True story, John: I legitimately won my first election by a *single* vote.
I’ll tell you the whole story, but first I’m wondering if there’s any chance you could please make your very first $5 donation to help our campaign meet our fundraising goal before the end-of-quarter FEC deadline on Wednesday?
Serving as Mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania for 13 years was the greatest honor of my life. But the truth is that it almost didn’t happen at all.
Back in May 2005, the Democratic primary for Mayor of Braddock was locked in a dead heat. Winning the primary meant everything, because no other candidates were on the November ballot. Whoever won the primary became the next mayor.
Unfortunately, Election Day didn't bring a clear winner. The unofficial results showed a tie for the mayoral nomination between me and one other opponent. The absentee ballots had all been counted, but the write-ins were still outstanding. So we went into a recount.
It was a month before the results were finally certified. In the end, it all came down to *three* provisional ballots cast in Braddock’s 2nd Ward.
The first ballot was rejected because the voter wasn't registered. The second ballot only counted for countywide races, because the voter wasn't registered in Braddock.
But the third voter was registered in Braddock — and ultimately, they cast the single deciding vote that elected me Mayor of Braddock. The joke I never get tired of is that I voted for myself. 😂 Here’s the actual headline in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from 16 years ago:
John, I’m telling you this story a few days from our end-of-quarter FEC deadline to show you just how critical reaching every single voter in this Democratic primary for U.S. Senate is. I may have won my first election by a *single* vote, but we can’t afford to lose the Pennsylvania Senate seat by a *single* vote.
In order to reach every voter in all 67 Pennsylvania counties in the coming weeks, though, we absolutely must meet our fundraising goal through emails like this one before Wednesday at midnight. That’s why I am humbly asking:
From me, Gisele, + our entire family, thank you so much for supporting our campaign.
—John
John Fetterman
Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania
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