Fetterman feels the Bern

Pennsylvania U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman, a Democrat, endorsed Bernie Sanders  Thursday, highlighting his own outsider and progressive credentials as he gives a boost to the party's insurgent candidate for president.

With the move, Fetterman becomes the only statewide candidate nationally to endorse the Vermont senator, according to the Sanders campaign website. The endorsement comes amid signs of a tightening race for the Democratic presidential nomination, as Sanders leads in the New Hampshire primary polls and threatens Hillary Clinton's lead in Iowa.

"Bernie Sanders and I are not traditional, establishment candidates – and we don't want to be. Politics today has become more about special interests and big money, and establishment politicians have forgotten where actual people fit into that equation," Fetterman said in a statement obtained by The Inquirer. "Bernie and I entered our respective races because we believe in the kind of politics that's about standing up for people instead of catering to corporate influence. We represent everyday working people that have otherwise been disenfranchised from the political process by the millionaires and billionaires."

Fetterman is the mayor of Braddock, Pa., a down-on-its-luck industrial borough in Allegheny County. He is challenging former U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak and Katie McGinty, the former chief of staff to Gov. Wolf, for the party nomination to take on U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey this year, in what is expected to be one of the nation's marquee senate races.

McGinty, a fa  vorite of many figures in the establishment of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, spoke Thursday of her support for Clinton for president.

"Hillary Clinton is a proven champion for middle-class and working families, someone who shares the same values as myself," McGinty said in a statement. "I look forward to standing by her to help create good-paying jobs, address income inequality, expand affordable healthcare access and finally ensure that women are paid equally as their male counterparts."

Fetterman continued: "For ten years as Mayor of Braddock, I've had to confront the massive inequalities that have been created by an economy that sends most new money to the top or overseas and just doesn't work for real, working people. Bernie gets this. He's never shied away from pointing out the inequalities plaguing communities like Braddock across the country."

The mayor said his preference is for the "innovator over the evolver."