Great track record as mayor, Ivy league educated, gun-toting liberal. Polling makes it sound like he's got a shot.John Fetterman, 46, has served as mayor of the hardscrabble Pittsburgh suburb of Braddock for over a decade. His tattoos (of the town’s zip code and the dates of its most recent murders) and his stature (nearly 7 feet) have drawn more attention than his politics. Re-elected twice by huge margins after winning his first run by one vote, the “coolest mayor in America,” as the Guardian dubbed him, is now vying with establishment Democrats for a US Senate seat. While still an under-funded underdog, Fetterman is polling competitively: In head-to-head match-ups in October, he trailed Republican incumbent Pat Toomey by 7 points and his Democratic competitors trailed Toomey by 7 and 3.
In These Times talked with Fetterman about Bernie, Braddock and 2016....
Between Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, this election season seems to be breaking every rule political scientists have written. Why do you think that is?
People are tired of prepackaged things. They want to go to a real restaurant, not TGI Fridays. Most political candidates are like TGI Fridays — franchises of what the party wants them to be. But we’re coming out with an authentic product. I’m coming from a community from the fringe of society that’s been written off.
Donald Trump’s slogan is “Make America Great Again.” Is there an alternative narrative that you’d like to advance?
My campaign has released a one-sentence press release calling Donald Trump a “jagoff ,” which is Western Pennsylvania for jerk. Populism has a dark side and Donald Trump is mining that for all it’s worth by saying reprehensible things about Muslims, about immigrants, about you name it. If you get to live vicariously through that and cheer him on, I don’t expect to get your vote, and frankly, I don’t want it.
