John Fetterman is searching for votes in ‘ruby red’ Trump country. Will his strategy pay off?

Trump dominated in the rural area of Pennsylvania in the last two elections. John Fetterman, a different kind of Democrat, is hoping to chip away at that support. Richard Hall reports from Johnstown, Pennsylvania

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In the rural parts of western Pennsylvania — which is most of western Pennsylvania — the electoral map runs deep red. Donald Trump’s arrival on the national political stage and his shock victory in 2016 hastened a Democratic decline that had been in motion for years across this once booming industrial region.

But a new candidate running to represent the state in the Senate is testing the notion that Democrats need not apply out here. John Fetterman, a Democrat who has made his home in Braddock, just outside of Pittsburgh, is searching for votes in what he calls the “ruby red” counties across the state.

“Bringing our message to places where it’s not always popular is our secret weapon to win in this tough cycle,” he said in a recent tweet.

It’s a strategy borne of optimism, but it also speaks to the campaign’s belief that Fetterman can appeal to working-class voters that have eluded Democrats for some years now.

Johnstown, a once-booming steel town in western Pennsylvania and a regular stop on the campaign trail for presidential candidates, is as good a place as any to test the theory. Both Trump and Joe Biden came here in 2020 to rally support and Fetterman, who lives just an hour away, introduced Biden to a crowd of supporters as he spoke outside Johnstown’s Amtrak station.

“Fetterman, he was mayor of Braddock, came from nowhere and really worked hard for his little town, which is very similar to Johnstown. He really cared about it,” says 28-year-old Taylor Clarke, who works in his family’s men’s clothing store in the town.

“You see him all over, even in Trump country, in smaller counties that have virtually no people in them, in the middle of the state, you see him everywhere – he’s there,” he adds.

As Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, Fetterman visited all of the state’s 67 counties as part of a listening tour about marijuana legalisation. Since announcing his run for Senate, he has campaigned on the slogan “Every County, Every Vote” – making a point to reach voters in places where history suggests a Democrat wouldn’t stand a chance of winning.

His strategy paid off in the primary: Fetterman beat his opponent in all 67 counties. And current polls show an average lead of more than six points for Fetterman over his opponent Dr Oz. Those numbers may hint that he has convinced at least some Trump supporters to join his cause.

In 2016, Trump became the first Republican to win Pennsylvania since 1988, winning the state by just 44,292 votes. He did so by running up the numbers in the rural parts of the state, which have been growing more Republican for some years.

In Cambria County, where Johnstown is located, Trump won 68 per cent of the vote, compared to Biden’s 30 per cent – roughly the same margin by which he beat Hillary Clinton in 2016. Trump’s promises to revive American industry resonated with the former coal and steel towns across rural Pennsylvania. Years of mine closures and the accompanying collapse of union strength, together with promises by Democrats to turn away from fossil fuels, all contributed to Trump’s success here.

There was another factor, too. Trump hit the road across the state, visiting the small towns and once-prosperous industrial hubs often overlooked by presidential campaigns. As noted by PoliticsPA, “he visited Scranton, Mechanicsburg, Hershey, Valley Forge, Gettysburg, Newtown, Johnstown, Manheim, Erie and Altoona among other places.”

Ironically, it was John Fetterman – then mayor of Braddock – who was among the first Democrats to raise the alarm about Trump’s appeal in Pennsylvania. He recalled in an interview with PennLive how he had warned Clinton’s campaign about Trump’s moves.

"I’ll never forget when I read the press release that Donald Trump was going to have a campaign event in Monessen (a struggling steel town near Braddock)," Fetterman told PennLive. "I was a proud surrogate for the Clinton campaign during that time and I just called up the campaign and was like, ‘Either (the Trump campaign) has completely lost its mind or they know something we don’t.’"

He told the outlet that he tried to attend the rally to “take in this phenomenon," but was recognised and turned away.

