Democratic U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman has raised over half a million dollars in the wake of an absurd and widely mocked campaign video by his Republican opponent Dr. Mehmet Oz, Fetterman’s campaign said on Tuesday.
In a statementThe campaign claimed that it had raised over $500,000 in less then a day after the video went viral, amassing more than 11 million views. The video showed Oz, who prompted a backlash. has liedAccording to the campaign, 10 houses is too many for most people.
Watch the video in AprilThat resurfaced this weekOz is in a Pennsylvania grocery market. He picks up several vegetables and dips that he refers to as “crudités” in order to criticize the Biden administration over inflation (though experts say that it’s outside pressure and corporate greedInflation is caused by Joe Biden and not Oz. At the beginning of the video, Oz says that he’s in “Wegners” — a grocery store that doesn’t exist — likely meaning to say Wegman’s or Redner’s, two grocery chains in Pennsylvania.
Fetterman’s campaign capitalized on the popularity of the video, which was widely mockedFetterman himself and across the internet. The campaign raised over $65,000 through sales after the video went viral. a sticker that reads: “Wegners: Let Them Eat Crudité,” the campaign says.
“Our campaign isn’t self-funded by a multi-millionaire celebrity doctor, it’s funded by hundreds of thousands of grassroots donors,” said Fetterman campaign manager Brendan McPhillips. “John actually understands what it’s like to go grocery shopping and to see prices go up. Oz clearly has never been to a grocery shop before. That’s why this is resonating with supporters across Pennsylvania.”
Half a Million dollars is an incredible amount of money to raise within such a short time. In the second quarter of this fiscal year, Oz’s campaign raised only $3.8 million — $2.2 million of whichOz himself gave much of this information. come from dark money sources. According to financial disclosure formsAt the end June, the campaign had approximately $1.1 million left.
Meanwhile, Fetterman’s campaign has broken political fundraising recordsThe campaign raised $10 million in the same three-month period and had $5.5 million available at the same time. The campaign toutedIn May, it had reached 200,000 individuals donors with an average donation of $29. The funding gaps mirror polling on the race. According to a FiveThirtyEight aggregate of polls, Fetterman was ranked number 62 in the top 1%. currently hasHe received 49.1 % support, which is 11.5 points more than Oz.
At least part of Fetterman’s campaign success can be attributed toHis lighthearted criticisms about Oz. Last month, for instance, Fetterman posted a video of Nicole Polizzi — known as Snooki from the MTV show “Jersey Shore” — talking sarcastically about how much New Jersey residents respect Oz. The video is one of many ribs from Fetterman’s campaign about repeated questionsWhether or not Oz is living in Pennsylvania; 2020 People reported in a story with a tour of Oz’s house that he and his wife had lived in a mansion in New Jersey for 20 years. Oz’s campaign says that the couple currently lives in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania.
Fetterman’s success could also be explained by his beliefs and campaign platform. The Pennsylvania lieutenant governor is a staunch pro-unionist and has a populist platform, supporting proposals like marijuana legalization and universal health care — positions that poll wellAmong the public. However, he does sometimes disagree with progressives on key issues. he lightly criticized the Biden administrationTitle 42, which prohibited asylum seekers from crossing the southern frontier, must be ended.
