John Fetterman taking steps toward running for U.S. Senate in 2022

John Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, is taking a definitive step toward running for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat in 2022.

Fetterman said Friday that he is exploring a run for U.S. Senate. Previously, Fetterman had said that he was looking at running for either governor or U.S. Senate in 2022.

But Fetterman, 51, said he is no longer interested in running for governor. He has set up a campaign account for a U.S. Senate run and said he will have a final decision in the coming weeks.

Both offices, governor and U.S. Senate, are coming open in 2023. Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, is term limited and U.S. Pat Toomey, a Republican, has said he won’t run again.

Fetterman, the former mayor of small-town Braddock, near Pittsburgh, came in third in 2016’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate before running successfully for lieutenant governor in 2018.