Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman – who brands himself as “a different kind of Democrat” – announced his run for the US Senate Monday.
Fetterman is the first major candidate to announce his candidacy for the Pennsylvania seat that will be vacated by retiring Republican Pat Toomey in 2022.
The 6-foot-8, former college football player is known for his unorthodox style, eschewing business suits in favor of blue collar work clothes during his political rise from mayor of the hard-scrabble struggling steel town of Braddock.
“I came to Braddock, you know 20 years ago because I wanted to work and fight against the inequality that I saw raging in this country,” Fetterman said over eerie music and shots of rundown neighborhoods in his campaign launch video.
“Braddock was a marginalized, wholly abandoned community. But that’s exactly where I wanted to spend my career,” the voice over continues, as the candidate shows off crude arm tattoos of his zip code, and the dates of the homicides committed in town under his leadership.
In between clips of interviews with Stephen Colbert and news anchors talking about his bipartisan appeal, Fetterman makes his plea to disenfranchised Rust Belt residents.
“These places across Pennsylvania feel left behind. They don’t feel [like] part of the conversation. That’s why Donald Trump went to these small counties and held these big rallies. Talk is cheap but for the last 20 years I’ve been working to represent, rebuild and to advance these places,” Fetterman said in the promotional video.
The Harvard-educated, conservative-reared, progressive politician is well known for officiating a gay marriage before it was legal in the state.
Fetterman’s campaign website highlights his support for organized labor, recreational marijuana, gay rights and a $15 minimum wage.
Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman speaks during a news conference about legal action in the dispute between health insurance providers UPMC and Highmark on Feb. 7, 2019, in Pittsburgh. AP Photo/Keith SrakocicHe is a proponent of health care and criminal justice reform, backs Black Lives Matter and is seeking donations of as little as $1 online from his grassroots base.
He raised $1.4 million in the weeks before the announcement, according to Politico.
The Democrat ran for the Senate seat in 2016, but failed to secure his party’s nomination.
Fetterman, his wife Gisele and their three children chose to not live in the Lt. Governor’s Mansion in Harrisburg, and instead opened up the pool to children in need.
The Fetterman family lives in a restored car dealership in Braddock.
