millionaire of Turkish descent, has been accused by his Democratic opponent of having been parachuted into this northeastern US state, a former bastion of steel.
But the Republican, who is leading a campaign focused on crime and inflation, has benefited from a recent uptick in the polls that has left Democrats in a cold sweat.
If elected, “Dr. Oz” one of the richest senators in the US Congress.
Herschel Walker, the sportsman with saucepans
The former president, who is omnipresent in the midterm elections, continues to praise Herschel Walker, a former player in an American football franchise owned by Donald Trump.
This African American man is trying to usurp the seat of Democratic Pastor Raphael Warnock, Georgia’s first black senator ever elected.
“It will be impossible to stop him the way he was,” said the former president.
However, the campaign of this Republican, a very religious 60-year-old, has been overshadowed by several recent scandals. The candidate, known for his anti-abortion positions, has been accused of financing the abortions of two of his former companions. He and his Democratic opponent are neck and neck in the polls.
Kari Lake, former TV presenter
He is one of the most intriguing personalities of the campaign. Kari Lake, a former TV host running for Arizona governor, single-handedly embodies the Trumpism of 2022.
The 53-year-old Republican candidate, who is staunchly anti-immigration, continues to denounce the 2020 presidential outcome, saying the election was stolen from Donald Trump despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Will she accept the result of her own vote? “I’m going to win the election, that’s the result I’m going to accept,” the candidate told CNN.
JD Vance, the convert
He wasn’t always pro-Trump, as the former Republican president keeps reminding him.
JD Vance, a former soldier and author of a bestseller about the white middle class, is running for a Senate seat in Ohio – a state won by Donald Trump in the last two presidential elections.
“JD wants my support so bad he’s screwing me,” Donald Trump quipped at one of his meetings in September.
The 30-year-old, a newcomer to the American political scene, recently embraced the ideas of the real estate magnate, with whom he now appears regularly.
Gaetz, Boebert and “MTG”, ready for revenge
AFP
Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz, and Marjorie Taylor Greene.
They’re already elected to Congress, candidates for re-election, and aim to lead the way when the Republicans take control of the House of Representatives.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert and Matt Gaetz, three die-hard supporters of Donald Trump, have pledged revenge for the House investigation conducted in Congress into the former president. Their primary target: current White House tenant Joe Biden.