Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) said Wednesday that he thinks former President Trump is a strong candidate in his home state, but he is confident that the presumptive Republican nominee will not defeat President Biden in a rematch this fall.
“I fundamentally believe it will be a close race,” Fetterman said in an interview with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
Fetterman, who enjoys strong approval ratings in purple Pennsylvania, declined to provide specific advice to Biden when asked to do so, saying instead of Biden: “He already won in 2020 and he’s going to win this one too.”
Fetterman said he has long thought Pennsylvania would be a close race, including before the 2016 presidential cycle, which saw Trump win a narrow victory over then-Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
“But Biden carried Pennsylvania by 80,000 votes, and now he has a strong record, but it will still be close,” Fetterman said, adding, “Trump has a strong position in Pennsylvania. He definitely wants to, but I don’t believe he can win at the end of the day.”
Fetterman said that while issues like inflation and health care are important to voters, he thinks the fundamental difference in Trump and Biden’s personalities will be the determining factor in this election.
“I really think, though, that the main issue is personalities. It’s like, what do you want? I’m a voter, do I want this kind of chaos and this kind of depravity? Or do you want a decent president who will help us get through the pandemic, who has addressed inflation and is now dealing with the wars, both in Ukraine and in Gaza as well,” Fetterman said.
“If you really think Trump is going to make any of these situations better, I mean, that’s their choice, but I believe enough Pennsylvanians will decide this is our guy,” he added, referring to Biden. “That’s my guy.”
Fetterman, who won a tight race for the U.S. Senate seat in 2022, said he is proud to campaign with Biden in 2022 and is not too worried about the polls.
“All this research now, I’m not really worried about it,” Fetterman said. “The polls told me that I would lose by 1 or 2 points, and we won by 5. So, I believe it is a very close race.”
According to The Hill’s Decision Desk HQ 2024 polling average for the presidential race in Pennsylvania, Trump leads Biden by 1.5 percentage points, within the margins of error of most polls.
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