Campaign attack ads can often by deliberately misleading, never sourced as well as they should be and designed to leave an impression that may or may not be linked to reality.

Cutting through that can be challenging.

This race has also been complicated by a stroke that Fetterman suffered just days before the primary.

Both candidates visited Warren County as part of this cycle.

So, what did they say? What was their pitch?

“I think we’ve been very patient as conservatives and Republicans. It’s time for us to boldly stand up and say exactly what we mean,”” Oz, the Republican nominee, said at his March rally at the Woman’s Club.

Oz hit on a host of issues during the 45-minute event but spent considerable time discussing COVID-19, energy issues and the need to empower local decision makers.

He was critical of “middle-level, non-elected” individuals, specifically identifying Dr. Anthony Fauci, who made COVID-19 mitigation rules. “We don’t have any ability to alter them,” he said. “People we didn’t know became the king or the emperor” that were in a position to “tell us what kind of authoritarian overreach makes sense.”

“I believe it should be done at the local level,” he added. “That’s why I challenged Dr. Fauci to a debate. … We have many resources. We didn’t do well. Someone’s got to be blamed for failure because we did fail.”

Shifting to energy, Oz argued that “we have rules made that don’t make sense” and said fossil fuel production should be a national security issue. He said state and federal governments should issue permits with more timeliness and said the national security designation would be a way to block environmental concerns raised in litigation.

“The Keystone Pipeline should never have closed,” he said, suggesting the U.S. could comply with the Paris Accord if natural gas was allowed to thrive.

“Why is Washington getting it wrong? Because they don’t share our values,” Oz asserted. “(They) don’t really respect what you really believe in. When you’re in Warren, Pa., looking around the country, you’re not alone.

There are many, many other groups that feel just like you do.

“We’re preventing and hindering our values from making decisions in Washington.”

He touted legislative opportunities on pro-life issues and Second Amendment issues.

“These are issues that come up periodically,” he said. “Those values need to be reflected.”

He came out in opposition to recreational marijuana legalization. “There is no way we’re going to have recreational marijuana,” he said, suggesting it will leave young people feeling like they need a joint to get through life. “I want there to be a reason you’re taking marijuana.”

Oz touched on other issues like education, arguing that teachers are “teaching our kids things that are untrue” such as Critical Race Theory and gender issues.

From a foreign policy perspective, he said the nation’s energy regulations are part of why the “Russians are running through the Ukraine” and suggested Putin’s action could embolden China to strike at a place like Taiwan.

Unsurprisingly, he was critical of President Joe Biden.

“We’ve got a guy who is not aware of the ramifications of his actions until it’s too late,” he said.

“We need our mojo back,” he said, when asked what his greatest priority would be. “We have a state desperately short of workers” and “bucolic areas for tourism. We need to remind people why we’re a top five state. Not all states are suffering.

“I actually think we need people locally to start owning these issues and pushing back on it because throwing money at it doesn’t work.”

He said it’s his job to ensure the federal government doesn’t stifle that kind of initiative.

“We have to stand up and be counted,” he said.

Fetterman, the Democrat’s choice, spoke at a February event at the Hampton Inn and was also in the county for a petition signing event in March.

“This isn’t about turning Warren blue but this is about fighting for every single vote.”

“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.”

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

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 kinds 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.