EMPORIUM — Pennsylvania’s Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor John Fetterman will visit Cameron County for a meet-and-greet from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Barbara Moscato-Brown Memorial Library in Emporium.
Fetterman currently serves as the mayor of Braddock in Allegheny County, a town of a little more than 2,000 people on the outskirts of Pittsburgh. The once booming steel town collapsed with the industry and was affected heavily by drug epidemics in the 1980s. Fetterman narrowly won his election bid for mayor of Braddock, and after elected, pushed to revitalize the town, starting a GED program, youth and arts programs, organized a community center and worked to spark development in empty buildings and storefronts.
On Fetterman’s website, he calls Braddock “a working-class town that was abandoned by industry and written off by politicians in Harrisburg and Washington, D.C.”
“For the last twelve years, we’ve been building our community back from the verge of extinction. We’ve stabilized the population for the first time in decades. We’ve reduced crime, and had over a dozen businesses relocate into town. We have one of the best pre-K programs in the state, and opened an urgent care center to restore affordable healthcare to our citizens,” Fetterman said on the site. “By every metric, things have improved, and I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished in Braddock. But there are struggling towns like mine all across Pennsylvania, places that have gotten a raw deal.”
Fetterman is running for the position of lieutenant governor to help more people than just the residents of Braddock, stating he would bring his small-town perspective to Harrisburg and be a voice for non-urban residents.
“For places like Braddock already ravaged by decades of deindustrialization, the opioid crisis has been like pouring gasoline on a raging fire. Meanwhile, the massive inequality gap is only getting worse, as some areas thrive while others are left with no realistic path to prosperity,” Fetterman wrote. “Healthcare coverage for millions of Pennsylvanians is at risk, and women’s rights are under attack. Too many communities are being poisoned by polluters, and too many workers are stuck trying to raise a family on $7.25 minimum wage.”
Fetterman has served as Braddock’s mayor for the past 13 years. In this spring’s primary race, he won in a field of five Democratic hopefuls, beating out incumbent Lt. Gov. Mike Stack, who is also a Democrat.
Fetterman will join current incumbent Gov. Tom Wolf on the ballot in November. The two will face off against Republican challengers Scott Wagner for governor and Jeff Bartos for lieutenant governor.
Fetterman is considered a progressive Democrat, running on issues including inequality, racial justice and ending the failed war on drugs.
