Pro-mandate politician struggles on campaign trail after stroke

Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor and U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman appears to be having trouble on the campaign trail, likely due to a sudden stroke the 52-year-old suffered in May. 

Fetterman, who is running against Trump-backed Dr. Mehmet Oz has been a strong supporter of COVID-19 mandates and injections. 

“Let’s vax up, Pennsylvania,” he wrote in September 2021. “It’s tragic the Covid vaccine has become so political: it’s costing PA lives and wholly preventable hospitalization,” he added.  

“My entire family is vaccinated + boosted,” Fetterman tweeted in April. “Vaccines + effective treatments are safe, and still the key to getting us out of this new phase of the pandemic.” 

The stroke came less than a month later, and Fetterman was forced to delay his campaign while Dr. Oz publicly mocked him for staying out of the limelight. 

Fetterman eventually kicked off his campaign and held his first rally Friday in Erie, but he struggled through his 11-minute speech. 

Oz, a Muslim Turkish immigrant, is trailing behind Pennsylvania native Fetterman by 11 points as the lieutenant governor’s team campaigns primarily on social media, using memes and celebrities to troll his opponent. But he was forced to decline Oz’s challenge to five debates Friday, being barely able to speak coherently. 

America’s Frontline News reported in June that Fetterman used taxpayer money to vacation on the Jersey Shore while advocating for harsh lockdowns, according to the Washington Free Beacon.  

Pennsylvania State Police reportedly doled out $3,500 on food, lodging and overtime during the vacation from June 24-June 27, 2020, while the Pennsylvania Department of Health had already cautioned residents against non-essential travel.  

Just two days prior, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy had vowed to crack down on partygoers at the Jersey Shore.  

Fetterman’s vacation came a month after the lieutenant governor went on CNN praising lockdowns, saying that counties which open up “do so at the peril of their residents,” and that “there could be additional fallout” for local officials who defy PA Governor Tom Wolf’s lockdown mandate. He also criticized a “small, tiny minority of individuals” who were against the lockdowns.  

Furthermore, while Fetterman pushed masks, photos from his vacation show him on the Ocean City boardwalk barefaced.