Fetter is better

John Fetterman and Doug Shapiro are the Democratic candidates for this year’s Senate and gubernatorial races in Pennsylvania, respectively. Fetterman is the sitting Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania and is fairly different from your typical Senator. Fetterman prides himself on being a man of the people and a progressive, with some of his main focuses being the legalization of marijuana, criminal justice reform, raising the minimum wage to $15, and having a right to attainable health care. This is not the only reason that I believe Fetterman is the obviously better candidate. Fetterman’s Republican opponent, talk show star Dr. Mehmet Oz, used to be a highly respected and brilliant cardiac surgeon but decided that promoting pseudoscience and alternative medicine for large payouts was a better usage of his time. 

The Democratic choice for governor, Josh Shapiro, is the state’s attorney general and focuses his platform on LGBTQ+ rights, workers' rights, election security, and reproductive rights. His opponent, State Senator Doug Mastriano, a former US Army Colonel, is a far-right and rather radical choice for the state. Mastriano’s platform focuses on eliminating mail-in voting, severely restricting abortion rights, and propping up the coal and natural gas industries. Shapiro’s political career started right after he left Georgetown Law, when he ran for the PA House of Representatives. Shapiro’s tenure as attorney general has been one of effectiveness and action, in which he’s done good work for Pennsylvanians. Mastriano on the other hand, has done little as a State Senator, with a majority of his time spent opposing bills and being banned from committees for leaking confidential information. Mastriano’s Ph.D., which he frequently flaunts and uses to buttress his claims, is now being called into question. Mastriano is claimed to have falsified information and made assumptions during the writing of his thesis. Pennsylvania needs to decide whether its loyalties lie with the far-right or whether it wants to take a step towards true leadership with the election of Shapiro and Fetterman. 

While both Shapiro and Fetterman have problems of their own, the election of Mastriano and Oz would be a step backward for Pennsylvania, and fundamentally endanger many of the rights of Pennsylvanians. So this November at the polls, consider what you want to be the future of the Commonwealth and decide whether your loyalties lie with the betterment of the state or with a mere political party.