John Fetterman
John Karl Fetterman (/ˈfɛtərmən/ FEH-tər-mən; born August 15, 1969) is an American politician serving as the junior United States senator from Pennsylvania since 2023.[1] A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania, from 2006 to 2019 and as the 34th lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania from 2019 to 2023.[2] Although he has since renounced the label,[3] Fetterman was once described as a progressive and advocates healthcare as a right, criminal justice reform, abolishing capital punishment, raising the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour, and legalizing cannabis.[4]
For the journalist, see John Fetterman (reporter).
John Fetterman
Pauline Abdullah
Chardaé Jones
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Fetterman studied finance at Albright College and earned an MBA from the University of Connecticut before beginning a professional career in the insurance industry. He went on to join AmeriCorps and earned a Master of Public Policy degree from Harvard University. Fetterman's service with AmeriCorps led him to Braddock, where he moved in 2004 and was elected mayor the following year. As mayor, Fetterman sought to revitalize the former steel town through art and youth programs.
Fetterman ran for the U.S. Senate in 2016, finishing third in the Democratic primary. He ran for lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania in 2018, defeating a field of candidates that included incumbent Mike Stack in the Democratic primary and winning the election with incumbent governor Tom Wolf.[5] During his tenure, Fetterman received national attention for his efforts to legalize cannabis statewide and opposition to President Donald Trump's false claims of election fraud in Pennsylvania.
In 2021, Fetterman announced his candidacy in the 2022 U.S. Senate election in Pennsylvania. He won the Democratic nomination with 59% of the vote and defeated Republican nominee Mehmet Oz in the general election. Fetterman resigned as lieutenant governor upon being sworn into the Senate on January 3, 2023.[6]
Early life and education
Fetterman was born at Reading Hospital in West Reading, Pennsylvania, to Karl and Susan Fetterman,[7] both of whom were 19 years old.[8] Eventually they moved to York, Pennsylvania, where Fetterman grew up and his father became a partner at an insurance firm.[9][10][11] He grew up in an affluent suburb of York, and his parents were conservative Republicans.[9][12]
Fetterman had a self-described privileged upbringing; he said he "sleepwalked" as a young adult while playing four years of football in college, intending eventually to take over ownership of his father's business.[12][13] In 1991, Fetterman graduated from Albright College, also his father's alma mater, with a bachelor's in finance. He also received a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Connecticut (UConn) in 1993.[14][15] For two years Fetterman worked in Pittsburgh as a risk-management underwriter for Chubb.[16]
While Fetterman was studying at UConn, his best friend died in a car accident; this impacted Fetterman's life and career.[17] After his friend's death, Fetterman joined Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, pairing with an eight-year-old boy in New Haven, Connecticut, whose father had died from AIDS and whose mother was slowly dying from the disease.[18] During his time as a Big Brother, Fetterman says he became "preoccupied with the concept of the random lottery of birth", and promised the boy's mother he would continue to look out for her son after she was gone.[19]
In 1995, Fetterman joined the recently founded AmeriCorps, and was sent to teach Pittsburgh students pursuing their GEDs.[20] He later attended Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University, graduating in 1999 with a Master of Public Policy degree.[21]
Fetterman began his corporate career working at an insurance firm. He came to Braddock in 2001 to start an Out-of-School-Youth Program, helping local youth to earn their GEDs.[22] He moved to Braddock in 2004.[9][23]