Politics

Internal polling shows Fetterman’s support is tanking with Democrats in his backyard

Published

1 year ago

May 9, 2025

John Fetterman’s popularity is sinking among Democratic voters in his backyard, according to an internal poll obtained by Blue Light News — one of the first major indications that the Pennsylvania senator is taking a hit with the very voters who elected him.

The poll is likely to take on new relevance as Democrats in Pennsylvania increasingly talk behind the scenes about the prospect of a primary challenge against Fetterman in 2028.

Fetterman, who lives just outside Pittsburgh, is underwater with likely Democratic voters in the city. Forty-nine percent said they have an unfavorable impression of him, while 46 percent said they have a favorable impression, according to the survey. By way of comparison, the poll showed 82 percent view Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro favorably, versus 13 percent unfavorably.

The poll, completed by a Democratic firm surveying the upcoming mayoral primary election in Pittsburgh, was conducted before New York magazine published an article reporting that staff are concerned about Fetterman’s mental and physical health.

It is a single poll, and runs counter to recent public surveys. Still, it has shocked some Democrats in the state.

“In Pittsburgh, this is a break-glass, freak-out moment for Fetterman,” said a Pittsburgh-based Democratic strategist who was granted anonymity to speak frankly.

The results suggest a real vulnerability for Fetterman, who has made his personal ties to the region a key part of his political brand. During his 2022 Senate campaign, his team gave supporters yellow, Fetterman-branded towels modeled after the Pittsburgh Steelers’ “Terrible Towel.” Fetterman frequently uses the term “yinzer,” slang for a Pittsburgh native, and talks up his love of the convenience store Sheetz.

In the 2022 Senate primary, Fetterman overwhelmingly won Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is located, by 25 percentage points, outpacing his rivals then-Rep. Conor Lamb and state lawmaker Malcolm Kenyatta.

The poll of 500 likely Democratic primary voters in Pittsburgh was conducted from Feb. 6 to Feb. 11, through a mix of phone calls and text-to-online responses.

The survey’s results are a marked contrast from public polling that has shown Democratic voters in Pennsylvania sticking by Fetterman even as many on the left criticize him over his positions on Israel and meeting with President Donald Trump.

Recent Morning Consult surveys have found Fetterman’s popularity rising in Pennsylvania, the result of him improving his numbers among Republican voters while keeping steady support with Democratic ones. Polls of adults across the country have painted a different picture, with him sliding among national Democrats and independents while performing better among Republicans.

Some Democratic strategists in Pennsylvania have said that Fetterman’s shifting approach to Trump could weaken the senator among Democratic voters more than his hardline stance on Israel. Fetterman has voted to confirm a number of Trump’s top officials, including Attorney General Pam Bondi. He said in January that he was meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago because he “will meet with and have a conversation with anyone if it helps me deliver for Pennsylvania and the nation.”

The internal survey found that Fetterman’s standing among progressives in Pittsburgh is in particular bottoming out. Seventy-four percent of self-identified progressive Democrats in the city gave him an unfavorable ranking, while only 22 percent gave him favorable marks. His approval rating was 52 percent favorable to 47 percent unfavorable among liberal Democrats and 65 percent favorable to 27 percent unfavorable among moderate and conservative Democrats.

Amid mounting questions about Fetterman’s health, some Democrats in the state have begun looking into the rules guiding what would happen if he stepped down and whispering about potential replacements. Fetterman has strongly denied that he is unfit to serve, called the New York article is “a one-source hit piece,” and has vowed to stay on through his term, which ends in 2029.

Politics

World Cup fuels ticketing reform demands

Published

10 hours ago

June 21, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Demands are growing for a political reckoning over ticket scams at the World Cup — and beyond.

The National Independent Venue Association and Fan Alliance, organizations representing and advocating for entertainment venues and artists respectively, sent a joint letter to Congress on Thursday, calling on lawmakers to ban speculative and ghost tickets, cases where resellers flog tickets they don’t actually have.

The letter — addressed to Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer — includes nearly two dozen accounts of fans who say they were scammed out of thousands of dollars trying to get tickets to the World Cup, which began last week. The groups are also asking fans to share their own stories with elected officials via the Fix the Tix Fan Action Center that launched last week.

“Every one of these stories erodes the public’s faith that consumers should and will be protected from fraud,” NIVA Executive Director Stephen Parker and Fan Alliance founder Donald Cohen wrote. “We urge Congress to work with us to prevent fraud like this in the future and finally enact ticket resale consumer protections that will protect Americans and ensure affordability.”

The letter flagged fans like Dacy Gillespie, who bought World Cup tickets for her sons on Christmas, only to learn on match day — months later — that the seller couldn’t deliver them. And Skylie Shore, who Parker and Cohen said spent well over $6,000 on tickets to the Scotland-Haiti match on June 13, but was forced to wait outside the stadium because she couldn’t access them as fans marched in on gameday.

“These examples reveal a consistent pattern: consumer deception, speculative ticket sales, and broken-hearted American families at the hands of resale ticketing companies like StubHub,” Parker and Cohen wrote.

In a statement, StubHub spokesperson Jack Sterne said that the platform does not allow speculative ticket sales, and blamed FIFA for users’ difficulty in accessing their tickets.

“We understand that attending the World Cup represents a significant investment in time and money, and we take our responsibility to every fan who books through our platform seriously,” Sterne said in a statement. “Many of the issues fans are facing trace back to the event organizer’s technology infrastructure, newly announced transfer restrictions, and a new app that was launched just a month ago.”

In response, FIFA said in a statement that the organization “can guarantee the validity and delivery of tickets purchased through its official platforms” and that FIFA.com/tickets “is the official ticket sales channel” for the tournament.

NIVA and Fan Alliance are urging congressional leadership to place universal price-gouging limits on ticket resale, enact stringent fines on perpetrators and a violation-reporting mechanism for ticket scams, and require secondary ticketing platforms to produce data on ticket fulfillment and consumer complaints.

The groups are not the only ones monitoring for evidence of shady ticket practices. Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway issued a consumer guidance in advance of the tournament, urging match-goers to beware of fraud and promising to hold offenders accountable. And the FBI in May put out a public service announcement, warning fans against purchasing tickets on copycat websites modeled on FIFA’s.

“With the World Cup coming to Kansas City, excitement is high and, unfortunately, so is the potential for fraud,” Hanaway said in her statement. “Missourians should be able to enjoy this once-in-a-generation event without fear of being deceived. My office will hold accountable anyone who seeks to exploit our families, and we stand ready to assist anyone who encounters suspicious activity.”