Democrats aren't wasting any time in looking ahead to 2022 US Senate races, knowing that there are several seats they have an opportunity to pick up. Arguably the big one is retiring GOP Sen. Pat Toomey's seat in Pennsylvania, and a popular Democrat is stepping in already: current Lieutenant Gov. John Fetterman.
“I’m running for the United States Senate for the same reason I ran for lieutenant governor in 2018 and mayor of Braddock 16 years ago—because I believe in a set of core truths,” John Fetterman said in a statement, before listing off priorities such as the “dignity of a paycheck,” unions and healthcare as a “fundamental, basic human right.”
Fetterman initially earned recognition for his attempts to revitalize the small, western Pennsylvania town of Braddock, which saw a steep decline after the steel industry collapsed there in the 1970s and 1980s. A 2011 New York Times Magazine article coined Fetterman as the “Mayor of Rust,” noting his creative efforts to bring back the town of just several thousand people. “We’ve lost 90% of our population and 90% of our buildings,” Fetterman told the Times then. “Ninety percent of our town is in a landfill. So we took a two-pronged approach. We created the first art gallery in the four-town region, with artists’ studios. We did public art installations. And, I don’t know if you consider it ‘arts,’ exactly, but I consider growing organic vegetables in the shadow of a steel mill an art, and that has attracted homesteading.”
Big Number: $1.4 million. That’s how much Fetterman has raised from small-money donors in the weeks before officially launching his bid.
Fetterman is a big proponent of marijuana legalization and criminal justice reform. On Twitter Monday, the day he launched his candidacy, Fetterman wrote: “If you’re cool with Pennsylvania minting 20,000 NEW criminal records every single year for getting caught sipping some weed, I am not your dude for 2022.”
Two unions, which carry big influence in Pennsylvania, have already endorsed Fetterman: United Steelworkers District 10 and the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776. The two unions together represent more than 80,000 workers, according to Politico.
Other candidates to enter the race. Rep. Conor Lamb (D-Pa.) is seen as another potential Democrat to run for Toomey’s seat. Prospective GOP candidates include: Rep. Ryan Costello, real-estate developer Jeff Bartos, former Navy Secretary Kenneth Braithwaite and 2018 gubernatorial candidate Paul Mango, among others.
Also, at 6'8", Fetterman would be the tallest US Senator since Alabama Republican Luther Strange (6'9") and Alan "Simpson-Bowles" Simpson at 6'7".
Personally, I like Fetterman. He played the public foil to the PA GOP's circus efforts to overturn the election and made them look like the clowns they are, and he did it on several occasions over the last two months.
We'll see how he does in the primaries.
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