. he's hoping to oust senator pennsylvania toomey but he doesn't look like your typical candidate or act like one but that's not stopping the mayor of braddock, who has ties to our area, and now voters are paying attention. will it be enough to get him the nomination? >> good morning. i'm keith jones for nbc10 "@ issue." today we hear from the first of the democratic primary candidates, john fetterman, in the spring primaries taking on katie mcginnty, former chief of staff for governor wolf.

also taking on pennsylvania congressman joe sestak, taking on pennsylvania's freshman governor pat toomey. we were talking about this immediately. it's very rare, and i have to point this out, that i have to look up physically to somebody. i'm 6'3", you're -- >> 6'8". but we are a contrast in styles. i wish i could look at sharp as you do. >> but to your credit, much more casual and comfortable. to the voter, i think that's something that's more appealing. >> for good or bad, i am who i am. i dress how i dress. i come from a real hard, blue color working town. that's why i wear work shirts every day. i represent that ethic and those people. to me it would be almost inappropriate to wear a suit and tie like a typical politician because, you know, those --

that's just not our ethic there. >> certainly not the cookie cutter image for your stereotypical politician. let's talk about something very uniquely braddock. your tattoos. >> sure. this is 15104, which is braddock zip code. this is a much more somber arm, if you will, and these are dates when people have lost their lives in my community through violence. one of the things i'm most proud of during our time as mayor is we went 5 1/2 years without the loss of life there. we've been able to really turn that around in our community. >> you mentioned braddock, pennsylvania, where you're the mayor. since 2005, right? >> yeah. we took office ten years ago, in early january, and it's halfway through my third term. it's been a great run. >> from berks county, grew up in york county. tell me about your childhood. >> my childhood was very fortunate. my family when i was 5 moved

from berks to york county. my father started a new job and he just celebrated his 40th anniversary. he runs the company now. it was a happy childhood growing up in york. and i didn't realize it at the time. i had both parents, never had to worry about basic necessities. education was really important in my house and it was a really great childhood. >> what takes you, then, from central pa all the way to western pa? >> sure. it was kind of an odd, s circuitous route. pennsylvania politics is pfl, fits burg and the big red "t." that was the track i was on but i had different life experiences. a death of a friend and being

paired up with a little boy in big brothers and sisters. and i started teaching ged classes to young mothers and fathers in the hill district in the second class of americorps. so that took me off a path which was more of a traditional one and i wanted to use my professional career to confront inequality and see if the things i was lucky enough to grow up with could be a value and use and taking along those challenges. >> instilled a lot of great values growing up and great discipline. harvard university. >> yep. again, and i say this because it's absolutely true, though. it was much. much easier for me to attend and graduate from harvard university than a young person facing the challenges and graduating in my community in high school. others across the state are fighting for basic things like

heat, electricity, enough food in the restrij rarity. their parents have to work two or three jobs. you know, it's really -- there's nothing impressive about my background. it was the random lottery of birth. >> i worked in pittsburgh, i remember learning from photographers what braddock was, relying on the steel industry. booming years ago. has collapsed since. >> everyone's heard of andrew c carnegi, one of the richest men, that's where he got his start. one of the richest men in the world, started his first steel mill directly across the street from where my family and i live. braddock has played an important part in american history. boom town, like silicon valley is today, and it lost everything.

whether the mills collapsed in and around pittsburgh, they produced half of the world's steel, and the edgar thompson plant is the last steel mill. >> so you've been trying to build this city back to what it was. >> exactly. we've been able to build it back up from almost on the verge of extinction. we still have a lot of work to do and that's a big part of the reason why i'm running for the united states senate as well. >> you haven't raised a lot of money. how do you plan to change that? >> i've raised more money than my opponents. it's just that most of that money went to fixing up my community. you know, during the past six or seven years when other people in the race have been, you know, campaigning and out on the trail raising money for their campaign, we've been working hard every day, still working hard every day as mayor. i'm the only candidate with a day job here in the race. our campaign is grassroots. we've been in the race for four

months. we raised some money and i'm proud of the money we raised because it's all coming from grass roots donors that really believe in the campaign's message and it believes that there's a time for a change. >> you've taken a lot of flack for being late to release your financial disclosures. why was that? >> honestly, it was just the offshoot of a campaign that's been working at a breakneck pace. we said we would get them in. we got them in. no surprises, nothing shocking. that's exactly what happened. and it's really a nonissue as far as i'm concerned. it is kind of a nice backhanded compliment that other campaigns were pushing that as an issue because i guess they see our candidacy as a threat. >> a little competition there, of course. how do you manage that? you're the mayor of a town. pennsylvania is a gigantic state, if you think about it. it's probably six hours from one side to the other really.

