John and Gisele Fetterman Open Up About His 'Public' Stroke, Raising Kids on the Campaign Trail: 'No Regrets'
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Ryan Collerd/AP Photo
In the final days of John Fetterman's Pennsylvania Senate campaign, he and his wife, Gisele Barreto Fetterman, are "feeling good" about where he stands with voters after nearly two years on the road.
"When we launched we knew it would be close in the end. Pennsylvania is the ultimate swing state," John, 53, tells PEOPLE in an interview conducted via email. As Republican opponent Dr. Oz throws countless dollars into late-campaign attack ads, John says, "We're not just still standing — we're still winning."
That's not to say that personal attacks against the Democratic candidate — particularly about his health, as he recovers from a stroke he suffered on the campaign trail in May — don't weigh heavy on the Fettermans at times.
"Of course I expected Oz and the GOP to weaponize my stroke and make fun of me for missing words here and there, but I honestly didn't anticipate it getting this bad — especially from a doctor," John says. "While we've had some fun at Dr. Oz's expense about being from New Jersey, the rule of thumb has always been: be funny, don't be mean."
Despite John's insistence that he's on the road to full recovery, Oz has seen a boost in polls recently after casting doubt on whether his opponent's temporary auditory processing issues would allow him to keep up with the duties required of a senator.
Still, John says, "I have no regrets about being transparent and honest. Recovering from a stroke in public isn't easy, but Pennsylvania voters deserve the truth and that's what we've given them."
Joe Lamberti/AP Photo Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman
Ramping up the fight
Rather than let critics distract him from the end goal, John, who currently serves as the state's lieutenant governor, has used his health scare to connect with voters on a deeper level, learning through a show of hands at his rallies that nearly everyone has someone in their immediate family who's experienced a serious health challenge.
"The reality is that my stroke could have been a lot worse," he says. "Had I been in a rural part of the state, had it happened at night, had Gisele not been there or if she didn't recognize the symptoms, or — horrifically — had I not had the health insurance that I have, I could have died."
He adds: "I've always advocated for expanding health care access, but the stroke and the stories that I hear from Pennsylvanians every day have driven me to fight even harder to make sure every single Pennsylvanian has the same kind of health care that saved my life."
Gisele, meanwhile, praises her husband's determination to make a good thing out of a difficult situation.
"Recovering from a stroke and running a huge campaign are two very challenging and arduous endeavors on their own, not just for a patient or the candidate — but for the whole family," the second lady of Pennsylvania, 40, tells PEOPLE. "To do both at the same time has certainly been a lot. But this is an incredible story of triumph and recovering from a health challenge is something millions of Americans are going through right now as well."
She asserts that John remains capable of handling himself and has no day-to-day limitations that require her help. "[He] doesn't rely on me at all," Gisele says, before clarifying with a twist of humor that, on second thought, he does rely on her love and company — "obviously."
Justin Merriman/Bloomberg via Getty
Parenting from the road
John and Gisele share a daughter and two sons, all of whom have never known their father as anything other than a public servant — first as the Braddock, Pennsylvania, mayor from 2006 to 2019, then as the lieutenant governor.
The parents have tried to preserve their kids' childhoods to an extent, though. "We do talk about the race around the house a bit and the kids will come to rallies when they can, but they also have their own lives," Gisele says. "They go to school every day, they go over to their friends' houses, they have homework to do. Their calendars are very full already."
The Fettermans forewent moving into the Pennsylvania State House, as is customary for the second family, and instead occupy a converted car dealership. (They opted to use the historic lieutenant governor home for public services like swim classes and summer camp; it was sold by the state this year.)
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Sometimes, though, the prominence of the Pennsylvania Senate campaign disrupts John and Gisele's ability to shield the kids. Gisele says that when the stroke happened, there was no time to process the event in private: "Our children learned that their dad had a stroke moments before the whole world found out."
If John wins the November election, Gisele plans to stay in Braddock with the kids while her husband's away in Washington. "I know John will be back home in Braddock often. We both love it here. This is our home."
Michelle Gustafson/Bloomberg via Getty John Fetterman
Defending his record
Much of John's campaign strategy has been framed around telling voters that his track record in Pennsylvania speaks for itself, and arguing — often in playful, out-of-the-box ways — that Oz is an out-of-touch multimillionaire who only moved to the state last year to run against him as the MAGA candidate.
Playing defense for much of the race, Oz's strategy has been misconstruing John's advocacy for clemency to portray him as a soft-on-crime liberal. Attack ads claim John wants to "free murderers" from prison, omitting context about the individual cases and state laws that inspired John's actions.
"People who know me and my record know that as mayor of Braddock, I successfully took on crime," John rebuts, noting that violent crime is the reason he got involved in government. "When I was teaching GED classes, two of my students were shot and killed, so I ran for mayor to stop the violence."
Statistics show that homicide rates in Braddock did fall significantly during John's time running the city, including one five-and-a-half-year period without a single gun death — one of his proudest achievements, he says.
John has nine tattoos on his right arm to memorialize nine people who were murdered in Braddock during his 13-year tenure as mayor. "I get that etching art permanently onto your body isn't how most politicians would express their connection to their communities," he wrote in an op-ed for NBC News last month. "But I didn't care about what anyone else thought. It felt right to me."
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"The bottom line is that I have a strong record on crime and Dr. Oz simply has no record," John says. "Oz spent his career going from his gated mansion in New Jersey to his TV studio in Manhattan to one of his other mansions on the weekends. He doesn't know the first thing about confronting crime."
Gisele Fetterman Gisele and John Fetterman (left and center) with their children
Shutting out the noise
The Fettermans say one of the most difficult parts of seeing "lies" spread about John is when they reach the children.
"Politics is mean — John is not. So it's certainly hard to watch," Gisele says. "The lies also take a toll on our family. The attack ads are even shown on the channels that my kids watch. Our 8-year-old son August came into our room one day and said: 'Mommy, why is Daddy too radical for Pennsylvania?'"
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But at the end of the day, they know from experience that for any candidate, in any race, letting the negativity outweigh the optimism is a fast track to failure. "For every incredibly nasty thing Dr. Oz says or someone else says on social media or on Fox News, I know there are a dozen people who hear my story and can relate to it," John says.
So he continues waking up each morning, putting on a new hoodie ("I do in fact own one suit," he's quick to note) and meeting voters while the rest of America watches his every move from afar.
"We've been running a campaign grounded in truth and honesty and I think that's resonating with people," he says. "We've built something really special here."
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