Former President Donald Trump maintains a unique “hold” on the voters of Pennsylvania, where Democrats should expect a “strong” performance from the Republican, according to U.S. Senator John Fetterman (D-PA), who made the remarks at The Atlantic Festival on Thursday.
The senator explained that Trump enjoys a certain “energy” among Pennsylvanians that is difficult to measure, and suggested Democrats should prepare for the presidential election to be closer than party stalwarts expect.
“I want people to understand, it’s not science, but there is energy, and there is kinds of anger on the ground in Pennsylvania and people are very committed, and Trump is going to be strong,” the senator said.
Fetterman told the crowd gathered by The Atlantic, “We have to respect that. You can’t even understand it, and it’s not like a science that can explain it, but you have to just know that it’s real.”
He later added, “Trump has created a special kind of a hold” among Pennsylvanians and now has “a special kind of place in Pennsylvania,” which “only deepened after that first assassination attempt.”
Fetterman argued that Trump had historically outperformed Democratic expectations in Pennsylvania since 2016 when he beat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and again in 2020 when President Joe Biden was expected to sail to victory but instead narrowly won the commonwealth.
“I was a very active surrogate to Hillary Clinton,” said Fetterman. “I was like hey, there is a problem here. Trump has really connected, and I joked that his signs became like a state flower, you see that everywhere.”
In 2020, Fetterman said he felt similar misgivings after witnessing the size of Trump’s rallies. “I even said on social media, this is not a five-point race,” Fetterman recalled.
“I’ve said the same thing in 2024,” said Fetterman, before maintaining that he expects Vice President Kamala Harris to win the Keystone State ultimately.
Fetterman argued that Trump’s supporters are unlikely to withdraw during an election already marked by historical developments.
“We are living in a permanent October surprise. There’s not a lot of other things that can happen,” said Fetterman. “Two assassination attempts, you have the [first] standing president stand down since LBJ, and crazy leading candidates talking about eating dogs and cats.”
The senator later revealed that he “never agreed” with the Democratic “approach” to refer to Trump as a convicted felon repeatedly and said he “was convinced, too, that kind of trials and that kind of thing, that’s not going to have a big impact [on the race].”
Fetterman told The Atlantic, “He’s been impeached twice, now it’s been two attempted assassinations, one where a bullet actually hit him at this point.”
The senator previously urged Democrats against replacing Biden as the party’s nominee ahead of the November election, but at The Atlantic Festival, the senator applauded the Democrats’ “rollout” of its new candidate.
Fetterman’s team personally intervened during Harris’s selection of her vice presidential candidate to urge her against selecting Governor Josh Shapiro, whom the senator has feuded with for years. Harris ultimately selected Governor Tim Walz, sparking rumors that her campaign was concerned about Shapiro’s Jewish faith.
Watch Fetterman’s full appearance:
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “John Fetterman” by The Atlantic.
