Freshman Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) stunned political watchers when he won his race without publicly campaigning for most of his race.
Now the Democrat is landing some sweet committee spots.
And he’s doing it while refusing to answer one critical question.
Former Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman suffered a debilitating stroke a mere four days before the Democrat primary in the 2022 Pennsylvania Senate race.
Instead of postponing his ambitions to enter the US Senate, Fetterman’s campaign plowed ahead, going underground with a basement campaign.
Due to Fetterman’s difficulty processing speech following his stroke when he was finally forced out of hibernation near the end of his campaign, his debate performance was underwhelming at best.
And he even had to use a special closed captioning device to comprehend questions from reporters.
In 2020 despite habitual absence from the campaign trail, Democrats rallied around Joe Biden.
In 2022 Pennsylvania Democrats followed that same model.
But Joe Biden was actually out campaigning – this time on Fetterman’s behalf to ensure Pennsylvania made their contribution to helping Democrats maintain a majority in the Senate.
Fetterman poised to be a Farm Bill powerbroker
Now, in addition to getting into the Senate, it looks like Fetterman is being rewarded handsomely in political currency.
Even as Fetterman continues to refuse all calls for media appearances to determine his fitness for office, somehow the freshman senator is scoring plum committee assignments.
The Senate freshman has landed a coveted spot on the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee.
He also landed a seat on the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee as well as the Environment and Public Works Committee.
On top of that he’s on the Special Committee on Aging—one that’s already chaired by the other Senator from Pennsylvania, Bob Casey.
His spot on the Agriculture Committee is the biggest coup since it makes him one of 23 Senators who will get a front row seat when it comes to shaping the 2023 Farm Bill—a massive spending bill that only comes up once every five years.
It was last approved in 2018 and included a total of 428 billion in tax dollars to be spent over a five-year period on everything from subsidies for green farmers to food stamps.
Considering that food processing is the second biggest industry in Pennsylvania, there’s sure plenty of opportunities for Fetterman to score points with his constituents.
Even though Fetterman has largely refused to address his cognitive challenges publicly, according to TIME magazine the Senate chambers are undergoing an extensive technology upgrade in order to provide Fetterman with closed captioning devices everywhere he needs to work.
It seems Democrats are determined to keep Pennsylvania’s Senate seats blue—and they’ll go to any length to do so.
Stay tuned to Blue State Blues for any updates to this ongoing story.
