D.C. Dems get out of frontrunner Fetterman’s way in Pennsylvania

Democrats barely even noticed John Fetterman was running for Senate in 2016. Six years later, they might not be able to stop him if they tried.

The filibuster-hating, gym-shorts-wearing progressive lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania is the odds-on favorite to win the Democratic nomination in one of the country’s most important Senate races. And Washington Democrats are doing nothing to slow him down by boosting his opponents, state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta and the centrist Rep. Conor Lamb.

In fact, party leaders on Tuesday heard private concerns about a pro-Lamb super PAC after the group slammed Fetterman as a “self-described Democratic socialist,” a claim that led to the ad being pulled from one TV station. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) raised the ad during a Democratic caucus meeting on Tuesday, and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Gary Peters said they were addressing the issue, according to several attendees.

“I saw the PAC ad that is currently running in Pennsylvania. It is wrong and it is disgusting. And if Conor Lamb wants to stand up as a Democrat, then he needs to disavow that ad today,” Warren said in an interview on Wednesday.

Almost everyone in the Democratic caucus is staying neutral in the Pennsylvania primary, but there’s plenty of warmth for Fetterman and few concerns that he’d be a weaker general election candidate than his rivals. That’s a 180-degree turn from the state’s last open primary, when party bosses endorsed and spent big for establishment favorite Katie McGinty, while Fetterman came in third. Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), then the DSCC chief, recalled this week that he didn’t look closely at the Fetterman campaign.

Now Fetterman is leading in public and internal Democratic polls by wide margins, according to people who have seen them. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) this week said Fetterman is “the kind of populist that I think would do very well in Pennsylvania.”

Republicans argue that Fetterman is too liberal to win this fall’s general election against the winner of a GOP field that includes business executive David McCormick and TV surgeon Mehmet Oz. Yet asked if he’d be comfortable with Fetterman as the nominee, Peters replied confidently: “I would be, certainly.”

“If I have candidates that can win the general election, we’re not going to put our thumb on the scale. We know our candidates in Pennsylvania can win the general election,” Peters said in an interview. “Bottom line: We just have to win. And certainly that’s what we have in Pennsylvania, particularly with the top two candidates.”

Fetterman described his campaign’s relationship with the DSCC this time around as “good” and said he has spoken with Peters and Warren. He heaped praise onto both of them, calling Warren “just a luminary in the Democratic Party” and said he admires Peters for “not only his politics, but just how he makes it work in a state like Michigan.”

He declined to talk about how the DSCC handled his 2016 run: “I don’t want to look back on anything like that.” Instead Fetterman said he wants to emphasize that he’s a “good Democrat that is always going to be there to help the party meet the moment to deliver the Biden agenda.”

The hulking, 6-foot-8 Fetterman dresses casually as he fights for marijuana legalization, a $15 minimum wage and transgender rights. When Joe Biden showed up in his state in January to survey a bridge collapse, Fetterman met the president in shorts and a hoodie.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) described Fetterman as “an unusual candidate. And successful in his own way.” Put plainly, this is not your typical Democratic frontrunner.

Democrats’ decision to forgo endorsing the more moderate Lamb, who holds a tough seat for Democrats in Western Pennsylvania, is an evolution for a party that’s spent years playing kingmaker among its Senate candidates — sometimes with poor results. Lamb’s campaign did not comment for this story.

Now with the 50-50 Senate majority on a knife’s edge, Democrats are trusting primary voters to give them the best candidates rather than weighing in from D.C. in contested primaries in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

“I don’t know that we did well in 2020 by getting involved early,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). “There’s a long history of hand-picked Democratic candidates doing very badly in the general election.”

There’s almost no sign that Democrats are worried enough about Fetterman to intervene in the primary. The DSCC endorsed McGinty roughly a month before the 2016 primary; this year’s primary is May 17.

But there is still some concern that the increasingly bitter contest between Fetterman, Lamb and Kenyatta could damage the party’s nominee. Top DSCC aides have expressed displeasure with the prospect of attack ads in the primary during recent conversations with outside Democrats, according to two people familiar with the discussions.

If Fetterman comes out of an ugly primary as the Democratic nominee, Republicans say they’ll be pretty happy about the result. In addition to his left-leaning policy positions, Fetterman will also face scrutiny in a general election about pulling a shotgun on an unarmed Black jogger in 2013 when he was mayor of Braddock, Pa. The lieutenant governor has said he thought the jogger might have been running from a shooting and that he did not know the man’s race or gender at the time.

“In politics, as in many things, you should be careful what you wish for. But the Bernie Sanders wing of the Democratic Party is not likely to prevail in a general election,” said Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), whose retirement is sparking the open race, of Fetterman’s prospects.

Warren’s response to that line: “Oh, I’m sorry, what I want is advice from Republicans on who should be the Democratic nominee.”

Peters said that “any time I hear Republicans underestimating a candidate, it brings a smile to my face. Because I’ve been in that seat before.”

That’s not to say there aren’t some in the caucus who would prefer Lamb, even if they aren’t officially endorsing him. Tester said he knew Lamb better and liked him as a candidate. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who is frequently targeted by Fetterman for standing in the way of filibuster reform and Biden’s agenda, said that Lamb would “be an outstanding U.S. senator.”

“Haven’t met the guy,” Manchin said of Fetterman. “I keep saying, you know, to get rid of the filibuster, just elect more liberals. I guess he fits the bill.”

Though Fetterman wants to scrap the filibuster (and Lamb followed him to that position last year), it might not be in the cards even if he wins, particularly if Democrats lose control of either chamber of Congress this fall. As his campaign enters the home stretch, Fetterman said his message to Senate Democrats — as well as the party’s voters — is that he’s their loyal partner.

“We are 100 percent behind the Biden agenda and the Democratic agenda,” he said. “You’re never going to pick up your smartphone or the paper and find that John Fetterman has changed his mind on minimum wage or voting rights or the PRO Act.”