Is John Fetterman Really Considering a Party Switch?
Sen. John Fetterman has been a Democrat all his adult life, and he continues to mostly vote along party lines.There are, however, a few issues on which he has voted with Republicans.Fetterman’s emerging independent streak on the political stage is raising eyebrows among his Senate colleagues and giving fodder to his progressive critics, sparking speculation about whether he might exit the Democratic Party.Last week, Fetterman said he would formally change his affiliation if opposition to Israel becomes an official part of the Democratic Party’s platform.It is the first time the Pennsylvania senator has laid out a scenario under which he would leave.Advertisement
Fetterman’s colleagues are skeptical he can win a Democratic primary. One Democratic senator, who asked to speak on background so he could be candid, said he was worried about Fetterman making a surprise party switch.“I am concerned,” the senator told NOTUS.Fetterman has pointed to recent contested primaries as evidence that the party is changing.“Look at the kinds of people that are winning our primaries. Not just, ‘I’m pro-Palestinian,’ but, ‘I’m intensely anti-Israel.’ That’s a significant difference,” Fetterman told NOTUS.Fetterman’s decision to create a joint fundraising committee with Republican Sen. Dave McCormick, his Pennsylvania colleague with whom he has a uniquely close bipartisan friendship, is also sparking questions.Joint fundraising committees are a common way to bulk up one’s coffers, but it’s highly unusual for participants to be from different political parties, a move that didn’t go unnoticed by his Senate colleagues.“I’ve never seen it before. Yes, I’m struck by it,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland), who served as chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told NOTUS.Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Pennsylvania), a progressive who has left the door open to a potential challenge to Fetterman once his term expires in 2028, called Fetterman’s decision to team up with McCormick on fundraising “crazy stuff.”“We have battleground races in Pennsylvania that we are trying to flip, and now we’ve got John Fetterman helping the Republicans to raise money to beat Democrats,” Deluzio told MeidasTouch last week.Fetterman downplayed the joint fundraising committee with McCormick, telling the Washington Examiner, “It’s nothing sinister.”“It’s just — people have joint interest in the things that we happen to agree on, if we both represent Pennsylvania,” he told the outlet.Fetterman has become more and more estranged from the Democratic Party.He votes with Democrats on most bills and nominations, but his backing of Israel, the Iran war and border security has annoyed some in his party.He enjoys attacking Democrats, most recently criticizing progressives for backing Platner in Maine’s Senate race.Fetterman said last month he regretted calling for the elimination of the filibuster during his 2022 run for Senate and praised former Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema for maintaining the Senate’s traditional supermajority rule in President Joe Biden’s era.“If we lose the filibuster, then the rights of the minority, whether that will be Democrat or Republican minority, would have effectively little to no voice,” Fetterman said in an interview with conservative podcast host Katie Miller, the wife of White House adviser Stephen Miller.“And if we become a smaller version of the House, that would have profound ramifications for the United States, and that would be dangerous. I’ll be the first to say that our entire Democratic Party was wrong about that in that cycle.”Asked if Fetterman thought he could win a Democratic primary, Fetterman said, “I guess we’ll see.”Fetterman hasn’t announced whether he will seek another term.Adam Jentleson, Fetterman’s former chief of staff and founder of the Searchlight Institute, a Democratic think tank, said he believed the senator might leave the party “in order to stay relevant,” particularly in a scenario where Democrats win a Senate majority by a single seat in November.“I think, if he is the majority-maker, he will flip, because it would give him a massive amount of attention,” Jentleson, who last year expressed concerns about his former boss’ mental health, said in an interview with NOTUS.This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
