ERIE, Pa. — Flanked by two large American flags draped on the wall behind him, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman took to the podium Friday night for his first rally of his 2022 Senate bid — and his first stop in public campaign after suffering a stroke in May.
But amid attacks from his Republican opponent, Mehmet Oz, about his absence from the inquest — and insistence that Fetterman hid in the basement during the summer months while recovering from a stroke — Fetterman did not shy away from the topic as he addressed the crowd at Friday night.
In fact, he was leading with it.
Introduced by his wife Giselle, who had cheering fans of her own, she called him a “stroke survivor” and thanked the crowd for welcoming her husband back to the aisle. Barely missing a beat, Fetterman stepped up to the microphone and tackled Oz’s rhetoric directly.
“Are we in Erie or have I got 1,400 people in my basement?” he joked. According to the campaign, the final number of attendees was 1,355.
The Senate candidate continued to recap his stroke experience, becoming visibly emotional as he recounted the story of how his wife caught wind of his stroke before it was too late. “Giselle saved my life,” he said, adding that he was grateful it happened near a well-equipped health facility, in an apparent touchstone for his stance on endorsing access to quality health care across the country.
“I’m just so grateful. And I’m very lucky. So thank you for being here tonight,” he said.
Fetterman’s return to the campaign trail marked a significant turning point in the race. Projected as one of the most competitive races this cycle, Democrats need every advantage they can get in Pennsylvania, including valuable face time with voters. Pennsylvania has also been targeted by national Democrats as one of their best pick-ups — potentially increasing their Senate numbers or simply preventing the loss of a Democratic majority.
Although Fetterman faced some pushback for not being completely transparent about the nature of his shot from the start, there didn’t seem to be any love lost for his base on Friday.
“He was extremely open and responsive … Things happen to human bodies. Things have happened to both of us and we’re coming in here,” Erie resident Jane Usher told The Daily Beast as she gestured to her partner.
The crowd that lined the entry block was filled with black and white Fetterman campaign signs on cardboard. Campaign staff provided rally participants with yellow and black rags emblazoned with “Fetterman” to wave in the air — like the Pittsburgh Steelers’ signature “Terrible Towels.” Classic rock blasted from the speakers at the Bayfront Convention Center, a venue right on the shores of Lake Erie.
Looking exactly as he did when he left the campaign trail three months ago, Fetterman wore his signature hoodie and baggy bottoms.
The Democratic Senate candidate didn’t mince words in outlining why Erie County was his choice for his first campaign of the Senate cycle. A longtime Pennsylvania political leader, Erie is a capsule of everything Fetterman’s campaign hopes to highlight this cycle.
It’s a blue-collar, working-class part of the state that doesn’t vote Democrat by default. It fits right into his “every district, every vote” model — a catchphrase he uses to argue that Democrats should target votes in deep-red districts just as much as they do in their metropolitan safe havens.
“If you can’t win Erie County, you can’t win Pennsylvania,” Fetterman told the crowd.
Spending only about 10 minutes on stage before shaking hands and taking a selfie, Fetterman had another important topic on the agenda: Oz.
Like his Twitter feed, which has devolved into a steady stream of nonsense about the Republican hopeful, Fetterman fired off lively one-liners about the TV doctor and asked the crowd, “Do you think Dr. Oz could fill a room like this? “
The crowd responded sharply with shouts of “No.”
Reached for comment, Oz’s campaign said Fetterman “refuses to be honest with Pennsylvanians or the press about his radical politics and his history of not being a show for the community.”
“Meanwhile, Dr. Mehmet Oz is campaigning across the country, listening and sharing the concerns of the people he meets, and standing up for Pennsylvanians, unlike John Fetterman.” Pennsylvanians deserve answers now from Fetterman. It’s been too long,” said Brittany Yannick, Oz’s director of communications.
Fetterman also called out the press, suggesting they do a fact-check on how many mansions Oz owns. (It’s hard to say exactly how many mansions Oz owns, but Oz listed assets of $100 million in his campaign filings.)
John Whaley, another Erie resident, told The Daily Beast that he voted for Fetterman instead of simply voting against Oz. But Whaley added that he suspects some people are voting “just to keep Oz out.”
“MAGA geeks and ultra MAGAs alike,” Whaley added, “we don’t need any of that.”
Mike Kurutz, another Erie Democrat, told The Daily Beast he thinks politics doesn’t need another “entertainer,” questioning whether someone like Carrot Top could be next.
Oz’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Fetterman’s appearance Friday night — and Fetterman did not take questions from reporters at the event.
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