Obama in PA stumping for Fetterman: 'Our democracy is on the ballot'

The message from former President Barack Obama to a crowd of about 2,000 on the University of Pittsburgh campus Saturday was to save democracy by voting, specifically for the man at his side: John Fetterman.

“Our democracy is on the ballot,” he said. “If that’s not worth 15 minutes (to vote), what is?”

Just three days before the election, Obama, who has a higher approval rating than the current president, railed on Republicans for backing former Donald Trump’s unproven theory that he won the 2020 presidential election.

“Democrats may not be perfect. … No politician is,” he said. “But right now, with a few notable exceptions, most Republican politicians aren’t even pretending that the rules apply to them. They just make stuff up.”

Pennsylvania is welcoming government bigwigs throughout the day. Obama and President Joe Biden are also stumping in Philadelphia today, and Trump will be in Latrobe. At stake is one of the closest watched contests in the country: the U.S. Senate seat, pitting Fetterman, the lieutenant governor, against celebrity surgeon Mehmet Oz.

Obama repeated the same saving democracy message he has preached in the five-state tour he is finishing in Pennsylvania: “The only way to save democracy is to fight for it.”

The crowd, packed into Pitt's Schenley Park for the noon rally, chanted, “Vote, vote, vote.”

A young boy from the crowd yelled out at the beginning of Obama’s speech, “I love you, Mr. Obama.” A few others from the crowd said the same. The former president said in response, “I love you back, but you gotta vote.”

He pushed back on Republican agenda items like crime: “Crime went up over the last seven years, not just the last two years.” And abortion controls: “John Fetterman believes women should be able to make their own healthcare choices.”

Fetterman, who spoke ahead of Obama, told the crowd – at least half of them college-age - that Roe v. Wade needs to be codified and that the minimum wage needs to be eliminated.

The former Braddock mayor has led Oz in the polls until recently, opening up the possibility of turning a Republican Senate seat blue. They are vying for the job that has been held by two-termer Pat Toomey, a Republican who announced his retirement one month before the 2020 presidential election.

Kim Strong can be reached at kstrong@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Obama stumps for Fetterman in Pittsburgh in race against Oz