That was the heart of the message that current Lt. Gov. — and U.S. Senate hopeful — John Fetterman brought to a campaign stop at the Hampton Inn in North Warren on Saturday afternoon.

“If we can make the argument in Warren County, it goes across all the counties,” he said. “That’s what this campaign is committed to.”

Fetterman is one of several Democrats seeking the party’s nomination to potentially replace retiring U.S. Senator Pat Toomey.

The current lieutenant governor and former mayor of Braddock highlighted both his story and the issues he cares about during the Saturday evening.

Times Observer photos by Josh Cotton Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, running for the Democratic Party’s blessing to run to replace Pat Toomey in the U.S. Senate was in Warren County Saturday, meeting with voters at the Hampton Inn in North Warren.

The stop in Warren marked the third of five on the docket for the day.

One needed to look no further on Saturday to come to the conclusion that Fetterman — wearing a hoodie and gym shorts — isn’t your typical politician.

Getting to all the counties in the state is part of what he called a “moral” strategy. “We want to be the campaign that does well in urban areas (and) rural areas” with a “unified message that every place matters.”

He started by saying that it is “unbelievable to be in your community” before launching an attack on the recent Republican reference to the events of Jan. 6 being “legitimate political discourse…. Now they are purifying their party so there is no dissension there.”

Fetterman then talked about what got him into politics.

“I had opportunities growing up that a lot of other folks didn’t,” he said. “I decided to dedicate my professional career working against that kind of inequality.”

So he ran for mayor in Braddock winning, he said, by one vote on a campaign rooted in issues of inequality and gun violence.

“The power of one vote really does matter,” he said. “That’s really my political philosophy on that. (I) embraced the idea of these forgotten places.”

He then talked about a litany of issues that matter to him.

“Everyone should have health care and access to it,” he said. I think that’s pretty fundamental. I believe we need to make more and more things in the United States. I just believe we need to make (expletive) in this country.”

He called public education a “universal value” and said his wife’s status as a former Dreamer has shaped his views on immigration.

He also spoke in support of LGBTQ issues.

“I’m sorry that Pennsylvania doesn’t grant you full and equal protections,” he said. “I think that’s a fundamental conservative value, equal protection under the law.”

He also asked if anyone is “pro non-bridge collapsing” and said he “got to hang” with President Biden at the bridge that collapsed outside Pittsburgh. “I don’t praise the infrastructure bill” as lieutenant governor, he said, but as a “dude who drives his kids over bridges in a car.”

“If you believe in these kind of core basic principles, that’s the kind of senator (I’ll be).”

Fetterman touted a 180,000 person donor base with the average donation at $28 as evidence of broad, grassroots support.

He addressed one specific pressing local issue.

“Without good broadband, you don’t have access to the healthcare you deserve” or the ability to work from home as others can. “You deserve to have that right,” he said, equating internet service to a basic utility like electricity.

He said he wants to be bipartisan but noted there are some issues on which he can’t compromise.

“If you’re not willing to lose your job to get some important legislation passed” to better people’s lives “then why are you doing this in the first place?” he asked, stressing he will run a campaign on issues, values and his record.

“That’s how it’s always going to be,” he said. “I hope I win I do.”

Citing his one-vote victory for mayor, he said “if my vote can pay that forward… that’s what I promise you.”