Pa. Senate candidate Fetterman suffers stroke, says he's feeling 'much better'

Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the leading candidate in Pennsylvania’s Democratic Senate primary, revealed Sunday that he had recently suffered a stroke but was on his way to a full recovery and a return to the campaign trail.

In a statement emailed to press and video posted to Twitter, Fetterman said he was not feeling well while campaigning in Lancaster on Friday, and his wife, Gisele, forced him to go to the hospital to get evaluated.

"I had a stroke that was caused by a clot from my heart being in an A-rib rhythm for too long," Fetterman wrote. "Fortunately, Gisele spotted the symptoms and got me to the hospital within minutes. The amazing doctors here were able to quickly and completely remove the clot, reversing the stroke, they got my heart under control as well."

Fetterman, 52, said he was feeling "much better" and doctors told him he hadn't suffered any cognitive damage. He was remaining at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health for observation but said he should be out "sometime soon."

“The doctors have assured me that I'll be able to get back on the trail, but first I need to take a minute, get some rest, and recover," Fetterman added. "There's so much at stake in this race, and I'm going to be ready for the hard fight ahead. But our campaign isn't slowing down one bit, and we are still on track to win this primary on Tuesday, and flip the Senate seat in November."

Fetterman had established a comfortable polling lead in the May 17 primary, with a May 5 poll from Franklin & Marshall College showing a 39-point lead over his closest competition, Rep. Conor Lamb. The race to replace retiring GOP Sen. Pat Toomey is seen as the Democrats’ best chance to pick up a Senate seat this fall, with polling showing a three-person race for the Republican nomination between television host and cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz, former hedge fund chief David McCormick and commentator Kathy Barnette.

Fetterman, a former mayor of Braddock, a suburb of Pittsburgh, won his current position in 2018 running with Gov. Tom Wolf. Fetterman also ran an unsuccessful Senate campaign in 2016 and has risen to prominence in recent years, repeatedly going on cable news and social media to rebut baseless claims from Republicans that the 2020 election had been stolen in the Keystone State. Fetterman is a unique figure in politics — tall, bald, goateed, tattooed and wearing shorts and a hoodie whenever possible — who has campaigned in the state’s most rural counties.