Fetterman had already moved to the former steel town of Braddock, just outside of Pittsburgh, before Trump came along. During his 13 years as mayor, he tried to revive the town’s fortunes by launching community projects and repurposing old buildings. He was urging national politicians to do more to help the left-behind towns across America’s former industrial heartlands.

Johnstown, Pennsylvania is one of the towns Fetterman is targeting (Getty Images)

His efforts in Braddock may go some way to explaining why current polls show him with such a convincing lead. But they don’t explain it all. Taylor Clark, the Johnstown tailor, says part of Fetterman’s appeal is his everyman persona. Fetterman, who is 6ft 8in with tattooed arms, and often seen wearing shorts at official events, does not speak with the same guarded diplomatic language of a politician.

“Fetterman is not an elitist. Is he richer than most of us? Yeah, sure. But he doesn’t look like that. He doesn’t come off that way at all. He really comes off as a guy of people,” he says. “He has this blue-collar, steel worker mentality that we have here, Pittsburgh, even Philadelphia back in the day.”

“The only thing I don’t like about him is he doesn’t wear suits,” adds Clark, an apprentice tailor, standing in the middle of his suit store.

Taylor is currently learning the family business from his father, Randy Clark, a master tailor and owner of the clothing store, Millers of Johnstown. The father and son are partners in business, but they disagree on politics.

“The thing about it is, of course, it’s Republican against Democrats, and I espouse a conservative viewpoint in regards to a lot of things in politics,” Randy says.

“I think he leans almost to a socialist, semi communist type of viewpoint, and he endorsed Bernie Sanders in the election two years ago,” he says. “And he’s totally against fracking, which is billions and billions of dollars of revenue for the state of Pennsylvania.”

Even though Randy will not vote for Fetterman – “I wouldn’t vote for the man if he was the last guy to vote for, I just wouldn’t do it,” he says – he hints at another factor that is helping Fetterman build his convincing lead: Republican disappointment with Dr Oz as a candidate.

“I don’t believe that Oz is the ideal candidate, and I know that he has been chastised for coming to Pennsylvania and setting up residence – nothing that other people hasn’t done, including Hillary Clinton in New York,” he says.

Polls suggest he is not alone among Republicans who are less than thrilled about Dr Oz’s candidacy. One recent poll showed a significant enthusiasm gap between the two candidates in their own parties, and among independents. Only 36 per cent of Republicans were glad Dr Oz is the party’s nominee, according to a CBS/YouGov poll, with 64 per cent answering that they would have preferred someone else. Among independents, only 23 per cent are glad Dr Oz is the nominee, and 77 per cent would have preferred someone else. Compare that to Fetterman’s numbers: 77 per cent of Democrats are glad he is the nominee.

Michael Cashaw, a Johnstown resident who ran an unsuccessful primary campaign to represent the Democrat Party in the 72nd District of Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives, has seen Fetterman in action on the campaign trial. He thinks Fetterman is ahead not just due to Dr Oz being a bad candidate, but that Fetterman appeals to working-class voters who value authenticity.

“He’s a very genuine guy. He’s not actually a Hell’s Angel – even that’s what he looks like,” Cashaw says.

“I do a lot of travelling around Pennsylvania, and from my travels around, if Fetterman does not win, I will be stunned,” he adds. “Even out in eastern Pennsylvania they are making fun of him out there. In Pittsburgh, they are making a joke of him out there. Even where my wife’s family comes from, which is a very conservative area called Chambersburg, there’s a lot of Fetterman signs out there.”

For Taylor, the tailor, there are a long list of reasons to vote for Fetterman, rather than just against Dr Oz.

“I love his stance on marijuana legalisation, I love his stance on gay marriage, I love his inclusiveness. And the one thing that I absolutely adore about him is what my dad mentioned about fracking – he’s against it. I always have been; I did a report my senior year of college on it, how it has affected so many hundreds of thousands of people,” he says.