“John Fetterman will befriend Bernie Sanders in the Senate,” Oz tweeted last week. “He will follow Bernie’s example and be his sidekick. The PA and America can’t afford another ‘Bernie’ in the Senate.”

Republicans were quick to draw a comparison between Fetterman and President Joe Biden, whose approval ratings are at rock bottom, but they’re also trying to tie Fetterman to Sanders.

A statement from the GOP’s Senate campaign arm read, “Bernie Bro John Fetterman says he wants to turn Pennsylvania into Bernie’s socialist hell.” It was accompanied by a video montage of clips of Fetterman praising Sanders.

Fetterman and Sanders exchanged endorsements and shared rally stages, as well as some political views. They ran similarly styled grassroots progressive campaigns. All of this draws an easy comparison for Oz. Fetterman faced somewhat similar criticism in the primary and relented at the nomination.

In 2016, following his endorsement of Sanders for president, Fetterman said at a presidential debate watch party in Pittsburgh, “What Bernie wants to do for the United States, I want to do here in Pennsylvania.” That year, both presented themselves as outsiders against the establishment.

Six years later, Fetterman’s campaign has pushed back on “just another Bernie” characterizations amid a general election in which the lieutenant governor will have to appeal to moderate and independent voters. His campaign highlights the political differences and lack of interaction between the two in recent years, but it’s a tricky balancing act, given how closely Fetterman aligned himself with Sanders and the progressive movement early in the year. his political career.

In an interview with NBC days before the primary, when asked if he was a progressive, Fetterman replied, “No, I’m just a Democrat.”

“John is not like Bernie, or Biden, or any other politician in Washington for that matter,” campaign spokesman Joe Calvello said. “He’s John Fetterman, and there’s no one else like him. The people of Pennsylvania understand that, and if Dr. Oz was really from Pennsylvania, he would be too.

-When Fetterman endorsed Sanders – and when he didn’t

Fetterman endorsed Sanders for president in 2016 and supported him in rallies and promotional videos. Sanders did not reciprocate when Fetterman ran for the Senate in 2016, but he backed Fetterman in his 2018 run for lieutenant governor. When Sanders ran for president in 2020, Fetterman chose not to endorse the race and spoke out against candidates, including Sanders, who called for a total ban on fracking.

In his 2016 endorsement of Sanders, Fetterman said he and the independent senator “agreed on a lot” of issues.

“Whether it’s immigration, marijuana legalization, universal pre-kindergarten, or college affordability, we stand together as the most progressive candidates in our respective races, and that’s is a pleasure and a privilege for me to be at Bernie’s side and to have Bernie’s back.”

Fetterman and Sanders align themselves with many in the Democratic Party on issues including support for a $15 minimum wage, ending the filibuster, marriage equality, and immigrant and LGBTQ rights .

But the Fetterman campaign keeps its distance and points to other policy differences. Fetterman said he did not favor a ban on hydraulic fracturing. He said if Medicare for All had enough support he would vote for it, but would also support less expansive health care reforms. Fetterman said he agrees with parts of the climate package known as the Green New Deal.

The campaign has had 10 joint fundraisers with current senators, none of them with Sanders. Senator Elizabeth Warren is planning a fundraiser for Fetterman later this month.

—Why Republicans link Fetterman to Sanders

Drawing parallels between Fetterman and Sanders, Republicans hope, will portray Fetterman as “radical” and scare independents and moderate Republicans or Democrats he might appeal to.

The Sanders comparisons also come at a time when Republicans are questioning whether President Biden‘s anemic approval ratings will have the expected downturn from Democrats in midterm races. A Siena/New York Times poll last week showed Biden’s approval ratings at around 39%, but a stalemate over which party voters wanted to control Congress.

There is an assumption, said GOP strategist Vince Galko, that the GOP base, angry at inflation and at Biden, will come out. But Sanders’ comparisons target soft Democrats and independents.

“You have to start playing attack,” Galko said. “The way you do it is you’re arguing that it’s not… Bob Casey from 2006, a mainstream Democrat from Pennsylvania. He’s a pretty woke activist running for the Senate. And I think that the two main examples of that are Bernie Sanders and (U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) So you name them.

Galko said Oz was also wise to challenge the image of Fetterman, everyone, in shorts, as it has already been shown to have some appeal in more rural areas of the state.

“He paints that image that the market in Scranton, Wilkes-Barre or Altoona-Johnstown wants to see. Yes, he’s a Democrat, but he’s still a Blue Dog Democrat, which is hysterical, when his record is anything but,” Galko said.

In a fundraising email from Oz listing five things to know about Fetterman, his support for Sanders’ presidential bid was #1.

“Don’t twist it – this ‘hipster democrat’ would absolutely destroy Pennsylvania,” the email said. “If you think Joe Biden is bad… wait. John Fetterman is as radical as they come.

—Will comparisons to Sanders hurt Fetterman?

But it’s unclear how effective Sanders’ summoning will be. In the primary, Fetterman’s closest rival, U.S. Representative Conor Lamb, often accused him of being too left-leaning to win in Pennsylvania. A Lamb-supporting super PAC ran ads calling Fetterman a “self-proclaimed democratic socialist.” The ad backfired when fact-checkers discovered that Fetterman had never qualified that way and a news station took her off the air.

And some see Oz’s greatest vulnerability – being a multi-millionaire who recently moved from New Jersey to Pennsylvania – as a far more damning description to overcome.

Bill Neidhardt, a Democratic consultant and former Sanders staffer, said he didn’t think the attack would be very effective because Sanders remains popular.

“(Senator Sanders) is consistently one of the most popular politicians in the country,” Neidhardt said. “It’s also pretty well known that John Fetterman didn’t support Bernie in 2020. Everyone in Bernie’s camp remembers that, there was frustration there. It’s just a fact.

Biden faced similar accusations in 2020 that he was a socialist in Democratic attire, bidding on Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez.

Howard Merrick, who chairs the GOP in Schuylkill County, voted for Oz in the primary and thinks comparing Sanders might work, but no more than connecting Fetterman to Biden.

“It’s all about Biden and the economy,” Merrick said. “That’s the big problem. If he stays on it, he will do much better. Focus on what bothers most people. Stay on Biden. Skip Bernie.

Bill Bretz, who chairs the GOP in Westmoreland County, said it was important for Oz to define his opponent.

“John Fetterman likes to portray himself as a regular working-class man looking for small-town America, but the people buying this are just victims of clever, shrewd marketing,” he said. “John Fetterman is a kid of wealth and he’s got an Ivy League upbringing and…he can dress like he buys his clothes at Goodwill, but he’s just as liberal as anybody else.”

While Oz has been critical of Sanders in recent weeks, he’s already said some nice things about him — and once played basketball with him on “The Dr. Oz Show.” In an October 2019 episode of The View, Oz said Sanders, who had recently suffered a heart attack, should continue his campaign.

“Bernie Sanders, I really fell in love with him,” Oz said then.

“If you’ve had a properly repaired heart… the chance of another issue this year is less than 5%, so I say go for it, Bernie,” Oz said then. “You are in good shape, your protoplasm is solid. Give your passion to America.

The Oz campaign said the comments referred to Sanders’ health, not an endorsement of his politics.

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