Congress
The Democrats who aren’t criticizing John Fetterman
Sen. John Fetterman has faced a tide of public criticism from fellow Democrats as he stakes out lonely ground as a critic of the far-left wing of his party — and another wave rolled in Wednesday after he made a surprise video appearance at the Republican midterm convention.
So far, however, his Senate colleagues haven’t joined the pile-on.
Democratic senators are staying above the fray as they work to flip the majority in November amid constant speculation that the 57-year-old Pennsylvanian could trigger a nightmare scenario by leaving the party and caucusing with the GOP.
Some have worked to publicly bat down suggestions that Fetterman could abandon Democrats for the final two years of his term — something he has denied considering, even as he continues to raise eyebrows with his outspoken support of Israel, bashing of democratic socialists and close relationships with Senate Republicans.
“John Fetterman is a friend and an important member of our caucus. It’s a waste of energy to get spun up about his voting record or place in our party — he votes with us 90 percent of the time,” Democratic Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont, who is close with Fetterman, said in a statement to Blue Light News before the convention appearance. “We need a big tent if we’re going to win in November.”
That silence could be tested in the coming weeks. Recent reports, including in the Wall Street Journal, detailed how he has skipped meetings with key constituencies and largely stopped participating in caucus lunches or committee meetings. Fetterman denounced the report as “lies, half-truths, innuendos, [and] smears” peddled by “disgruntled staffers.”
A social media account purported to be run by former Fetterman aides has teased the release next week of additional stories and evidence related to his job performance, which could spark a new wave of questions for the senator and his colleagues once they return Monday from a five-week summer recess.
Fetterman further fueled party-switch chatter with a recent appearance with Pennsylvania’s Republican senator, David McCormick — then heaping praise on McCormick in the convention video Wednesday, where he also pledged to “work with” President Donald Trump to protect his state’s steel industry.
In a statement Wednesday, Fetterman said his Republican convention remarks were intended to pay tribute to McCormick “as a great American and friend.”
“We are in different parties, but we are both Team PA,” he said. “We have delivered hundreds of millions of dollars back to Pennsylvania, fought for improved transportation and affordable housing, and the Steel Way of Life.”
“I’m a lifelong Democrat who votes overwhelmingly with my party — and should the Senate flip in November, I will still be the 51st vote that I ran on,” he added.
If any Democrats fear driving Fetterman into the GOP’s arms with intraparty criticism, some of his potential 2028 competitors aren’t among them.
Former Rep. Conor Lamb, who lost to Fetterman in 2022 and is mulling a 2028 bid, said in an interview that he’s believed for close to a year that his onetime Democratic primary foe would become a Republican — a position he acknowledged puts him “in the minority.”
“I don’t think anything I say, or anyone who is a Democrat says, affects him all that much,” Lamb said, adding, “The fact that the Senate Democratic leadership thinks they can keep them on their team by saying a few nice things about him in public just shows that they haven’t learned who they are dealing with.”
Pennsylvania Rep. Chris Deluzio, a Democrat who is also mulling a 2028 Senate bid, also shrugged off a question about if the public criticism of Fetterman — who he accused of “undermining our efforts to take back the House” — could drive the senator to become a Republican.
“In the two years he has left in this job, in this term, he should be a Democrat,” Deluzio said. “That is what the people of Pennsylvania elected him to do. That is what they expect him to do, that is what I would say he should do with what he has left in the Senate.”
Still, Senate Democrats have largely avoided casting aspersions. Republicans hold a three-seat advantage, and Democrats believe they are in striking distance of picking up the four seats they’d need to win control. A post-election Fetterman flip could put the Senate back to 50-50, giving Vice President JD Vance the tiebreaking vote.
Multiple Democratic senators approached by Blue Light News this week about Fetterman simply declined to comment. Asked in a late July news conference if he wanted Fetterman to stay in the party, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he did.
“He is a very good member of Congress,” he said. “The people in our caucus very much like him and respect him, and we’re a big tent party. We can have a lot of different views in that party.”
A Senate Democratic aide — who, like others quoted for this story, was granted anonymity to speak candidly — said Democrats “are keen on batting down” the speculation that Fetterman would split from the caucus.
Fetterman has repeatedly downplayed that possibility. In May he wrote in a Washington Post op-ed that he had “no plans to leave” the Democratic Party and that he would be “terrible Republican who still votes overwhelmingly with Democrats.” In July, at the Hill Nation summit, he appeared to anticipate being a pivotal member of the party next year.
“If I was going to, I would have already done that,” Fetterman said in July about a party switch. “And I would remind everybody, we are talking about how it’s possible, how we could retain the majority in the Senate — well, that’s because I make that mathematically possible. And if we flip those four seats, then I would be 51.”
But he laid out a red line, saying there was “one condition” where he would abandon the Democrats — if they become “the anti-Israel party.”
Privately, many Senate Democratic colleagues profess to be in the dark about what Fetterman is thinking. Though his colleagues are collegial, he frequently sits alone off the Senate floor during votes.
“I really don’t have any insight into that,” said one Senate Democrat when asked about the party-switch chatter.
There’s been speculation within the Senate for months that Fetterman would simply retire rather than mount a difficult reelection campaign in 2028, driven by the widespread view that he doesn’t enjoy the job. Fetterman has sidestepped questions about a second term, arguing that it is too early for such questions.
A second Senate Democratic aide added that there was “definitely a concern” about Fetterman but that he still voted “pretty solidly” with Democrats.
“There’s a hope that a lot of this is just positioning … and not a real possibility,” the aide said. “Hopefully they can find a way to keep him in the fold, but it’s not really clear what he actually wants.”
A third Senate Democratic aide acknowledged the internal rumors about what he would do while adding that Fetterman and his office are “insular” — making it difficult for anyone outside of his inner circle to know what he’s thinking. A fourth added that Senate Democrats weren’t taking the speculation that Fetterman could flip “too seriously” for now.
But the aide added that Fetterman could make the caucus’ life “harder if he ends up being the 51st vote if the majority is in hand next January.”
Republicans, meanwhile, have made it clear that they are trying to recruit Fetterman. McCormick publicly defended him amid the latest round of Democratic backlash, and Majority Leader John Thune told reporters recently that he and other Republican senators have had “conversations” with Fetterman and “would welcome the opportunity” to have him join the GOP.
Only 22% of self-identified Democratic voters in a recent New York Times/Philadelphia Inquirer/Siena poll have a favorable opinion of Fetterman, compared to 73% of self-identified Republicans.
But it’s far from clear that Fetterman could win a GOP primary given that he still votes with Democrats most of the time.
Lamb said Fetterman’s inability to prevail in a Democratic primary in 2028 was “as sure a fact as gravity” and added that the senator’s path in a GOP primary wouldn’t be easy, either.
“I think there are probably people in the state who would run against him if he was in a Republican primary,” Lamb said.
Rep. Dan Meuser (R-Pa.) said that he takes Fetterman “at his word” that he’s a Democrat and said doubted he’d ever be fully embraced by GOP primary voters. He cited Fetterman’s poor ratings from key groups influential on the right, such as the National Rifle Association and National Federation of Independent Business.
“He’s a good man. Like I said, he’s got courage,” he said, before adding, “He’s a Democrat and maybe a traditional Democrat, so I don’t think that would be something the Republican Party would embrace.”
Riley Rogerson contributed to this report.