Sen. John Fetterman has talked for months about quitting the increasingly radical Democratic Party and joining the Republicans. This week, he just launched a joint fundraising PAC with a Republican lawmaker.
He’s also refusing to deny having conversations about switching parties.
Fetterman, D-Pa., said Wednesday that he’s is closed to being pushed out of the party he has served his entire political life.
“My long-term concern has been with the Democratic Party, as I am a member of that, is that our party is going to back away and turn their back to Israel,” Fetterman said. “If our party ever becomes, and just makes it official, the anti-Israel party, that’s when I would leave — because that’s been a moral clarity for me.”
He has repeatedly warned that Democrats are closing in on forcing him out.
“You look at the kinds of individuals that are winning our recent primaries,” he said. “It’s becoming more… anti-Israel and hostile to people.”
“I said months ago, I said the Democratic Party is becoming an orgy of socialism,” he said in June after radical socialists won numerous primary victories. “These recent elections vindicate my description.”
A Quinnipiac University poll from February found 62% of Pennsylvania Democrats disapprove of Fetterman’s job performance. Among Pennsylvania Republicans, 73% approve. A Philadelphia Inquirer-Suffolk University poll found only 17% of Democrats view him favorably, compared to 60% of Republicans. His fundraising has cratered accordingly — from a staggering $76 million between 2020 and 2022, to $7.4 million in his first two years in office, to less than $2 million since 2025.
The money he’s not getting from Democrats, he’s finding elsewhere. FEC filings confirm Fetterman and Republican Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) this month launched a joint bipartisan fundraising PAC, “Common Ground PA,” which splits contributions between both senators’ campaigns.
McCormick campaign spokesman Mike DeVanney said the PAC reflects donors who “value the collaboration exhibited by Senators McCormick and Fetterman for Pennsylvania and want to support both of them.”
Fetterman also didn’t deny that he has had private conversations with Republicans about switching parties, but said they were “private conversations” he would not discuss.
Democratic strategist Mike Nellis, a former senior adviser to Kamala Harris, told the Washington Examiner he believes Fetterman has already made up his mind.
“Fetterman has already made his decision to switch parties, and they are going to wait for the most painful or embarrassing moment for Fetterman to do it,” Nellis said. “He might even stay a registered Democrat just to continue to f*** with us like that.”
Last year, Fetterman voted with President Trump 28% of the time — the highest rate of any Senate Democrat, per VoteHub. Republicans have been courting him openly. Trump reportedly offered his personal endorsement and financial backing for Fetterman’s 2028 reelection bid if he crosses over.
Fetterman said no… for now.