>> i get to know that distance really well. no, managing it is -- i tell people the only unpleasant thing about campaigning is i'm not there to tuck my children in every night the way i used to be and the way i would like to be. and that genuinely takes a toll. i have three young children, all under the age of 7. >> which is fun in and of itself. >> yes and work in and of itself, more than campaigning and being a mayor. it's a great balance. i have an incredible support system with my wife. the kids are great. but i do miss them. i really do. >> we'll talk with your wife in just a little bit. let's talk about your other candidates you're facing up against right now. katie mcginnty, joe sestak. what makes you different? >> what makes me different is i'm a democrat that really has come from the true base of the party. the working class town. the working poor, the lower middle class. people that have been forgotten.

there's a crisis of inequality in this country and braddock i like to think is that ground zero. we've been working in braddock for the past 14 years facing these issues. income inequality, health disparities. all these things that are now -- gun violence, gun control, police violence. these issues we've been tablging on a smaller scale are now relevant and hot-button topics on the national stage. >> mcginnty getting big endorsements. she's already got a brand out there. >> she has endorsements. to her credit, there's nothing wrong with that. when we got into this race we knew we wouldn't be an institutional candidate. it's been 18 months when she finished with governor, she had 18%. democrats have had a choice

before and i think we're offering a much different one in terms of the different candidates here in 2016. >> in what way? >> i think we're a much more progressive can dashgts a much more authentic candidate. this is about the base and the heart of the democratic party and that's where i'm operating out of and have been for the last 14 years. >> what do you think of the presidential race? who do you support on the democratic side? >> i just support the democratic side in the presidential race. we have two incredibly strong candidates and it's been great to kind of see them raise a lot of these issues and have a really spirited debate. i look at the other side of the aisle -- again, i'm come from a place where i want there to be bipartisanship, common agreement but it's difficult with the rhetoric coming out of the right side. it motivates me and i hope it motivates other democratic voters that, you know, we need a democrat in the white house, you know, for sure.

>> how do you think you're going to win over the republican voter? >> well, i think -- well, we actually have a lot of outreach from republicans across the state. i joke that it starts within my family, which is a hard core republican base. it's quite common for us to get notes on social media from republicans across the state saying, hey, i may not agree with everything you're saying but in pennsylvaniaist often the case, you're either from an old legacy city, you used to live in an old legacy city or you used to have a family in a legacy city. people used to like to root for people of a legacy city, which i consider myself. they respect the work that needs to be done because they have seen what has happened to their former hometown or current hometown that transcends, you know, traditional political divide and the rancor, bipartisanship. >> we'll have much more with democratic senatorial candidate john fetterman.

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there is a tremendous income gap. in many cases that income gap predicts that there's going to be tremendous education gap. >> welcome back to nbc10 "@ issue." you just saw a short clip from john fetterman's ad. donald trump, you recently called him a name i'm not sure comfortable saying on tv. it's -- >> well, we just summed it up in one sentence press release where donald trump is a -- that is a tip of the hot to western pennsylvaniaese. >> pittsburghese. >> and it's synonymous with a jerk but with its own distinctive western pennsylvania twist. >> someone who is obnoxious or stupid. in your opinion, is it a smart idea to take on somebody who, let's face it, on the republican side is getting a lot of support? >> well, a lot of support isn't

a proxy for actually saying and doing meaningful and important things and having thoughtful conversation, so i could get a lot of attention, you know, yelling and screaming and ranting on a street corner but that's not necessarily good attention or is it meaningful attention. donald trump is kind of off on his own as this stand-alone carnival barker, to his credit, that has captured the imagination of people in his own party pipt healthy in one aspect of the democratic engagement but much more destructive in the level of the rhetoric that was approaching mccarthyism where we're talking about singling out or banning or barring people specifically based on their religion or their country of origin or things that are really un-american. >> back to your campaign now. i've read a lot of articles about you. people characterize you as this long-shot candidate. how do you respond to that? >> i'm certainly not a long-shot

candidate and i'm certainly not the front-runner. we knew that getting into the race. we're coming from a place of really at the very end of the socioeconomic spectrum. those are the people that -- the flags that i've carried during my professional career. i'm proud to say that. i'm proud not to be an institutional candidate. i'm proud to be the person going out and raising grassroots donors at $25, $15, $100 at a time. we have an important message and it's beginning to resonate and we're dominating on line social mediawise with our earned media and we're running a sin seen and authentic campaign which i think is really -- hasn't been done in a long time in american politics. >> speaking of that message, we just talked about this. you don't own a suit or tie. >> i don't. that's not schtick, that's a practical consideration based on the job i've had the last ten years and the people i represent. >> is that going to change if you're elected? >> again, that's getting ahead of it. i'm not measuring the drapes in the senate office just yet.

