Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D-PA) is under attack in a new television advertisement from a Republican super PAC highlighting an incident from nine years ago in which the Democratic Senate nominee chased an unarmed black man with a shotgun.
The 30-second spot is targeting black voters in the Philadelphia media market and was written and funded by American Leadership Action PAC, the super PAC supporting Fetterman’s Republican opponent in the Pennsylvania Senate race, Dr. Mehmet Oz. Backed by $500,000 and scheduled to run for the next three weeks, the ad is running on cable television stations BET, OWN, CNN, ESPN, Fox News, HGTV, MSNBC, TBS, USA Network, and the Food Network.
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“As mayor of Braddock, John Fetterman chased down an innocent, unarmed black man,” the spot’s voice-over says as the ad opens, playing television news clips of the 2013 episode. “Fetterman falsely accused the man, triggering a confrontation with police.”
The spot closes by playing a clip of Fetterman, who was then the mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania, saying, “I believe I did the right thing, but I may have broken the law.”
The incident caused minimal political blowback for Fetterman at the time, and indeed, the lieutenant governor, a darling of the Left, handily won the Democratic nomination for Senate this year in the race to succeed retiring Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA). But in the wake of George Floyd’s 2020 death in Minneapolis at the hands of white police officers, Republicans are banking on this line of attack costing Fetterman crucial black votes in the midterm elections.
Oz, struggling in the polls since winning the Republican primary in May, could use the help. Fetterman led the first-time Republican candidate and famous television personality by an average of 6.5 percentage points in public opinion polls taken in August. Oz’s major challenge has been overcoming charges that he is a carpetbagger, having only recently moved to Pennsylvania from New Jersey.
Fetterman, meanwhile, is beginning to face uncomfortable questions about his ability to continue with his campaign and serve in the Senate as his recovery from a stroke, suffered just before the Democratic primary, extends into September.
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The lieutenant governor benefited from voters’ sympathy over the summer but is now under increasing pressure to return to the campaign trail for regular activities and accept one-on-one debates with Oz.
