Nathaniel Clark – A&E Editor

nuc5002@psu.edu

Credit: Harrison Lilley/ The Behrend Beacon

On Tuesday, November 1, Behrend students and staff were suddenly sent emails about a surprising Behrend event. John Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s Democratic Senate candidate, would be coming to campus later that night. 

This visit was one of many planned stops for the Fetterman campaign before the Midterm elections set to take place on November 8. Fetterman, like the rest of the political candidates, was going all around Pennsylvania, attempting to get a final campaign push in before the election. Especially for the Fetterman team, a push like this was necessary because a week prior on October 25, Fetterman and his Republican adversary Dr. Oz had held their first and only debate. Throughout the event, Fetterman’s ability to serve as a Senator was brought into question, mostly due to the stroke he had sustained days before the primary election. The Democratic nominee has been struggling with auditory processing problems and therefore delivered slow delayed responses. 

Around 6:30 p.m., Fetterman along with a co-host walked into Behrend’s McGarvey Commons to face an audience of college students and local citizens. The event would be a seat discussion with the co-host passing questions to the Democratic candidate. The first of these questions entailed why Fetterman had chosen to visit Erie with little time before the election. On this topic, Fetterman said “You can’t win Pennsylvania if you can’t win Erie,” leading to mass amounts of applause in the audience. 

From there, Fetterman and his co-host discussed a variety of important issues and concerns which have flooded the socio-political spectrum. This included the overwhelming doubt and worry around the mail-in voting process: a subject that has been scrutinized heavily by the Republican party since the 2020 election and was one of the main factors that led to the January 6 Capital Riot.

Fetterman then moved on to discuss his plans and beliefs on abortion access. Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, politicians all across the United States have been asked about their stance on the topic, crafting battle lines between political parties. While Fetterman, like the majority of Democratic candidates, supports a woman’s access to abortion, he did point out that this is not a lived experience for him. In response, Fetterman passed the mic to his female co-host, who spoke on how the overturning alarmed her. 

Throughout their discussion, Fetterman added in a few jabs and remarks towards his Republican opponent. Near the beginning, the candidate made a joke that it was “Far more pleasant spending a night with [Behrend students] rather than Dr. Oz,” a way of alluding to thor prior debate. Fetterman also stated his newly created Oz Rule: “when he’s on TV, he’s lying.” 

To end the discussion panel, Fetterman decided to focus on the topic of healthcare. On the matter, the candidate stated that he saw healthcare as “a fundamental human right” every U.S. citizen should have available to them. He connected this to his own stroke experience, stating that “every American should have health access to save their lives as much as it saved my life.” After the discussion, Fetterman went into the crowd for photos as Queen’s “We Will Rock You” played. 

While he only spoke for 30 minutes, Fetterman got across all of his main running points as a senate candidate. Whether or not this last push will be the key to securing a Democratic Pennsylvania Senator will only be shown when the election’s results are called.