But amid attacks from Republican opponent Mehmet Oz over his absence from the trail — and insistence that Fetterman holed up in a basement during the summer months while recovering from his stroke — Fetterman didn’t shy away from the topic while speaking. in the crowd on Friday night. In fact, he drove with it. He was introduced by his wife, Gisele, who had her own fans, calling him a “stroke survivor” and thanking the crowd for welcoming her husband back to the trail. Fetterman, without missing a beat, stepped up to the microphone and faced Oz’s line head-on. “Are we in Erie or have I fit 1,400 people in my basement?” he quipped. According to the campaign, the final attendance was 1,355. The Senate candidate continued to recap his stroke experience, growing visibly emotional as he retold the story of his wife having a stroke before it was too late. “Gizelle saved my life,” he said, adding that he was grateful to be near a well-equipped health care facility, an obvious criterion for his position on endorsing quality access to health care across the country. “I am so grateful. And I am so lucky. So thank you for being here tonight,” he said. Fetterman’s return to the campaign marks a major turning point in the race. Predicted to be one of the most competitive races this cycle, Democrats need every advantage they can get in Pennsylvania, including valuable face time with voters. Pennsylvania is also being targeted by national Democrats as one of the top pick-up opportunities — potentially adding to their Senate numbers or simply preventing Democrats from losing the majority. Although Fetterman faced some pushback for not being completely transparent about the nature of his stroke from the start, there didn’t seem to be any love lost with his base Friday. “He was extremely open and forthcoming… Things happen to human bodies. Things have happened to both of us and we come in here,” Erie resident Jane Asher told The Daily Beast while gesturing to her partner. The crowd, lined up down the block for entry, was filled with Fetterman’s black-and-white campaign cardboard signs. Campaign staff supplied rally-goers with yellow-and-black rags emblazoned with the name “Fetterman” to wave in the air — like the Pittsburgh Steelers’ signature “Terrible Towels.” Classic rock blared over the speakers at the Bayfront Convention Center — a site just off the edge of Lake Erie. Looking exactly as he did when he left the campaign trial three months ago, Fetterman sported his signature sweatshirt and baggy pants. The Democratic Senate candidate didn’t mince words to describe why Erie County was his choice for his first campaign rally of the Senate cycle. A longtime political bellwether for Pennsylvania, Erie is an epitome of everything Fetterman’s campaign hopes to highlight this cycle. It’s a blue-collar, working-class section of the state that doesn’t vote Democrat by default. It fits right into his model of “every county, every vote” — a catchphrase he’s used to argue that Democrats should target votes in deep red districts just as they do in their metropolitan safe havens. “If you can’t win Erie County, you can’t win Pennsylvania,” Fetterman told the crowd. Spending only about 10 minutes on stage before he went to shake hands and take selfies, Fetterman had another important item on the agenda: Oz. Like his Twitter feed, which has turned into a steady stream of inappropriate posts on the Republican candidate, Fetterman gave the TV doctor a bold monogram and asked the crowd, “Do you think Dr. Could Oz fill a room like this? “ The crowd resoundingly responded by chanting “No.” Reached for comment, Oz’s campaign said Fetterman “refuses to be honest with Pennsylvanians or the press about his radical policies and history of not being a show for the commonwealth.” “Meanwhile, Dr. Mehmet Oz is campaigning across the commonwealth, listening and sharing the concerns of the people he meets and standing up for Pennsylvanians unlike John Fetterman. Pennsylvanians deserve answers now from Fetterman. It’s been too long,” said Brittany Yanick, Oz’s director of communications. Fetterman also called out the press, suggesting they do a fact-check on how many mansions Oz owns. (It’s hard to tell how many mansions Oz owns, but Oz listed assets of $100 million in his campaign filing.) John Whaley, another Erie resident, told the Daily Beast he’s voting for Fetterman and just voting against Oz. But Whaley added that he suspects some people are voting “just to keep Oz out.” “And the MAGA maniacs, and the ultra MAGAs,” Whaley added, “we don’t need any of that.” Mike Kurutz, another Erie Democrat, told The Daily Beast he doesn’t think politics needs another “entertainer,” questioning whether someone like Carrot Top could follow. Oz’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Fetterman’s appearance Friday night — and Fetterman did not take questions from reporters during the event.
