Super PAC airs first attack ad of Democratic Senate primary in Pennsylvania

The fight to replace retiring GOP Sen. Pat Toomey heated up Tuesday after a super PAC backing Rep. Conor Lamb aired the first negative TV ad of Pennsylvania’s Democratic primary, calling the lawmaker’s chief rival a socialist.

The 30-second clip contrasts Lamb, a centrist Democrat, with the race’s current front-runner, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, portraying him as an out-of-touch leftist who would jeopardize the party’s razor-thin majority in the Senate.

“Republicans think they’d crush socialist Fetterman. With all that's at stake, Fetterman’s a risk we can't afford,” a voiceover says as the ad flashes scenes of the Jan. 6 riot.

Penn Progress released the ad the same day Fetterman announced a $3.1 million fundraising haul for the first quarter of 2022. The Lamb campaign has yet to share its first-quarter numbers, with filings not due to the Federal Election Commission until April 15, but he was trailing far behind Fetterman at the end of 2021.

The lieutenant governor slammed the political action committee’s “stone-cold lies,” taking issue with the ad calling him a “self-described democratic socialist.” Fetterman’s campaign has previously denied he ever called himself a socialist.