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Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, will make his first in-person campaign stop since having a stroke before the May primary on Friday night in Erie.
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John Fetterman's return to the campaign trail predictably starts in Erie, 1 of Pa.'s most pivotal regions

Keith Srakocic/Associated Press

John Fetterman's return to the campaign trail predictably starts in Erie, 1 of Pa.'s most pivotal regions

It never would have taken a political savant to guess the location of John Fetterman’s grand return to the campaign trail. 

It was always going to be Erie.

For years, Mr. Fetterman has seen Erie for the seesaw that it is — the swing county in Pennsylvania that’s correctly guessed the winner of the past two presidential elections and may decide this crucial race for the U.S. Senate.

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Now, he’ll head there for his first official campaign rally since suffering a stroke almost three months ago, just days before winning the Democratic primary and becoming his party’s torchbearer for a general election showdown against Republican Mehmet Oz, the cardiothoracic surgeon and TV celebrity.

Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the Democratic nominee for Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate seat, speaks during a Senate campaign rally on Friday, Aug. 12, 2022, at Bayfront Convention Center in Erie.
Julian Routh
John Fetterman ‘grateful to be here’ at Erie campaign rally for U.S. Senate

His return to the trail on Friday night has been highly anticipated across party lines. Democrats expect a sizable crowd at the Bayfront Convention Center to welcome their candidate back to the trail — a collective sigh of relief, too, that they no longer have to fend off questions about their nominee’s physical absence.

Republicans, meanwhile, have been poking fun at Mr. Fetterman’s absence, contrasting it with Mr. Oz’s rugged schedule through diners, county fairs and manufacturing plants in the early days of the general election campaign.

That’s despite the fact that Mr. Fetterman has been at home recovering from a stroke; doctors attached a pacemaker with a defibrillator to Mr. Fetterman’s heart, intended to treat his cardiomyopathy, a diagnosis he received after his stroke.

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If anything, all Mr. Fetterman missed was the “summer picnic circuit,” quipped Jim Wertz, chairman of the Erie County Democratic Party, who — like others — have noted the campaign typically doesn’t heat up until the end of August. 

He’s back, Mr. Wertz said, and Erie Democrats are going to show up for him on Friday like they did in the primary, when he won more than 23,000 votes in Erie, about six times the amount of second-place primary finisher, U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb.

“He has always and persistently pushed issues that are not necessarily partisan or run along partisan lines. They are people-centered issues and they speak to working people across the commonwealth,“ Mr. Wertz said of Mr. Fetterman’s Erie appeal.

Mr. Fetterman will speak at the event, officials say, and the guest list likely will include a number of elected officials and candidates from across Western Pennsylvania. Mr. Wertz said he’s spoken to people from across the commonwealth who planned on making the drive.

Pennsylvania Senate candidates John Fetterman, left, and Mehmet Oz.
Julian Routh
Mehmet Oz, John Fetterman getting their messages out during the calm before the storm

To Republicans, Mr. Oz has been doing a lot of driving himself. The National Republican Senatorial Committee says he has hosted more than 130 events across Pennsylvania. The Oz campaign has used that stat to hit Mr. Fetterman, with a spokeswoman saying this week, “It’s remarkable that John Fetterman could hide from Pennsylvania voters and the media for this long.”

On Wednesday night, Mr. Oz wrote on Twitter — at 7:52 p.m. — that it had been 90 days since Mr. Fetterman’s last public campaign event. Mr. Fetterman replied with a photo from a campaign event he was doing at 7:52 p.m., in front of an audience in Camp Hill.

Mr. Fetterman was attending a fundraiser with about 200 people.

“Key word: public,” Mr. Oz jabbed back. “Attending a private fundraiser is a little different than hearing from Pennsylvanians that will be impacted by your radical policies.”

Matt Roan, who chairs the Democratic Committee in Cumberland County, attended the fundraiser and said Mr. Fetterman gave remarks about the state of his campaign, his strategy to go after voters in all 67 counties — not just the blue areas — and the stakes of the race.

“He was what you would expect from John Fetterman speaking to a group of supporters, getting them fired up for the election in November,” Mr. Roan said.

Friday will be a different beast.

As politicians from both parties have boasted in recent years, as goes Erie, so goes Pennsylvania.

Tom Eddy, chair of the Erie County Republican Committee, said the contrast between Mr. Fetterman and Mr. Oz hasn’t yet been outlined for voters in the county, where paid television advertising is expensive and spills over into western New York and eastern Ohio.

Mr. Oz has visited a few times recently, Mr. Eddy said, and did so as recently as last week when he attended the Fraternal Order of Police’s state convention.

“I think many of these candidates really have recognized that Erie is a microcosm of the entire state,” Mr. Eddy said, noting that the county has manufacturing and agriculture hubs, three colleges, an immigrant population and a city.

Do well here, and it’s indicative of how you’ll do elsewhere in Pennsylvania, Mr. Eddy added.

Mr. Fetterman would agree. A few days before his stroke, he attended a Democratic Party dinner in Erie, and told the crowd of party officials that the county has rightfully taken its spot as the “quintessential Pennsylvania county.”

“The leadership you have shown — and will show — will be critical in turning this seat blue,” Mr. Fetterman said at the time.

Since the stroke, he has been recovering at home in Braddock and staying locked-in on campaign strategy and messaging, his team says. 

In his first media interview since suffering the stroke, Mr. Fetterman, 52, told the Post-Gazette in July that he’s “feeling really good,” said he has “nothing to hide” on the status of his health and described the lingering effects of his stroke as minor and infrequent.

Julian Routh: jrouth@post-gazette.com 

First Published: August 12, 2022, 10:00 a.m.
Updated: August 12, 2022, 10:02 a.m.

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Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, will make his first in-person campaign stop since having a stroke before the May primary on Friday night in Erie.  (Keith Srakocic/Associated Press)
Keith Srakocic/Associated Press
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