Since 2019, John Karl Fetterman, an American politician born on August 15, 1969, has held the position of Pennsylvania’s 34th lieutenant governor. He was the mayor of Braddock from 2006 to 2019 and is a member of the Democratic Party. The Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania’s seat in the United States Senate in 2022 is Fetterman.
Fetterman began his professional career in the insurance sector after completing his MBA at the University of Connecticut and his finance coursework at Albright College. He joined AmeriCorps after the passing of a close friend and graduated from Harvard with an MPP.
Fetterman relocated to Braddock in 2004 and was elected mayor the following year as a result of his AmeriCorps service. In his capacity as mayor of Braddock, Fetterman attempted to bring art and youth initiatives to the defunct steel town.
In the Democratic primary for Pennsylvania’s Senate seat in 2016, Fetterman placed third. He ran for lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania in 2018, beating incumbent Mike Stack in the Democratic primary before teaming up with Governor Tom Wolf to win the election. During his time in office, Fetterman attracted notoriety for working to make marijuana legal in the entire state and fighting back against President Donald Trump’s erroneous allegations of election fraud in Pennsylvania.
Early Life, Career, and Education
On August 15, 1969, Susan and Karl Fetterman welcomed a son named John Karl into the world in West Reading, Pennsylvania. He played football in high school and continued to do so in college; he eventually graduated from Albright College in 1991 with a degree in finance. He graduated from the University of Connecticut with an MBA.
Following in the footsteps of his father, an executive in the insurance industry, Fetterman initially chose to become a teacher through AmeriCorps in 1995. He later earned a master’s degree in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 1999.
His work as a volunteer for Big Brothers Big Sisters of America was influential in forming his views on community service and eradicating poverty. In 2008, Fetterman wed activist Gisele Barreto; the couple has three children: two sons and a girl.
A Relaxed Beginning
Mr. Fetterman had minimal contact with immigrants, minorities, the poor, or liberal crusaders of the kind he has become in the early half of his life.
The York suburb where he was raised, Springettsbury, has a median household income that is nearly two and a half times that of Braddock. African-Americans make up around one out of ten residents instead of two out of three as in Braddock, where the poverty rate is four times higher. Though by accident, Mr. Fetterman’s childhood house is only a few miles from Mr. Wolf’s lifelong residence, which is in a neighborhood where conservative Republicans are the majority.
If not for two life-changing incidents, he would have otherwise been on a business path quite similar to his father’s—but one that was maybe destined for greater success. In the first, Mr. Fetterman’s best friend, who was 27 years old, passed away in a vehicle accident while en route to pick him up for a workout at the gym in 1993, just as he was about to finish his master’s degree in business administration at the University of Connecticut.
The suddenness and randomness of that made it difficult to recover, according to Mr. Fetterman. To think that at that age, you can get up, eat breakfast, say goodbye to your family, and not be aware that you have 15 minutes left before being blasted out of this planet.
He became a Big Brothers Big Sisters volunteer in New Haven after reflecting at the time on his life’s mission. He was paired with 8-year-old Nicky Santana, a member of a low-income Puerto Rican household whose father had passed away from AIDS and whose mother was suffering from the illness. She begged Mr. Fetterman to take care of her son’s academic needs.
Community Service
Tragically, Fetterman’s closest buddy passed away in a vehicle accident while he was a student at UConn. John would later say that this experience profoundly affected him and led him to pursue a career in public service. After the passing of his buddies, John started working at Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. He was quickly matched with an 8-year-old kid whose mother had just passed away from AIDS and whose father had recently passed away from the disease. After the mother left, Fetterman assured her he would take care of the boy.
John started working for AmeriCorps in 1995. He was soon tasked with assisting kids in the Braddock suburb of Pittsburgh in obtaining their GEDs.
Senate Election
In 2016, Fetterman made an unsuccessful first run for the Senate. He was chosen as Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor in 2018. He received an annual salary of $217,610 while serving as Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania.
John announced a second Senate run in 2021. He subsequently received over 60% of the vote, winning the Democratic nomination.
Following Dr. Oz’s victory in the Republican primary, the two faced off against each other. Fetterman and Oz ran a heated, at times, social media campaign for most of 2022. Most people would concur that Fetterman’s team did a much better job of making Oz appear to be a dumb, out-of-state carpetbagger.
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Individual Life
Gisele Barreto, a Brazilian immigrant, and John were married in 2008. Together, they have three kids, and they still reside at the Braddock Chevy dealership that was transformed.
