John Fetterman is very tall.

"I yam what I yam, and dats what I yam!"

John Fetterman has presence. He is quirky. He wears shorts and hoodies. He has tattoos. He shaves his head. He seems authentic.

Jamie Mcleod-Skinner has presence. She is quirky. She has a rugged cowgirl vibe. She seems authentic.

McLeod-Skinner, left, with wife Cass

They both won. 

I watched commentators on cable shows get it right about John Fetterman. They said he was a Democrat and progressive but that he had appeal to blue-collar Trump voters. It was a matter of style. He was authentic, they said. Pennsylvania voters had a chance to elect Conor Lamb, a polished, supposedly-electable Democrat. Conor Lamb was the strategic choice. He is supposedly positioned right on the issues, at the balance point of left-right politics in swing-state Pennsylvania.

They chose the outspoken character instead. 

Fetterman has a brand, a blue-collar, Hell's Angels machine-shop style. He supports fracking in Pennsylvania. Oil development is popular with blue-collar rural people in Pennsylvania. Controversy over that position makes it memorable. He is choosing rural economic development over the priorities of climate worries. It defines him as being courageous and a defender of rural people. He didn't just look he part. He acted the part and pays a price for it. Commentators understood this as the appeal of authenticity.

Jamie McLeod-Skinner upset incumbent Democrat U.S. Representative Kurt Schrader in Oregon. TV pundits described the contest as a battle between the electable moderate Democrat versus the presumably less-electable progressive. They saw a rematch of Bernie vs. establishment Democrats. Their analysis also cited the familiar idea of extreme primary voters who push candidates too far to right or left.

There is some truth in that analysis. Schrader was vulnerable on policy. Schrader opposes the $15 minimum wage. He was one of two Democrats to join Republicans in voting against the the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, i.e. the COVID relief plan. Schrader is one of nine Democrats to vote to separate the infrastructure bill from the rest of Build Back Better, blocking its passage. He voted against allowing Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices. He originally called the impeachment effort following the January 6 insurrection, a "lynching." That was more than enough to get him into trouble with Democrats. He backtracked. He apologized for the "lynching" comment. He explained his Medicare drug vote as a strategy for a different plan that would pass the Senate. Schrader had an argument for voters being sensible and strategic. He was moderate enough to hold the seat for Democrats; McLeod-Skinner was too liberal.

McLeod-Skinner has something going for her. She doesn't look or sound like an urban woke culture warrior progressive. She  has a style that immunizes her. She has a wife, to whom she makes frequent reference. She dresses way down--pants, tee-shirts, vests. She is the scrappy outsider. She is the one who looks totally at home in rural Oregon. She appears not to be bending to be a "normal politician."

Thirty second ad

Stylistically, Democrats abandoned rural America. Democrats in Oregon talk about bicycles, light-rail public transportation, and preserving pristine open spaces. McLeod-Skinner seems just fine with bicycles but she herself drives an old jeep--and not for show. It is what she drives for real, and she uses it to pull a tiny trailer that she sometimes sleeps in when she campaigns. It is rough, inexpensive, practical and rural. It is all congruent.

Fetterman and McLeod-Skinner have the Popeye immunity from the arrows of opposition. They seem comfortable with who they are. People like and trust that.

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