Pro-Lamb Super PAC Misfires in Attack Ad Against Fetterman

A super PAC supporting Rep. Conor Lamb for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania made two misleading claims about the Democratic front-runner, John Fetterman, one of which resulted in a Philadelphia TV station pulling the ad.

The ad claims Fetterman is “a self-described democratic socialist.” Fetterman has not described himself that way, and the NPR story cited in the ad now carries a correction.

The ad also claims “Fetterman’s been called a silver-spoon socialist.” He has, by the chairman of the Pennsylvania Republican Party, who also warned in 2018 that electing Lamb to the House would mean votes in favor of the Democrats’ message of “socialism.”

Fetterman, who serves as lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania, holds a double-digit lead over Lamb and state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, according to a recent poll from The Hill and Emerson College. Although Pennsylvania’s TV airwaves have been filled with ads from Republican candidates Mehmet Oz and Dave McCormick attacking each other, the discourse on the air had been more civilized on the Democratic side. Until now.