PHILADELPHIA — He rallied in Erie and marched in Pittsburgh. He held a town hall at a rural inn in Franklin County, spoke to union members in the Lehigh Valley, and headlined Democratic dinners in Northeastern Pennsylvania. But since launching his campaign in February 2021, Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman hasn’t held a public event in Pennsylvania’s biggest, bluest city.
Until now.
On Saturday, less than 50 days before a general election that could decide control of the U.S. Senate, Fetterman will hold his first open event in Philadelphia as he rallies with U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans. It’s an unusually late arrival in a state where Philadelphia and Pittsburgh form the foundation of Democratic support. The two cities, and their increasingly solid-blue suburbs, have only become more critical to Democrats in recent years — helping the party offset its significant losses in the small towns and rural areas that have struggled with fading industries.
A central part of Fetterman’s pitch is his promise to campaign in all 67 counties while offering Democratic solutions to the issues that have driven many rural voters toward the GOP. But his more recent schedule, as his campaigning ramps back up after his May stroke, suggests a focus on the state’s vote-rich population centers.
The lieutenant governor was in rural Indiana County on Tuesday, Pittsburgh on Labor Day, and Scranton last weekend. He rallied for abortion rights in Montgomery County the weekend before, and is coming Saturday to Philadelphia and the Lehigh Valley.
“All of us know we have to energize voters and that’s gonna require a more personal presence, which he’s aware of,” said state Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams, a Philadelphia Democrat. “He’s been here at different spots but we are gonna up the level of connectivity.”
Philadelphia accounted for 17% of Joe Biden’s Pennsylvania votes in the 2020 presidential election, and he showered attention on the city, choosing it for rallies, major speeches and his campaign headquarters.
But in this race, Republican nominee Mehmet Oz has held more public events in Philly than Fetterman, including a five-hour swing Monday through Germantown and Kensington. Oz has highlighted Philadelphia’s record homicides as evidence of failed Democratic leadership, painting Fetterman as soft on crime because of his support for clemency for some people convicted of serious offenses after they had served lengthy sentences.
Oz’s allies have also aired TV ads in Philadelphia aiming to dampen enthusiasm for the Democrat by attacking Fetterman over the 2013 incident in which he grabbed a shotgun and chased down a Black jogger. Fetterman has said he heard gunshots and reacted in an instant, thinking the jogger was involved, but he wasn’t.
“Whether it’s ... his support for letting murderers back on the streets, or the fact that he still refuses to apologize for chasing an unarmed Black man with a shotgun, John Fetterman doesn’t share the values of the people of Philadelphia,” said Oz campaign adviser Barney Keller. “Dr. Oz has repeatedly campaigned in Philadelphia, has released a detailed plan for disadvantaged communities, and in the Senate will do everything he can to save people suffering from the drug crisis.”
After an Oz-led roundtable on gun violence in Germantown, Don Jackson, who runs a technical training program for young people, said he’d be supporting the Republican and voiced frustration that Fetterman hasn’t paid more attention to shootings.
”I don’t see John Fetterman having any kind of meetings like this except for the fact that maybe he’ll come talk about prison reform,” Jackson said. “But the problem with prison reform is a lot of people who actually were guilty get out.”
Fetterman has been to the city multiple times during his campaign. He has held private meetings and fundraisers, and recently walked the 52nd Street corridor while touring Black-owned businesses with several local officials. That event, like the others, wasn’t open to the public or the media.
Fetterman, who lives near Pittsburgh in Braddock, has long made clear his allegiances to Western Pennsylvania, often waving Steelers and Sheetz banners on the trail. He was off the campaign trail for nearly three months after suffering a stroke in May.
“Part of our motto has been ‘every county every vote,’ and while a lot of people write about that in terms of not ignoring rural communities ... it very much also means every neighborhood, every block in cities like Philadelphia,” said Fetterman campaign manager Brendan McPhillips, a Philadelphian. “He’ll be back a lot for sure.”
Top Democrats in Philadelphia, and many Black leaders, have long warned candidates against simply showing up when they need votes. But Democratic officials and other civic leaders said they’re not worried about Fetterman’s campaign schedule, or the city turnout.
Several Democrats pointed to the overall stakes of the election as motivation enough for voters.
“Not only is the continued health and growth of West Philadelphia at stake, our basic human rights are also at stake,” said City Council member Jamie Gauthier. “So there’s no concern over how many times he’s been here — we know we have to get him in office.”
Fetterman is rallying Saturday in Northwest Philly, in one of the most reliably Democratic areas of a very Democratic city. The ward he’s visiting voted for Biden over former President Donald Trump by 14,930 to 423 — the fifth largest Democratic margin of the city’s 66 wards.
“(Fetterman) knows where he has to go,” said Ryan Boyer, head of the powerful Philadelphia Building & Construction Trades Council. “African American women have been the backbone of the Democratic Party for a very long time.”
Fetterman has also been reaching voters for months with TV ads and through online outreach.
Still, he took sharp criticism from some of the city’s Black clergy during the Democratic primary for not attending a candidate forum that all his rivals did. Fetterman at the time said he had to preside over the state Senate (though that’s a task he has at times delegated to others).
At least one of those religious leaders is glad to see Fetterman coming now.
“I’m grateful that he’s going to show up,” said Allyn Waller, pastor of the Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church. “He needs to, and hopefully he is going to acquit himself well.”
Waller and others listed a range of issues they said are important to Philadelphia, particularly Black voters, while warning candidates in both parties that their concerns go well beyond criminal justice and police reform. “We have kitchen table concerns as well,” Waller said.
“The Democratic Party has to give an answer for why under Trump our (retirement plans) grew, and why those same things are not growing now,” Waller said. He later added, “There may be a very good reason why. But for those who are not as close to the process, there needs to be an explanation.”
And while Fetterman has spoken many times about the jogger incident, Waller still has questions. “What was he thinking? What was he intending to do? What authority did he believe he had? And I want to hear him explain it.”
Waller and others also pointed to worries about the cost of college education, crime in the city, and the need for job opportunities. Some linked them together.
“A person that’s making $25 or $35 an hour is not out shooting anyone, because they have an opportunity,” said Anton Moore, a South Philadelphia Democratic ward leader.
In past campaigns, it made strategic sense for Fetterman to focus on other parts of the state. His two primary opponents in the 2016 Senate race were both from Southeastern Pennsylvania, leaving him as the only one who could claim Western Pennsylvania as home. It was Fetterman against three Southeastern Pennsylvania rivals, including two Philadelphians, in his 2018 primary for lieutenant governor. That year, he won by carrying virtually every county west of Harrisburg, while his opponents split up the east.
In this year’s Senate primary Fetterman simply romped, winning all 67 counties. His lowest margin, though, was in Philly, where State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta was a local rival.
Evans, the congressman who will co-host Saturday’s rally, said peeling off votes elsewhere is smart, even if it means fewer Philly visits.
“In Pennsylvania especially,” Evans said, “you’ve gotta do whatever works.”
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