PA Lt. Gov. John Fetterman announces heart condition amid Senate bid

Democratic Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. and Senate candidate John Fetterman announced on Friday that he suffers from a heart condition but that he was recovering.

The Pennsylvania Democrat suffered a stroke last month prior to the state's Democratic senatorial primary but easily won his party's nomination to succeed GOP Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, according to The Hill. Fetterman emphasized that the near-fatal medical episode was due to his own failure to take care of himself.

“I want to emphasize that this was completely preventable,” he said on Friday. “My cardiologist said that if I had continued taking the blood thinners, I never would have had a stroke. I didn’t do what the doctor told me. But I won’t make that mistake again. Taking care of others is important but you must include yourself in there too.”

On the opposite side of the race, the Republicans have yet to settle on their nominee, with the party's own primary race in an unresolved deadlock between reality star Dr. Mehmet Oz and hedge fund manager David McCormick. The election's close margin, in which the Trump-backed Oz earned a slim lead, went to an automatic recount. It has since entered legal limbo with the Supreme Court intervening to temporarily block the counting of a slew of absentee ballots.

The Republican who emerges from the electoral quagmire will go on to face Fetterman in November.