ERIE, Pa.— The Lavery brewery here fills up with people in their 20s, 30s, 40’s, 50s and beyond every weekend where they enjoy the home-made brew and some giant burgers, fries, soft pretzels and other fare that complement the famous house beers. The owners and staff make a point of catering to the needs of the working-class crowd that keeps their business going.
The makeup of the crowd at Lavery presents Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senator, John Fetterman, with a dilemma he faces regarding his re-election prospects in 2027. The brewery restaurant has, in the past, hosted Democratic hopefuls for office on both the local and statewide levels. Fetterman came to Erie when he made his original run for the Senate.
The customers here reflect the makeup of Erie as both a manufacturing and agricultural center. Among the brewery-restaurant patrons are workers in the plastics industry which boasts the production of 10 percent of the nation’s plastic products. Among the customers here are skilled workers who turn out important industrial components. Still other workers here produce things ranging from aerospace dampeners and biofuels to metal parts for a variety of other machinery. Grape production for jelly and wines has long been an important part of the agricultural production in Erie.
At one table of six last weekend at the Lavery brewery, workers from several of these industries were seated. After they heard about Sen. Fetterman’s reaction to the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, when he said the solution was to quickly build President Trump’s new ballroom, a few of them responded. Two of four workers who said they had voted for both Trump and Fetterman said they were switching to the Democrats now on the presidential level but were looking for someone other than Fetterman to back for Senate.
“They have broken promises to us,” a machinist at one table said about both Trump and Fetterman. “Trump has done nothing about high prices and Fetterman is not winning any points with me by kissing up to Trump,” the customer said as others at his table laughed.
When workers in Erie talk this way the politicians in this state have to listen. Erie County is a bell-weather county in Pennsylvania which itself is a bell-weather state. Remarks like the ones made by that customer at the Lavery Brewery don’t portend well for Republicans in the midterms. The trend has been that as goes Erie in an election, so goes the state of Pennsylvania, and as goes the state of Pennsylvania so goes the nation.
As much as electoral politics, one customer wanted to talk about the venue in which he and his friends were enjoying themselves. “A lot of businesses have wanted to go cashless and take only credit cards,” he said, “but here in Erie and at this place we take care of each other. The owner decided to continue taking cash because it is easier for many of us to pay that way.” Even people who love the convenience of paying with plastic are unhappy with the 3 and 5 percent surcharges banks have slapped on top of purchases made with credit cards.
The biggest concern voiced by those unhappy with Fetterman, however, seemed to be his increasing movement in favor of Trump’s positions across the board including the war in Iran which, they say, hurts workers here in Erie with high prices.
The senator said that Americans should support Trump’s ballroom because that ballroom will result in things like the shooting this weekend never being able to happen again.
The growing opposition to Fetterman among workers in his state is reflected among Democratic lawmakers, none of whom are willing to come out in support of the senator.
They point out that the White House Correspondents’ Dinner is a private event that has never and would never be held in a ballroom at the White House. A ballroom would have made no difference, one way or the other.
Nevertheless, Fetterman made the remark: “We were there front and center,” he said on X. “That venue was not built to accommodate the entire line of succession for the U.S. government. After witnessing last night, drop the TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) and build the White House ballroom for events just like this.”
Democrats, through spokespeople like Jon Cooper, writing on X, have told Fetterman to “sit down and worry about your coming primary instead.”
The liberal pundit Dean Obediallah wrote on X: “I can’t wait for Fetterman to become a Republican so we can destroy him in the election.” CNN’s legal commentator said: “Do you directly get your talking points from the GOP or just read about them? No venue should hold the entire line of succession. Period.”
Among the Democratic Pennsylvania lawmakers challenging Fetterman’s support for Trump and refusing to say they will back him are Reps. Brendan Boyle, Chris Deluzio, Chrissy Houlihan and Madeline Dean.
Dean said “his support for war and for Trump Cabinet picks and now for the ballroom are not hopeful signs about where he is headed. He will make up his own mind about whether he is going to run again and the people will make up their own minds about whether they will support him.”
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