‘I’ll be much better, but he will still be a fraud’: John Fetterman flips own health struggles against Mehmet Oz

With a precious nine days to go before the election, Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman rallied Harrisburg-area canvassers on Sunday — a potentially fortuitous day for door-knocking, given how many Pennsylvanians were likely at home watching the Eagles-Steelers game.

Canvassers gathered at the AFSCME headquarters in Swatara Township for an opening rally featuring local Democratic leaders and candidates as well as Fetterman himself; enthusiasm was high, although most canvassers said they expected a tight race between Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s current lieutenant governor, and Republican nominee Mehmet Oz.

Sunday’s speakers, as well as the canvassers in the audience, painted the Nov. 8 election in the starkest possible terms, often as a referendum against a Republican party that they said no longer believes in core freedoms.

“It’s about whether democracy wins or totalitarianism comes to our doors knocking,” said Shamaine Daniels, the Democratic candidate challenging GOP Rep. Scott Perry, who has been caught up in several investigations over plans to overturn the 2020 election.

“I think democracy is on the ballot this year — voting rights, women’s rights,” said Elaine Owens, who had spent Saturday canvassing with her husband, Jim, and planned to do so again Sunday afternoon.

“I think he’s going to pull it out, but I think it’s going to be tight,” Owens said of Fetterman, noting that her previous day of canvassing had elicited overwhelmingly positive responses from voters.

The stark contrast between Fetterman and Oz and their respective parties, many of Sunday’s canvassers said, also stands to obviate any remaining handwringing about Fetterman’s speaking ability, which has been impaired by his stroke five months ago — in fact, some said, it may help his underdog appeal

“Yeah, he made some mess-ups,” Jim Owens said about Fetterman’s recent debate performance. “But then I watched Oz, and he was smirking through it, and that made me mad. [Fetterman] is fighting up against this machine that the Republicans have.”

Fetterman himself had the same general assessment on Sunday. Although he often stuttered and flubbed a few words, Fetterman juxtaposed his medical issues with a portrait of Oz as a fundamentally flawed candidate who would stick to the Republican party line.

“Dr. Oz has never forgotten, every day, that I had a stroke,” Fetterman said — but come January, when a new Congress is sworn in, “I’ll be much better, but he will still be a fraud.”

“The guy has made millions of of scamming people. He sold miracle cures that I can’t pronounce — I couldn’t even before the stroke,” Fetterman quipped, referencing Oz’s history of promoting dubious dietary products on his television shows.

During his Sunday stump speech, Fetterman made the explicit pitch to be the crucial 51st vote to eliminate the Senate filibuster for the passage of Democratic priorities such as raising the minimum wage. He also reiterated his support for universal healthcare and Medicare expansion, saying “the same healthcare that saved my life should be for everyone, if they’re in that situation that is a basic, fundamental human right.”

Fetterman also stressed his history with LGBTQ rights, referencing his move in 2013 while mayor of Braddock to begin performing same-sex marriages despite a ban on them still standing in Pennsylvania.

“[Former GOP Governor] Tom Corbett threatened to have me arrested and I just said ‘well, you know where I live,’” Fetterman said.

In the loudest applause line of his Sunday speech, Fetterman also reiterated his support for making the abortion rights framework of Roe v. Wade, which was overturned by the Supreme Court this summer, into federal law.

Fetterman flipping the Senate seat that is currently held by Republican Sen. Pat Toomey would stand to give Democrats significantly more headroom in passing legislation, increasing the chances of getting crucial pieces President Joe Biden’s agenda passed before 2024.

The national importance of the outcome in Pennsylvania has generated a great deal of interest from outside the state, which was on display Sunday with a group of canvassers having come up from Baltimore.

“The big races in Maryland aren’t very competitive for the most part, and there are all these big, consequential races going on up here,’ said Fergal Mullally, one member of the Baltimore group.

“There are a lot of risks in terms of putting [Republican Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell in charge of the Senate,” said Mullally’s compatriot Richard B. Karel — risks that cross the Mason-Dixon line and far outweigh any concerns about Fetterman’s health.

“It’s not unusual,” Karel said of Fetterman’s stroke recovery. “There’s no reason to think that his cognitive abilities have been impaired.”

Veteran Democratic operatives also said they had seen a large crop of new volunteers motivated by inflection points such as the Supreme Court’s abortion decision or the Jan. 6, 2020 attack on the U.S. Capitol, as well as kitchen table issues such as healthcare and inflation, where Democrats have touted Biden’s efforts to cap drug prices while attacking Republicans’ lack of specifics.

“There’s less of an empathy gap because so many people are struggling,” said Kat Breitmayer, a Democratic statehouse staffer who was out canvassing Sunday. Those issues “have remained salient” in voters’ minds, Breitmayer said, a potential boon for Democratic voter turnout.

Both Oz and Fetterman are expected to campaign intensely in the remaining days, with former President Donald Trump expected to appear with Oz and the Republican gubernatorial candidate, state Sen. Doug Mastriano, later this week.

Mastriano and his Democratic opponent, current Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, are also slated for events in State College on successive days this coming week.

Recent polling has placed the race between Fetterman and Oz in a dead heat, with Oz having closed his gap to only a single percentage point behind Fetterman, according to the latest FiveThirtyEight polling aggregate.