The Economist April 30th 2022 33
United StatesPennsylvania
Signs of the times in the Keystone State
T
he political carnival of the Senate
primary season in Pennsylvania—fea-
turing a bald, tattooed giant with a billy-
goat beard, a celebrity talk-show host and a
hedge-fund executive who recently de-
camped from Connecticut—is settling into
an intriguing pattern. The Republican can-
didates are doing what Republicans do
now: panicking about the woke left and
rhapsodising about Donald Trump. But the
Democrats, rather than trying to excite
their own base by espousing progressive
causes, are edging towards the centre.
“I wouldn’t categorise myself as pro-
gressive,” John Fetterman, the Democratic
front-runner and, at just over two metres,
the giant, told cnnon April 21st, even as
the Philadelphia Inquirerdescribed him on
its website as “an unabashed progressi-
ve”. The Democrats are competing instead
over who will prove most electable state-
wide this autumn. It is a sign of the focus
with which the candidates are approach-
ing the race, one of few across the country
where Democrats have a chance to gain a
Senate seat. And, in a large swing state that
will be crucial to the presidential contest
in 2024, it may also reflect a broader return
to pragmatism by the party, which has
found itself to the left of most voters na-
tionally on issues from crime to spending
to immigration.
When the three Democratic candidates
faced one another in debate for the first
time, on April 21st, they seemed easy to tell
apart. To Mr Fetterman’s right (physically
and, at least until recently, politically) was
Conor Lamb, a congressman from Pitts-
burgh who might have been assembledfrom a make-a-centrist kit: white and mild,
a former marine and prosecutor without a
hair or word out of place. To Mr Fetterman’s
left was Malcolm Kenyatta, a state repre-
sentative who is from Pennsylvania’s other
Democratic stronghold, Philadelphia, and
seemingly unpacked from the progressive
box: black, gay and 31 years old, with warm
charisma and a compelling autobiography
of working-class struggle.
Yet on policy the three could be hard to
distinguish as they spoke of raising the
minimum wage, reducing gun violence
and combating inflation. Both Mr Fetter-
man and Mr Lamb said they opposed Presi-
dent Joe Biden’s decision to revoke Title 42,
a sweeping immigration restriction im-
posed by Donald Trump and hated by pro-
gressives. Yet even Mr Kenyatta was quick
to say Mr Biden’s move should be part of
“comprehensive immigration reform”,
suggesting he also felt Mr Biden should
have a better plan to deal with an influx of
migrants, a prospect alarming Democrats
in competitive races around the country.
The more raucous Republican race has
been dominated by Dr Mehmet Oz, the
talk-show host, and David McCormick, the
former hedge-fund boss, who has startled
ex-colleagues at Bridgewater Associates by
embracing Mr Trump’s anti-immigration,
anti-China politics. A respecter of televi-
sion celebrity, Mr Trump has endorsed Dr
Oz, who is pounding Mr McCormick in ad-
vertisements as “a finance bro” who in-H ARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA
Both sides’ primary campaigns provide pointers to the future of American politics
→Alsointhissection
34 DeSantisv Disney
35 Thecaseoftheprayingfootball coach
35 FreepetrolinChicago
36 Hawaii’soilshock
37 Lexington: The new McCarthyism