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Fetterman was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, to Karl Fetterman, who worked in insurance, and Susan Fetterman. He grew up in an upper middle-class suburban home in Pennsylvania and later studied business administration at Albright College, Reading. There the 6-foot 8-inch (2.03-metre) Fetterman played offensive lineman for the college’s football team and twice served as class president. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1991 and went on to earn a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Connecticut in 1993.

After graduate school, Fetterman began working in insurance and volunteering with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, a youth mentoring organization. The latter experience sparked his interest in social work, and he decided to leave his insurance job in 1995 to join AmeriCorps, a U.S. federal public service program. As a volunteer, Fetterman taught General Educational Development (GED) classes to people living in low-income neighbourhoods in Pittsburgh. In 1997 he pursued further graduate work at Harvard University, where he received a master’s degree in public policy in 1999.

Fetterman later settled in Braddock, an eastern suburb of Pittsburgh that had once been a prosperous industrial town. Fetterman became director of a GED program and founded a nonprofit organization called Braddock Redux. The organization initially focused on helping at-risk youths, and later it funded the renovation of several abandoned town buildings. In 2006 Fetterman became mayor of Braddock and was twice reelected to the post, which he held until 2019. As mayor, Fetterman attracted national media attention for his work to revive the town. He was credited with helping to bring new businesses and investment.

In 2016 Fetterman ran for the U.S. Senate but lost in the Democratic Party primary. In 2018 he was elected lieutenant governor on a ticket with the incumbent Pennsylvania governor, Tom Wolf. Fetterman took office the following year, presiding over the state senate and chairing the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons. He notably championed a range of criminal justice reforms that included pushing for legislation to ensure that people convicted of crimes in Pennsylvania would be sentenced in a fair and reasonable way.

In October 2020 Republican Pat Toomey, the junior U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, announced that he would not seek reelection in 2022, and Fetterman entered the race to replace him. He quickly became a popular figure on the campaign trail. In ads, he acknowledged that he did not look like “a typical politician,” especially with his exceptional height, shaved head, tattoos, and signature hooded sweatshirt. Fetterman advocated for policies that he argued would benefit the working class, including raising the minimum wage and supporting organized labour.

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In May 2022, a few days before the Senate primary election was held, Fetterman was hospitalized after suffering a stroke. He remained in the race, however, and won the Democratic primary in a landslide. Fetterman eventually returned to the campaign trail and worked to adapt to the lingering auditory-processing issues associated with his stroke. Pennsylvania was regarded as one of the key battleground states in the 2022 midterm elections, and the highly competitive race between Fetterman and Mehmet Oz, a surgeon and television personality, was closely watched. During a televised debate, the effects of the stroke were clear, and throughout the campaign Fetterman was continually questioned about his fitness to serve in the Senate, but he insisted he was recovering. “I keep getting better and better, and I’m living a perfectly normal life,” he told The New York Times in September 2022. Fetterman ultimately won the election with slightly more than 50 percent of the vote and was sworn into office on January 3, 2023.