John Fetterman — the hulking, tattooed, hoodie-wearing lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania — constitutes Democrats’ best hope to steal a Senate seat from Republicans this fall. And while few politicians can match his style, or could pull it off, Democrats can learn a lot from his approach.
Part of Fetterman’s skill as a politician is that he seems to have successfully transcended some of the factional divides that have hobbled Democrats in recent years. He has many of the same friends and enemies as the party’s progressive faction, having endorsed Bernie Sanders for president in 2016 and stomped moderate favorite Conor Lamb in last week’s primary for U.S. Senate. Yet he has managed to avoid progressives’ demands to make suicidal policy commitments.
He’s favorable to fracking and nuclear power, for example, two major no-no’s for the left. He says he wants President Joe Biden to continue his predecessor’s pandemic-era policy of deporting asylum-seekers at the southern border. Despite past support for "Medicare for All," he’s now evasive and non-committal as to where he stands on that litmus test. And at a time when pro-Israel groups and progressives are at war in Democratic primaries across the country, he’s promised to “lean in” on the U.S.-Israel relationship.
