Fetterman Kicks Off Senate Campaign Against Dr. Oz With Ad on Fox News Touting Blue-Collar Pennsylvania Roots

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Democratic Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman is out with his first round of ads as his general election campaign heats up against Republican candidate Mehmet Oz – and Fetterman is taking his message straight to Fox News viewers.

Fetterman, who is currently the lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania, easily won his May 17th primary against moderate Democrat Rep. Conor Lamb (D-PA) despite suffering a stroke just days ahead of the vote.

The Fetterman campaign is in full swing, however, while the candidate continues to recover and has spent $250,000 to run ads on Fox News in the Pittsburgh, Scranton, and Johnson markets for a week beginning on June 14th, according to Politico.

“We plan to re-up the buy weekly as the GOP attacks keep coming,” the campaign added in a statement. Dr. Oz is a regular fixture on Fox News and has been endorsed by Sean Hannity. 

The first ad set to air highlights Fetterman’s blue-collar roots and features Braxton White, an Army veteran and local school board member, discussing Fetterman’s local connections while slamming D.C.

“Washington, D.C. attacked towns” in Pennsylvania “for years,” begins White. “They wrote bad deals that sent away our jobs” and approved “the drugs that kill our kids.”

“For 20 years, he’s lived in a place like this, building, pushing, fighting,” the ad then says of Fetterman, noting his support for a $15 minimum wage, the manufacturing industry, and “good American jobs.”

Fetterman, who is a progressive ally of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), has come under attack from the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which released an ad last week blasting him for siding with “socialists.”

“Fetterman sided with socialists, backed a government takeover of health care, embraced parts of the Green New Deal that’d cost you 50,000 bucks a year,” the RNSC ad says, adding, “Bernie Sanders calls Fetterman an outstanding progressive. Fetterman admits he’ll always vote for Democrats. In this economy, that’s the last thing we need.”

The race between Trump-backed GOP candidate, Dr. Oz, and Fetterman will be a key race for either party to win a majority in the U.S. Senate in the November midterms, as Biden narrowly won Pennsylvania in 2020 and the seat is currently held by retiring Republican Pat Toomey (R-PA).

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