Pennsylvania’s Democratic lieutenant governor, John Fetterman, opted to attend President Biden’s Pittsburgh speech Friday despite intially not being scheduled to do so. 

Fetterman, who is running for the Senate seat held by retiring Republican Pat Toomey, watched Biden’s remarks from a seat next to his Democratic primary rival, Pittsburgh-area US Rep. Conor Lamb. 

The scheduled absence of Fetterman and state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the party’s likely gubernatorial nominee, raised eyebrows as a potential indicator that the Keystone State’s top two Democrats up for election this year were giving the struggling president a wide berth. 

However, Fetterman — clad in shorts, a hooded jacket, and a face mask — greeted Biden at the site of a bridge collapse Friday morning in the Steel City, about four miles from the converted steel mill where the president spoke in the afternoon.

The lieutenant governor had told the Associated Press he was committed to attending a Friday evening meeting of the Democratic state committee in Harrisburg, approximately 200 miles away, and would have to miss the pre-scheduled event with the president. However, he apparently changed his mind and showed up to the speech, earning a shout-out from Biden in the process. 

“John, if I had you in front of me when I was playing at Delaware, I could have been an all-American,” Biden joked, referring to his brief career on the freshman football team at his alma mater.

Shapiro spokesperson Will Simons did not detail what was keeping the state AG away from Biden’s event, but noted that Shapiro had appeared with the president three times in the summer and fall of 2021.

“Josh Shapiro is running to be the governor of Pennsylvania and he’s focused on the issues that matter to Pennsylvania families,” Simons told the AP. “Like every American should, Josh wants our president to be successful and we’ll continue welcoming President Biden to his home state of Pennsylvania.”

Biden was also joined on his trip by term-limited Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), who is not up for re-election until 2024.

Shapiro is not the first Democratic candidate to distance himself from the president as Biden’s job approval rating continues to drop. 

Earlier this month, Georgia Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Stacey Abrams missed Biden’s Atlanta speech calling on the Senate to pass election reform legislation due to a “scheduling” issue. 

At the time, Biden assured reporters “everything is fine” between him and Abrams. 

“I spoke to Stacey this morning. We have a great relationship. We got our scheduling mixed up,” the president said. “I talked with her at length this morning. We are all on the same page and everything is fine.”

In November, Beto O’Rourke — the presumptive Democratic nominee for Texas governor — declined to invite Biden to campaign with him, saying his campaign will not be “about anyone from outside our state.”

“This campaign in Texas is not going to be about Joe Biden. It’s not going to be about Donald Trump. It’s not going to be about anyone from outside of our state. This is going to be about the people of Texas and what the people of Texas want,” O’Rourke told CNN. “I’m focused on Texas and on my fellow Texans. Those are the people most important to me. There’s no politician, there’s no other person from outside of this state who can help change the course of this election, for better or for worse.”

Some have speculated that Biden’s low poll numbers are driving the distance between the president and high-profile candidates. 

A recent poll found Biden trailing a generic Republican presidential candidate by nine percentage points — 46 percent to 37 percent. 

Biden was born in Scranton and lived in Pennsylvania until the age of 10. The state’s 20 electoral votes were crucial to putting him over the top in the 2020 presidential election. However, a November poll found that Pennsylvania voters would have picked Trump by six percentage points — 51 percent to 45 percent — in a rerun of the contest.

In October, a survey done by Franklin and Marshall College found that only 32 percent of Keystone State voters thought Biden was doing an “excellent” or “good” job as president — a 14 percentage-point drop from June. The poll also found that Pennsylvania Democrats were losing faith in the president as well, with their approval of Biden dropping from 78 percent to 62 percent. 

Biden’s nationwide job approval rating has steadily dropped since taking office last year, as his administration has attempted to grapple with several crises including a surge in illegal immigration, the chaotic troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, the COVID-19 pandemic, and most recently, high tensions with Russia over Ukraine. 

According to polling averages calculated by RealClearPolitics, only 40.8 percent of Americans approve of the 46th president while 54.8 percent disapprove.

With Post wires