Elections 2016 On September 14, 2015, Fetterman announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate seat held by Pat Toomey in the 2016 election. His campaign was considered a long shot against two better-known candidates, Katie McGinty and Joe Sestak, the 2010 Democratic nominee for Senate. Fetterman was endorsed by former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley, former Pennsylvania treasurer Barbara Hafer, and the PennLive editorial board. Fetterman's campaign focused on progressive values and building support through grassroots movement, drawing comparisons to Bernie Sanders. He was the only statewide Democratic candidate in Pennsylvania to endorse Sanders. Though lacking statewide name recognition, low on campaign funds, and polling as low as 4% a week before the primary, Fetterman garnered 20% of the primary vote. Katie McGinty, who spent $4,312,688 on the primary and was endorsed by Barack Obama and many U.S. senators, finished ahead of former congressman and admiral Joe Sestak, who raised $5,064,849, with Fetterman raising $798,981 and finishing third. After the primary, Fetterman campaigned on behalf of McGinty, who lost to Toomey in the general election. 2022 In January 2021, Fetterman announced he was launching an exploratory committee for the 2022 U.S. Senate election in Pennsylvania. On February 4, 2021, Fetterman filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission declaring his intention to run for the Senate seat being vacated by Toomey. On February 8, 2021, he officially entered the race. Democratic primary Fetterman's main opponent in the Democratic primary was U.S. representative Conor Lamb. A political action committee supporting Lamb ran ads attacking Fetterman as "a self-described democratic socialist". While the ad cited an NPR article that called Fetterman a socialist, The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote, "Fetterman has never actually described himself that way." Both Lamb and another candidate, Malcolm Kenyatta, criticized Fetterman for an incident where he pulled a loaded shotgun on a black jogger whom he believed had fired a gun. While leading in many polls, Fetterman received few endorsements in the Democratic primary. State representative John I. Kane said that the lack of endorsements was characteristic of Fetterman's "lone wolf personality". Darisha Parker, a state representative from Philadelphia, argued that his lack of endorsements was because he had "never come and introduced himself to me or any of my colleagues... if a lieutenant governor doesn't take the time to get to talk to somebody like me, then why would we want to send