Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D) has taken steps toward a possible run for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat in 2022 following earlier reports that he was eyeing a run for the seat of outgoing Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA).
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was the first to report that the state lieutenant governor filed his statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday, a development that follows Toomey’s announcement last fall that he would not seek reelection.
The state Senate’s Republican majority blocked Fetterman from presiding over the first day of its new session early last month after he refused to recognize a motion that would have prevented an elected Democratic state Sen. Jim Brewster, whose election was certified by the state, from being sworn in.
In a phone interview with TPM last month, Fetterman also rebuked “attacks from everybody that are all unfounded — all lies,” amid broader efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to challenge the integrity of elections in the battleground state.
According to the Post-Gazette, Fetterman has already raised $1 million in the two weeks since he expressed that he was mulling a Senate run last month.
The 2022 bid would not be Fetterman’s first run for the seat — he also battled for the seat and lost in a 2016 Democratic primary to Katie McGinty, who Democrats had hoped to put in office as the state’s first female senator.
Fetterman later became running mate to Gov. Tom Wolf two years later when he won out over four other candidates in the primary in 2018.
