Despite the close call for Democrats in New Jersey’s latest gubernatorial election, and the stunning defeat of Senate President Steve Sweeney by a Republican truck driver nominated by South Jersey GOP leaders with no intention of winning, the Garden State is not among the political hot spots in the next round of balloting, but neighboring Pennsylvania is one of the key battlegrounds in the fight for majorities in Congress.
Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who is widely seen as a front runner in the Keystone State’s open U.S. Senate race, reported raising almost $2.7 million in contributions during the third quarter, far outpacing candidates from either party in the battleground state, excluding self-funding.
The race in the Keystone state is seen by Democrats as one of their best chances in the 2022 midterms to keep or expand on their slim majority in the Senate.
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), who currently holds the seat, announced in October 2020 he wouldn’t run for reelection.
The election is expected to be competitive and important to determine whether Democrats or Republicans will control the Senate in 2023 because the seat is an open Republican-held one located in a state that President Joe Biden won in the 2020 presidential election.
Pennsylvania is seen by many Democrats as the best opportunity for a possible pickup of all the seats at stake next year, but observers caution that Fetterman could yet be undermined by powerful figures in the political establishment who worry more about genuine progressives than Republicans.
Fetterman’s new quarterly figure, reported in Federal Election Commission filings Friday, superseded his fundraising in the second quarter, when he took in $2.5 million.
Fetterman is 6’8″ giant who brings to the Keystone State a bigger-than-life brand of progressive politics as a graduate from Albright College, where he played offensive tackle for the Lions before earning a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.
The Pennsylvania native served with AmeriCorps in Pittsburgh, joined up with Big Brothers/Big Sisters, then rebuilt a dying steel town as Mayor of Braddock from 2005 to 2019, before being elected to his current office.
He supported legalizing marijuana before it was popular, officiated a same-sex marriage before it was legal, and pushed for single-payer health care long before it was mainstream.
As Lieutenant Governor, Fetterman transformed the post into a bully pulpit advocating for economic, environmental. and criminal justice, leading the fight to free wrongfully convicted citizens, giving second chances to deserving longtime inmates, and championing the cause of legalizing marijuana.
The funds continue to draw from Fetterman’s nationwide network of small-dollar donors. About $1.6 million of the third quarter contributions are unitemized, meaning those donations were each worth less than $200. Fetterman received more than 94,000 donations in the quarter, which included 24,000 first-time donors, according to a campaign press release.
Fetterman received only $700 from PACs in the quarter. By contrast, Malcolm Kenyatta collected more than $32,000 in PAC contributions, Conor Lamb raised $195,251, and Montgomery Commission chair Val Arkoosh $33,000.
“I am blown away by the support we have across the Commonwealth, and the fact that we have donations from over 87% of Pennsylvania zip codes is amazing,” Fetterman said in a press release.
In the third quarter, which ended Sept. 30, Fetterman spent $1.5 million. Over the year, he raised $9.2 million and he has $4.2 million in cash on hand.
Rep. Conor Lamb (D-Pa.), the well-known moderate who joined the race in August, took in the second most of all candidates in the third quarter at $1.2 million. Lamb’s campaign was already bolstered by funds from his House campaign account, which he converted to a Senate account after announcing his Senate run.
His House campaign took in $961,659 in the second quarter of 2021 and he has $2.2 million in cash on hand.
Pennsylvania was pivotal in delivering President Joe Biden his victory in 2020 and saw one of the most expensive Senate races in history in 2016. Biden endorsed Lamb in 2017 when the military veteran first flipped Pennsylvania’s deep-red 18th Congressional District.
Sean Parnell, a Republican author who attempted to unseat Lamb in the 2020 election and is now running for Senate, received the most contributions, excluding self-funding, among all Republican candidates over the quarter, taking in $1.1 million. His fundraising boost was likely helped by former President Donald Trump’s public endorsement in early September.