John Fetterman (politician)

John Fetterman
John Fetterman in 2009
Mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania
Incumbent
Assumed office 2005
Personal details
Born	August 15, 1969 (1969-08-15) (age 47) Reading, Pennsylvania, United States
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Gisele Fetterman
Alma mater	Albright College (B.A.) Harvard University (M.P.P.)
Website	Campaign website Mayoral website

John Fetterman (born August 15, 1969) is an American politician and the current Mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania. A native of York, Pennsylvania, Fetterman earned a bachelor's degree in finance from Albright College in 1991 and a master's degree in Public Policy from Harvard University. He moved to Braddock in 2001 to serve with AmeriCorps and start a non profit organization, Braddock Redux.

He won the Braddock mayoral election in 2005 by one vote, and was re-elected in 2009 and 2013. As mayor, Fetterman has drawn international attention for trying to revitalize the economy in Braddock, with an article in The New York Times, an appearance on Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report” and a Levi’s jeans ad. He has made equality, environmental protection, gay rights, immigration and marijuana legalization major campaign issues. Fetterman is a self-described democratic socialist. He ran for the United States Senate in 2016, but was defeated in the Democratic primary.

Fetterman was born in 1969 at Reading Hospital in Reading, Pennsylvania, to Karl and Susan Fetterman. Fetterman has described his parents as having started out "extremely poor," with both being teenagers at the time at John's birth. However they eventually moved to York, Pennsylvania, where John grew up and his father achieved success as an insurance business owner.

Fetterman has described his upbringing as middle class and "privileged," saying he "sleepwalked" through his young adulthood, avidly playing four years of football in college and intending to eventually take over as owner of his father's business. In 1991 Fetterman graduated from Albright College, also his father's alma mater, and went on to attempt earning his Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Connecticut. However, his life took a drastic change after his friend died in a car accident on his way to drive Fetterman from the gym.