Organizers of Fetterman, McCormick event mum on venue details as protesters mobilize

Dana Kellerman plans to protest Saturday in Pittsburgh. She just doesn’t know where yet.

Complicating matters, Kellerman said she wasn’t sure where hundreds of other anticipated protesters should go or where they should set up their giant inflatable chicken.

It all depends on where U.S. Sens. Dave McCormick and John Fetterman will be.

“Nobody seems to know,” Kellerman said Wednesday afternoon.

McCormick, Fetterman and their wives are scheduled to appear together Saturday at an event where the McCormicks would discuss their new book and participate in a discussion with the Fettermans about mentorship. They haven’t said publicly where their event will be held.

An Eventbrite listing for the hourlong event, scheduled to start at 1 p.m., showed by Wednesday afternoon that there was a waitlist for tickets. The price to get in: $32, plus $3.90 in fees. The listing said those attending would receive a copy of the book “Who Believed in You?” by McCormick and his wife, Dina Powell McCormick.

The event had been scheduled to be held at City Winery in the Strip District, but an employee answering the phone said the Smallman Street venue was no longer hosting. The Eventbrite listing didn’t provide any further details, saying only that a location would be announced.

The offices of McCormick and Fetterman did not return messages as of Wednesday evening. Neither did the event organizer listed online.

A related event Sunday featuring the McCormicks in Newtown, Bucks County, has been postponed, according to a separate Eventbrite listing. The listing did not say why.

Kellerman is an organizer of Mondays with(OUT) McCormick, a group that she said formed to hold McCormick, R-Pittsburgh, accountable.

Earlier this month, the group helped organize an event in Downtown Pittsburgh to support Ukraine following President Donald Trump’s contentious meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office. Hundreds attended the rally outside the Grant Building, which houses McCormick’s Pittsburgh senatorial office.

The group is a descendant of Tuesdays with Toomey, which held numerous demonstrations outside the Pittsburgh office of former U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, a Republican from the Lehigh Valley.

Kellerman didn’t rule out the possibility of a third group ultimately forming for Fetterman, a Democrat from Braddock. He has faced backlash from some Democrats for his openness to working with Trump and Republicans. He also has been critical of some Democrats for how they have handled affairs since Trump took office.

After learning of Saturday’s joint appearance with the McCormicks and Fettermans, Kellerman said Mondays with(OUT) McCormick, Indivisible Pittsburgh and other local activist groups began organizing a peaceful demonstration in response.

Organizers found it unconscionable that the senators would hold a paid event that will promote the McCormicks’ book but not a town hall where constituents can directly share concerns with the senators and ask them questions, Kellerman said.

“We would like our senators to listen to us. This is a time where we need our senators to listen to us,” said Kellerman, a veterinarian from Fox Chapel. “They can’t work for us if they don’t know what we want.”

“These are our senators and they work for us. We shouldn’t have to search to find them,” added Tracy Baton of Indivisible Pittsburgh. “They are in another world. They are not behaving as senators.”