Fetterman draws a crowd

Aug. 28—HERMITAGE — Under a broiling sun in 90-degree temperatures, Debra Kaluzne stood for more than an hour Sunday afternoon to be first in line.

She arrived about 12:30 p.m. at the Hermitage VFW Normandy banquet center to head a queue that wrapped halfway around the building.

The wait paid off — being first in line got her a place directly in front of the podium for Lt. Gov. John Fetterman's campaign rally.

Kaluzne, wearing a shirt emblazoned with "1973" — the year the U.S. Supreme Court handed down the Roe vs. Wade decision that struck down all state laws prohibiting abortion — said she supports "everything the Democrats are for but mostly it's about pro-choice."

After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade June 24 with Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, Kaluzne said Democrats are mobilized in a way they haven't been for years to defend human rights that they believe have come under attack.

"I fought for this 50 years ago," she said. "I think the generations behind us took a lot of things for granted."

Kaluzne was among 427 supporters who turned up Sunday for Fetterman's campaign rally, marking his return to Mercer County after surviving a near-fatal stroke days before the May primary election.

Farrell resident Andrew Harkulich, an official with the United Steelworkers union opened the event by introducing Mercer County Commissioner Tim McGonigle, who is running for the 7th District state house seat against Republican State Rep. Parke Wentling, R-17, after redistricting placed Wentling's Hempfield Township residence in the expanded district.

McGonigle introduced Pennsylvania Second Lady Gisele Fetterman, who introduced her husband.

Fetterman — clad in his traditional, at least for him, Carhartt hoodie and shorts — opened by empathizing with local supporters as Democrats in a Republican county that supported former President Donald Trump by nearly 2-to-1 margins in both 2020 and 2016.

"Who believes in abortion rights," Fetterman said to kick off a call-and-response sequence, with shouts of support and applause. "Who believes the union way of life is sacred?"

Fetterman also cited infrastructure development and responsible energy production that protects the environment.

Mercer County has been a central part of Fetterman's "Every County, Every Vote" campaign. Since announcing his candidacy for U.S. Senate in February 2021, the lieutenant governor has visited Mercer County at least four times, including once almost exactly one year ago, Aug. 25, 2021, at Our Gang's in Sharon.

Fetterman also stopped May 11 at Valley Baptist Church in Farrell, one of his last campaign stops before his stroke.

On Sunday, Fetterman again expressed gratitude for the support he has received in the county and promised to return before the Nov. 8 general election.

"The fact that you're willing to come out today and spend your time ... this is wonderful," he said.

In spite of the stroke that kept Fetterman off the campaign trail from the primary until Aug. 12, when he held a rally in Erie, the Democrat has dominated his Republican opponent Dr. Mehmet Oz, in polling. Fetterman has led Oz in all 11 Pennsylvania U.S. Senate polls taken since June.

A Franklin & Marshall College poll reported last week gave Fetterman a lead of 13 percentage points, 43% to 30%, with a 5% margin of error. An Emerson College poll showed Fetterman leading by a smaller margin, 48% to 44%, but still outside the 3% margin of error.

Tim Buck, Lawrence County Democratic party chair, said the organization is growing in Lawrence and Mercer counties after some rough election outcomes in the last few years.

"The only challenge that I see is that we have to make people want to get out and vote," he said.

Toward that end, Buck is trying to increase the party's visibility, including having party official the Lawrence County Democrats' table fully every day last week during the Lawrence County Fair. In recent years, the party's table often went unstaffed during the fair.

Buck said Democrats are attracting support from outside their party, with independents and even Republicans expressing plans to vote for Democratic candidates like Fetterman and gubernatorial nominee Josh Shapiro.

One of those independent candidates was Reynolds High School graduate Gage Bayless, a younger voter who turned up in a burgundy Bernie Sanders T-shirt — Fetterman supported Sanders' presidential runs during the 2016 primary election seasons, but backed the eventual Democratic nominee, Hilary Clinton.

Bayless, a self-proclaimed independent, said he is volunteering with the county Democratic party because he's aware of the stakes in this year's election.

"Democracy is under attack and this election is too important to sit this one out," Bayless said.