WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — In the hours before former President Donald Trump’s rally in northeastern Pennsylvania, Right Side Broadcasting Network host Liz Willis said she was watching for something Saturday: Dr. Oz’s reception.

The last time Trump campaigned for the celebrity doctor-turned-Senate candidate here in the primary, she told viewers of the conservative platform, he was booed by the audience. Now that he’s the Republican nominee in a key battleground state that could decide control of the Senate, how would the MAGA faithful react?

It’s a question that the success of Oz's campaign depends on — and, lucky for him, the audience was more excited for him this time around.

But interviews with a dozen voters at the rally, which also featured gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano and congressional hopeful Jim Bognet, revealed a complicated picture: Oz is making headway with the GOP base, and many Republicans are committed to voting for him even if they have to hold their nose. However, he is still struggling with an enthusiasm gap — and even far-right disinformation being spread about him.

“I’m 50-50 on him, personally,” said Dylan Smith, a student at northeastern Pennsylvania’s Bloomsburg University, arguing that Oz isn’t conservative enough on transgender issues and distanced himself from Trump during the general election. “He has removed Trump’s endorsement on his site. … So I’m iffy on him.”

When asked if he would ultimately vote for Oz over Democratic Senate nominee John Fetterman in November, however, he said he would do so, if unenthusiastically.

Oz has been struggling to unite the GOP base since winning the primary — which went to a recount — by fewer than 1,000 votes after a brutal, costly negative ad campaign that attacked him as a “Republican in name only.” In a recent poll by Susquehanna Polling and Research, Oz was supported by likely Republican voters 78 percent to 13 percent, compared to Fetterman, who was backed by Dem