August 13, 2022

John Fetterman Returns to Campaign Trail for Triumphant Rally After Stroke

The Democratic candidate in Pennsylvania’s Senate race has faced questions about his health.

In his first major political event since suffering a stroke in May, John Fetterman appeared before a raucous crowd in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Friday where he wasted no time directly confronting the issue of his health, telling supporters at the start of the event that he was grateful to be alive.

“Tonight for me, it’s about being grateful, just grateful,” Fetterman said. “Three months ago my life could have ended. It’s the truth.”

The audience, which reportedly included voters who had previously supported Donald Trump, was estimated at more than 1,000 people, yet another clear demonstration of the palpable excitement fueling Fetterman’s campaign against the Republican candidate, celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz. In recent weeks, Oz has regularly questioned Fetterman’s stroke recovery and demanded that the lieutenant governor show up for five televised debates. Meanwhile, Oz still faces considerable ridicule for having lived in New Jersey for decades, in addition to owning five mansions—none of them located in the state where he running for Senate.

On Friday, Fetterman, who is leading Oz by double digits, stood by his progressive platform, which includes his support for Medicare for All and legal marijuana, and he repeated his campaign promise to be the “51st vote” to eliminate the filibuster. 

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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