PITTSBURGH — In his first media interview since suffering a stroke days before the May primary election, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the Democrats’ torchbearer for one of the country’s most important U.S. Senate races, told the Post-Gazette on Wednesday that he’s “feeling really good,” said he has “nothing to hide” on the status of his health and described the lingering effects of his stroke as minor and infrequent.
Fetterman, 52, said he has “no physical limits,” walks 4 to 5 miles every day in 90-degree heat, understands words properly and hasn’t lost any of his memory. He struggles with hearing sometimes, he said, and may “miss a word” or “slur two together,” but he said it doesn’t happen often and that he’s working with a speech therapist.
As the calendar nears August and the reality of a rigorous campaign against Republican opponent Dr. Mehmet Oz sets in, Fetterman — appearing on a video call with a reporter Wednesday morning from his home in Braddock — sought to reassure Democrats that he would never risk this campaign if he thought he couldn’t do it. He said doctors support his decision to return to the campaign trail.
“I would never be in this if we were not absolutely, 100% able to run fully and to win — and we believe that we are,” Fetterman said.
Fetterman said he will be back to making physical appearances on the campaign trail “very soon.” He said he was heading to Philadelphia on Wednesday evening to kick off a series of three fundraisers.
Since his stroke, he has been recovering at home and hasn’t given interviews to the news media. He’s been participating in daily strategic conversations with his campaign, meeting with donors and being “very involved in our social media,” he said — insisting that the campaign hasn’t stopped just because his physical appearances have.
He suffered the stroke just days before the May primary. Doctors surgically attached a pacemaker with a defibrillator to Fetterman’s heart, intended to treat his cardiomyopathy, a diagnosis he received after his stroke. Cardiomyopathy, a heart disease, makes it harder for the heart to pump blood to the rest of the body.
Asked if he believes he is mentally and physically prepared to run such a tough campaign, Fetterman responded, “One-hundred percent. Physically, I have no limits — and mentally, again, as I mentioned before, the only issue is that my hearing is still a little bit not perfect.”
“I might miss a word every now and then in a conversation, or I might slur two words. Even then, I think that’s infrequent,” Fetterman continued, “So I feel like we are ready to run, and that’s the only issues I have. That’s the absolute truth, 100%.”
In the Wednesday morning interview, Fetterman used closed captioning on the call to make sure he didn’t miss any words, his campaign spokesman said afterward — information that was disclosed at Fetterman’s urging for the “sake of being totally transparent,” he said. The Post-Gazette was given a 20-minute time frame to conduct the interview.
Fetterman said day to day, he’s been waking up early, getting coffee, going for a long walk, having breakfast with his family and running errands, like driving his kids to the pool or to their friends’ houses.
“Truthfully, my life is very normal, other than just not doing campaign events right now,” he said.
Asked if he thinks he can return to a schedule that includes multiple events a day, Fetterman said, “I think very soon.”
He said the stroke opened his eyes to how valuable life is and stressed — repeatedly — that he’s “grateful” to feel better, to spend time with his family and to develop more of an understanding of “how everything’s so precious.”
The race for the seat, to take over for retiring U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, is already starting to kick into high gear. A Post-Gazette survey of advertisers earlier this month found that Democratic and Republican powerhouses have already booked at least $67 million in spots for the November election, with most reservations starting in the fall.
Fetterman’s absence from the trail hasn’t impacted his fundraising. From late April through the start of July, he raised $9.9 million from individuals and committees — about nine times as much as Oz’s $1.1 million, though the television celebrity and cardiothoracic surgeon loaned his campaign another $2.2 million.
Oz, meanwhile, shared a message to his social media channels on Wednesday proclaiming that it’s been 69 days since Fetterman’s last campaign event. The post read, “69 Days Since Fetterman Left His Basement.”
The stakes of the race are so high that some Democratic insiders have whispered to national media outlets — albeit anonymously — that they’re concerned Fetterman’s absence could impact the party’s chances of flipping the seat.
Asked if he has any concerns that his absence has impacted his odds at victory, Fetterman said he’s been campaigning the whole time, and has heard — loud and clear — from top Democrats that he needs to be at 100%. The events will be “starting very soon,” he reiterated.
