Tom Gralish/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP
Republican Mehmet Oz, right, is seen live on a monitor in the media tent, next to a poster of Democrat John Fetterman as the two U.S. Senate candidates hold their first and only debate, at the WHTM-TV/ABC 27 studio in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, October 25, 2022.
HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA – The ABC27 television studio is located in a quiet little suburban section of Uptown Harrisburg, surrounded on all sides by modest brick homes, parked minivans, and mowed lawns. Unless you were in the immediate vicinity of the studios on Hoffman Street, and witnessed the moderate police presence, media credentialing booths, and giant poster of two candidates who have been ubiquitous on Pennsylvania TV screens, you might not have known that a highly publicized Senate debate was going to take place later that evening. Some local residents maybe stood and glanced at the muted commotion for a few moments, but it was never long before they were in their cars or back up the pathway to their front door.
Things did pick up a bit on Hoffman Street as the debate approached. Local TV stations arrived with reporters, cameramen, and producers in tow. Enthusiastic supporters were there too, including a group of around 15 people protesting the denial of the Armenian genocide. But all in all, it remained a modest, even quiet scene.
Nonetheless, Tuesday’s Mehmet Oz–John Fetterman debate had been hyped by political media as among the most important events of the 2022 midterm campaign. It is easy to see why in the context of the horse race. The election will go a long way in determining Senate control in two weeks—and this was the only opportunity for Pennsylvania voters to watch Oz and Fetterman on the same stage. There was also buzz surrounding the potential juxtaposition between Oz, the telegenic celebrity doctor, and Fetterman, who is recovering from a recent stroke.
FETTERMAN SUPPORTERS I SPOKE TO were worried going into the debate. They were also frustrated.
“My first impression of [Fetterman] was, this is really somebody who is committed to service, and to actually listening to people and to actually speaking to people,” said Zach Johnson, who grew up in and around Harrisburg and has followed Fetterman’s career since he became lieutenant governor in 2019. “And so I’m worried about this debate because those are some of his best qualities. He is an empathetic listener, he’s a good speaker, he’s like a real person, very down-to-earth. And I think that unfortunately because of the stroke, it will be really difficult for him to show that off.”
But Johnson, who has incurred hefty medical expenses and lists Medicare for All as the most important policy for the 2022 midterms, also expressed frustration with the way they said that Fetterman was running his campaign.
“I haven’t seen Fetterman touch [Medicare for All] in the race. It says on his website that he just kind of supports any health care that helps Americans get better outcomes. It sounds like focus group–tested language. The kind of stuff I’d expect out of Joe Biden but not John Fetterman.”
Voters like Johnson and Bernard Lawson, who has lived around the corner from the ABC27 studios most of his life, also expressed dismay about the lack of overall substance in the race.
“I hope they don’t go in there talking about each other,” said Lawson outside the studios moments before the debate began. “You know, talking about ‘what he did’ and ‘what he did.’ We don’t want to hear that! We want to hear what you are going to do for Pennsylvania!”
The often personal, trivial, and meme-ified nature of this campaign has indeed been difficult to overlook and has emerged as a national story. Fetterman in particular has put a lot of stock into social media, which has often meant trolling Oz for his carpetbagging, elitism, and fair-weather NFL fandom. This is good for fundraising and gets engagement on Twitter and Instagram, but as Akela Lacy warned last week at the Intercept, “Once the shit-posting … [is] over … someone will actually be tasked with representing the state of Pennsylvania in the Senate.”
TUESDAY’S DEBATE MAY HAVE BEEN the one chance for Pennsylvania voters to receive even a sound-bite-sized sense of where Fetterman and Oz stand on policy. (The candidates had all of 60 seconds to answer questions.)
On abortion, Oz declined to support Lindsey Graham’s 15-week ban, instead declaring that abortion “should be left up to the states.” In a particularly viral moment—viewed over three million times by the end of the night—which the Fetterman campaign said they would turn into an ad within minutes of the debate ending, Oz said that women, doctors, and “local political leaders” should be involved in that conversation. Meanwhile, Fetterman expressed support for codifying Roe v. Wade into law.
On raising the minimum wage, Fetterman pledged his support for raising it to $15 an hour, attacking Oz for his “ten gigantic mansions” in the process. Oz avoided giving an overtly coherent answer, but sensing where the political wind is blowing, stated that he would like to see high wages—“a lot more than $15!”—and that fracking for fossil fuels “beneath our feet in Pennsylvania” would somehow provide businesses with the money to pay employees.
On the matter of fracking, Oz doubled down on his enthusiastic support for the practice despite, as the moderators pointed out, having expressed skepticism and caution about it in articles written during the 2010s. Fetterman also demonstrated determined support, stating, “I do support fracking!” three times in about 13 seconds, despite, as the moderators pointed out, having as recently as 2018 declared, “I don’t support fracking at all.”
And on a number of issues—such as crime, Social Security, and student debt cancellation—each candidate took standard, expected positions and did not defy the leadership of their respective parties. Interestingly, though, Oz, who has been all over the place on marijuana legalization, expressed support for President Biden’s recent executive order.
The immediate media consensus appears to be that the debate was a bit of a disaster for Fetterman, due to the speech and auditory difficulties associated with his stroke recovery. This Beltway theater criticism is what Fetterman supporters had most feared, while far-right figures such as Stephen Miller and Tucker Carlson could barely contain their glee. But amid a highly volatile political environment, it is difficult to confidently proclaim that the debate will make much of a difference either way, or how it will be perceived once the campaigns hit the airwaves with the clips they want to highlight, which are much more likely to be seen than the debate itself.
“It was kind of what I expected it to be, more or less,” said Johnson after the debate, who argued that, if anything, Fetterman’s flip-flopping—for good or ill—would have more of an effect on the electorate than the communication struggles associated with his stroke recovery. “It seems like [Fetterman’s] campaign thinks they will be able to attract votes in redder areas,” Johnson said. “He’s clearly in a position where he feels he has to make a lot of calculated choices to win. We’ll see if that works out for him.”
Pennsylvania will choose its new United States senator on November 8th. Given that the election could determine Senate control, it is inarguably consequential. But the Oz-vs.-Fetterman contest has ultimately proven meandering, shallow, and disillusioning, and the debate on Tuesday did little to alter that feeling, if not outright contributing to it. If Oz does prove victorious, we would be wise to really think about that, especially ahead of what is sure to be a shattering 2024 presidential campaign.
