Democrat in Gym Shorts Maps Path to Senate Through Trump Country
Pennsylvania's John Fetterman shuns the ‘progressive’ label but not issues in his campaign for Republican Senator Pat Toomey's seat
John Fetterman speaks during a campaign event in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, on April 30.
Photographer: Michelle Gustafson/Bloomberg
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John Fetterman didn’t look like a typical Senate candidate when he rolled into Pennsylvania’s Lebanon County on a recent Saturday wearing gym shorts and an oversized Carhartt hoodie coated in dog hair.
But that’s the point. Fetterman, with a beatnik-style goatee and tattoos, is out to prove that conventionality has been a loser for Democrats in the small towns and rural hamlets that he thinks are ripe for recapture from Republicans.