Pa. U.S. Senate Candidate: “Tacos Are the Great Uniter”

“John Fetterman” by PopTech from Camden, Maine and Brooklyn, NY. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Commons.

A new candidate for U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania thinks he has a way to get people interested in his campaign: Tacos.

“No one wants to listen to politicians,” Braddock mayor John Fetterman told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “but everyone wants to eat tacos. Tacos are the great uniter.”

Although he’s mayor of a 2,500-person suburb of Pittsburgh — Braddock is roughly the same population and size as Dublin in Bucks County — you might actually know him. Fetterman is the alt/metal/punk rock mayor who The Guardian once dubbed “America’s coolest mayor.”

He has tattoos. He’s vocal about revitalizing the former manufacturing town, which once had closer to 20,000 residents. He first won election in 2005 by a single vote. He was even on Colbert Report!

Anyway, now he wants to be a senator and he wants to give you (well, probably not you, but people in Western Pennsylvania) free tacos from the Pittsburgh Taco Truck.

“The taco truck holds a special place in my heart,” Fetterman tells Philly Mag. “It held its inaugural run right here in Braddock and it comes out weekly to The Brew Gentlemen, our new brewery in town.”

Asked if the tacos will be gratis to supporters, Fetterman offered, graciously, “Tacos are for anyone. Supporting me, or even liking me, is certainly not a prerequisite, because who doesn’t love tacos?”

Braddock, a Democrat, will distribute the free tacos — and announce his U.S. Senate run, on Monday. He’ll join former Tom Wolf chief of staff Katie McGinty and U.S. Navy veteran Joe Sestak in the race for the nomination to face incumbent Senator Pat Toomey in 2016.

Follow @dhm on Twitter.