Combating Inequality in a Forgotten Land: John Fetterman's Fight for a Progressive Future in Pennsylvania
An Early Contender for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania in 2022, Fetterman Hopes to Carry the Progressive Torch Directly into Blue Collar America
Steel mills stand imposing over their landscape. Giants’ chemistry sets. Colossuses erected with towering metal stacks atop mammoth furnaces connected by bending chutes and treacherous scaffolding. Central, they are the beating heart of their surrounding communities. Their shadows are stained into the ground. The roads that lead there and back are lined with duplicated utilitarian homes. Homes of that which they had lacked in panache hade made up for in promise not so long ago. Towns of undeniable Americana, but an Americana now facing multigenerational decline. A domestic industry unable to compete on a global stage, leaving behind rusted industrial ruins and a people forsaken there.
Braddock, Pennsylvania is home to Edgar Thomson Steel Works, one of the only remaining steel producing facilities in the whole of the state. It is a relic of this not-so distant-industrial past. While this steel mill has remained functioning since 1862, Braddock has not escaped industrial decay. With a fleeing population and commercial sector, a steep decline in household income and subsequent rise in crime rates, abandoned and destitute property, and the evaporation of private and public funds for repair, Braddock exhibits all the hallmarks of a town in ruin. This is rust belt ground zero, a case study in America’s deserted proletariat, and the home of John Fetterman, one of the country's most intriguing progressive leaders.
Fetterman has had an admirable and model rise in politics. Beginning on the ground floor in community service, he worked first with the Boys and Girls Club and later AmeriCorps. He made his first stint in Western Pennsylvania working with at risk students in the Pittsburgh area. His role with AmeriCorps lapsed shortly while earning a Master’s in Public Policy at Harvard, only to return to this position and Western PA, but now taking root in Braddock.
Shortly after, Fetterman won his first mayoral race in 2005. He took the helm in a small yet diverse community declining into poverty with opportunities few and far between. In office, he governed with the motto , “Reinvention is the only way.” The challenge as he poses: “What do you do for a community that has lost 90% of everything?” A Sisyphean task no doubt, but one that through his creative problem solving received national attention. Over the course of his 13 years as mayor he worked closely with non-profit and private organizations to build funding for the community, developed arts and public works, saved and restored dilapidated sites throughout the town, and helped reduce endemic crime. Braddock is still far from the flourishing industrial community it once was. However, through his efforts Fetterman pioneered methods for progress into a post-industrial future.
Fetterman ran in the 2016 Democratic Primary for the U.S. Senate. Falling short then, he won his first statewide race, and current position, for Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania in 2018. From this office he has been instrumental in helping to rebuild the state's clemency system. He received additional national attention when the state came under fire from the Trump camp after the 2020 election. Publicly and vociferously defending the state’s election systems, he stood against President Trump’s misinformation. With current Senator Pat Toomey set to retire in 2022, Fetterman is throwing his hat into the ring once more.
But before vaulting him to the upper echelons of American politics, there is an evident cloud that hangs over Fetterman’s campaign. In 2013, upon hearing the suspected sound of gunfire near his home and local school, the then mayor chased down a suspect. While bearing a shotgun he held an unarmed black jogger in place while awaiting authorities. There are disputed details surrounding the case that paints the story in slightly different lights, but by all means this moment of vigilantism is an indefensible act. The victim never filed a complaint and no further legal action came about, regardless this incident haunts Fetterman’s future.
To many this episode is irredeemable, and to suggest otherwise would, perhaps, bear fruitless. A position well taken. This said, any who’d suggest that Fetterman’s action is indicative of his own personal racism do so against a career and life that can only suggest the opposite. None should erase the danger and irresponsibility the mayor had taken then, but it is only reasonable that we should weigh this incident in full context.
In a talk delivered at the University of Pittsburgh, Fetterman summed up his personal motivation in politics, “I wanted to spend my life working to help close this gap. Working against inequality. Working against the disparity that exists in this society.” A vision that guided him through his work in Braddock, and continues now as he transitions to a national scale. While often averse to embrace an ideological identification, Fetterman is proudly running one of the most progressive platforms in America. Fight for $15, Medicare for all, Environmental Justice, Legalize, LGBTQ+ Rights, It’s all there, delivered forthright and unadulterated. It’s one thing to say these are common sense issues, and another to believe it. Fetterman believes it.
Fetterman is the right leader for Pennsylvania, but, too, an important piece for the progressive movement nationwide. Intertwined in his own community and built by it, Fetterman has an undeniable way about him. To those who live in the shadow of steel mills and the ruins of American manufacturing, he is an effective messenger with the right message. This is not only an effective message in Braddock, but in Pittsburgh and Erie, and across the state from Scranton down through the Lehigh Valley and directly into the blue collar communities of Philadelphia.
The progressive movement has gained momentum from the incredible work and advocacy of unique individuals, but also through a platform that proclaims resonance with a diverse coalition. While the substance is common among the American left, the delivery is distinct. There is an expected stylistic difference between a Bernie, AOC, or Cori Bush. Stewards to their own distinct parts of the country, they have translated progressive issues into evocative messages to their constituents.
Fetterman represents a crucial expansion for this coalition. Much has been made of the rust belt blue collar voter that shaped the Trump victory in 2016. A voting block who’s institutional distrust had seen swaths of voter’s searching for a political outsider. Blue Dog Democrats have done little to win over these voters. Progressives have hand-crafted an anti-establishment, worker centric platform aimed directly down I-80 and I-90, and Fetterman is primed to carry it. His campaign is a litmus test for the progressive movement, and his success would indicate a clear path for further electoral significance for the caucus into the future.
It suffices to say, Fetterman’s path will largely be determined on how he navigates the treacherous waters surrounding the 2013 gun incident. To his credit he has not shied away from confronting the incident head on, doing so with the very same conviction and sincerity he exudes in any public arena. With the election nearly two years away we will certainly see if this sincerity will bode well enough for the Lieutenant Governor. Ultimately, as always, it is the electorate that decides the court of public opinion. While the field is far from formed, it is difficult to see John Fetterman as anything short of a favored candidate. While not perfect, his salt of the earth persona and devotion to fighting the exact inequality that confronts so many Pennsylvanians will ring true throughout the Keystone State. This is a candidate to watch.