you know, this is really about for me just getting out, sharing our message, sharing our story with the voters in pennsylvania and i do think it's resonating. >> let's see where you stand on some of the issues here. we have a partial budget as of now but i think it took more than 170 days to come to some sort of agreement on both sides. if you're elected, how do you think you bridge the gap there, how do you think you speed up the process? >> well, with respect to the budget, one of the things -- the most destructive force in pennsylvania politics is the gerrymandering that occurred in the 2010 election. let's be honest here. pennsylvania has a voter margin democrats to republicans 800,000 to 1 million but pennsylvania house has 31% majority vote of republicans and that occurs through gerrymandering. when you represent a gerryman r gerrymandered district, you're not accountable to the other side and you can pretty much do and say things against the public good and public interest. like passing a sensible budget.

like not leaving school districts strung out the way they have. and just being a grownup in the room and just sitting down and saying, look, we're all elected here. we have to solve this. it's an embarrassment for our state that we are still fighting about a budget and we're already into the new year. it's like everyone needs to just understand as much as we don't like, it the other side does get a vote and we're all accountable for our votes and our positions and what gerrymandering has done to this process, thankfully it will change in 2020 after the supreme court elections, but at the end. day, you know, it's really had a destructive impact across the state. >> stay right there. in a few minute we'll meet your wife, gisele. we'll tell you why her life story becomes a big part of his campaign. it's a controversy they dealt with head-on. that's next

. john fetterman's wife gisele is a big reason he supports

immigration reform. she came from brazil and was undocumented for many years. joining the conversation, i gict sele. tell us about your story. >> my mother and i moved to america when i was 8. she said after a discussion with my aunt, who very naturally said, this year we've only been robbed seven times and only three were at gunpoint, so things are getting better. my mother -- it hit her and she said, this is not normal. this isn't okay. and my mother, who had a great job in brazil and, you know, college degree and said, you know, she deserves better. she gave us a suitcase and said, pack your favorite things. we're going on a trip. we arrived in queens, new york, and we didn't speak english. we didn't know anyone. >> wow. brave. >> yeah, she's amazing. that's how we started. we started from there. >> you've been doing a lot to fight hunger. tell us about that. you started a free store. >> yes. well, coming from a country with such extreme poverty and moving

to america, you know, the land of opportunity and excess and seeing that, you know, one out of six are still hungry in america even though 40% of our food is wasted, i wanted to find a way to bridge that gap that existed. not only with food and security, but clothing and security. when we moved to america, we didn't have furniture in our apartment. i see garbage day, a garbage truck would come and crush everything and that seemed tragic. our first apartment was entirely furnished with curbside finds. that was a special time for my family. we still have some of those pieces that were so meaningful. i felt that responsibility for finding items that still had life and a solution to hunger crisis. >> food, i want to mention 412-food-rescue. 412 being the area code of pittsburgh. >> in the free store, my goal

when we started that was to eradicate food and clothing and security in my community. we worked really hard to do that. still working hard but i saw that issue was not just in my community, was much larger. i partnered with my best friend in pittsburgh and we said, how do we take this and grow this? let's start with the county and then move to the next county and take over the state and expand. so, we created a model to rescue food. that's perfect. that 40% number is really scary. why are we throwing out 40% of perfectly good food in america on it while one in six are hungry? and we designed this model which is we call it uber of food rescue, which we presented it at toad fest which is a hack-a-thon, code-a-thon in pittsburgh, and we won. we have an app that matches donors which are grocery stores, restaurants, caterers that have

this perfect food driblgtly to recipients to housing projects, schools. it does that matching for us. so, we save that food every day from all these different organizations and are getting them right in the hands of folks that need them. >> that's an amazing effort. let's talk about the campaign now. what can you tell a voter about your husband you think they ought to know in regards to his campaign and in regards to the type of man that he is. >> no pressure. >> he's cute and he's wonderful. i think for john it's never -- he's never accepted just that -- you know, things have always been that way. these folks, it's just hard living here or he would never put up with that. he wanted to find a solution to those things. he couldn't swallow or accept that this inequality existed, you know. why have three small children. why are they so loved. we read to them every night and we want to give them every opportunity, meanwhile there are

children that are in xheetly different situations. that just isn't fair. you know, we wanted to spend our lives working to change that. to make sure that we can help folks to have an even starting field. >> thank you for all you do around the pittsburgh area, for being so supportive of your husband. john, thank you so much, too. i'd reach all the way across but i don't want to be rude. good luck on your campaign. >> thank you. >> we'll be right back about details with a free give away at dunkin' donuts.

dunkin' donuts is helping to encourage people to donate blood. all donors of red cross blood drives in our area will get one of the coupons. that's it for this edition of nbc10 "@ issue." i'm keith jones. joining me at 5 p.m. here on nbc10. in two weeks we'll be talking to one of the other democrats running in the u.s. senate primary for pennsylvania, joe

sestak. have a great sunday.

dear fellow citizen, i know what it's like to buy a house. i know how it feels to be stressed about money. i understand what a scary word "retirement" is, and i can help. because i'm not just a fellow dad, fellow mom, fellow saver, i'm a fellow citizen. who gets up every day and tries her best. just like you. sincerely, elizabeth trackler

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