Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman (D) said former President Trump’s impact on the state was “astonishing” in a Saturday interview with the New York Times.
“Anybody spends time driving around, and you can see the intensity. It’s astonishing,” Fetterman said of the wave of support the Republican nominee has experienced.
He referenced Trump superstores throughout the state that sell t-shirts, bumper stickers, hats, and other paraphernalia as staples of the leader’s widespread impact.
“It was almost like Taylor Swift kind of swag. It’s like of everything. It wasn’t just a sign,” Fetterman recounted. “It’s the kinds of thing that has taken on its own life on that. And it’s like something very special exists there. And that doesn’t mean that I admire it.”
Over the past few months, Fetterman has notably admired the GOP’s ability to gain voters’ attention in the Keystone State, arguing that avid Trump supporters like Elon Musk can “appeal to a demographic” in a way Democrats cannot.
The Senator said Pennsylvania voters’ affinity for Trump “deepened” after he survived an assassination attempt on the ground campaigning.
“Trump has created a special kind of a hold … and he’s remade the party, and he has a special kind of place in Pennsylvania,” Fetterman said in September to a crowd at The Atlantic Festival. “And I think that only deepened after that first assassination attempt.”
