Do we like John Fetterman?
Our score: 5 out of 10. Good on LGBTQ+ rights in his own words and votes, offset by his votes to confirm Trump nominees and a contested record on turning up for the job.
Not everyone in Braddock bought the saviour story. Residents told HuffPost the gains were overhyped, with the population falling from just over 2,000 in 2010 to just over 1,700 in 2018. Critics also objected to his 2013 pursuit of an unarmed Black jogger and to his refusal to apologise for it.
On the harm test, his own words and votes on LGBTQ+ people are good. He said he will always stand with the LGBTQ+ community and called Trump administration attacks on it “disgusting”. On the women's sports bill he voted against it and said trans athletes “deserve an ally and I am one”.
The asterisk is the company he keeps choosing. He voted to confirm Pam Bondi, and cabinet picks including Howard Lutnick and Sean Duffy, mostly by proxy after skipping their hearings. In September he filmed a video for the Republican midterm convention endorsing Sen. McCormick, with whom he has formed a joint fundraising committee. His defence is that “voting for someone does not mean that you agree with them”.
He has also broken with his party on Iran, asking in March why a single Democrat couldn't see the strikes as “a good thing for the world and the region”. That's a contested foreign policy call. Where you land depends on whether you read the war as a necessary hit on a hostile regime or a dangerous escalation.
The recent mess is about the job itself. A Wall Street Journal report alleged, citing former staffers, that he skipped constituent meetings and a funeral for three police officers. He called it “lies, half-truths, innuendos, smears and anonymous”, and apologised for one text as a “dumb joke”. The Inquirer found he missed 9% of votes outside extended leave, against a 2.8% senator median, and attended 26 of 158 committee events.
Credit where it's due: Braddock was hands-on work, and he has sponsored a pile of practical bills, from Ohio River restoration to spotted lanternfly research. Our read is that he is solid on LGBTQ+ rights, and the rest is a mixed bag of Trump-friendly votes and a thin record of turning up. We'd back him with eyes open, not with a banner.