Fetterman appears at GOP convention, deepening rift with Democrats

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., appeared Wednesday evening in a pre-recorded video played at the Republican Party's first-ever midterm convention in Dallas, praising his home-state Republican colleague Sen. Dave McCormick and pledging to "work with President Trump" on steel-industry issues — the most public act yet in a yearlong drift from his own party that has left him with a 19% approval rating among fellow Democrats.

The roughly one-minute clip played during the Republican National Committee's two-night convention at Dallas's American Airlines Center, the first midterm convention held by either party since Democrats abandoned the format after failed attempts in 1974, 1978 and 1982. Fetterman appeared standing in front of the Mon Valley Works steel mill in Western Pennsylvania. "Why am I here talking to you today? Because, well, I'm a common-sense Democrat," he said. "I'm always going to stand with America. I'm always going to reject the extremes," he added, naming socialism as "that anti-American way of life." He said he would "work with President Trump to fight and defend the steel way of life right here in the Steel Valley."

Fetterman devoted much of the video to McCormick, the Republican who has held Pennsylvania's other Senate seat since 2025. "I'm proud to count him as my friend," Fetterman said, calling McCormick "a great American" and "the kind of senator that gets the job done." McCormick, on stage, responded: "Thank you, Senator Fetterman, for your friendship. Thank you for your courage." The video was first reported by CBS News, and the White House's official social media account reposted the clip, captioning it "Based John Fetterman."

The numbers behind the rift

Polling this summer shows how far Fetterman has moved from his party's base. A Quinnipiac University poll released in July found his statewide job approval at 48%, with 41% disapproving — but among Pennsylvania Democrats, only 19% approved and 69% disapproved, while 77% of Republicans approved. A separate New York Times/Philadelphia Inquirer/Siena College survey found 73% of Pennsylvania Republicans view him favorably, up from just 25% in 2024, while only 22% of Democrats do. Fifty-seven percent of the state's Democrats say they would like to see him leave the party altogether, according to Quinnipiac-linked reporting.

The estrangement is not merely rhetorical. Fetterman was the first Senate Democrat to meet with Trump after the 2024 election, voted with Republicans to end last year's government shutdown, and has backed a string of Trump nominees. On July 31, he cast a deciding vote against a war-powers resolution sponsored by Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., that sought to curb U.S. military action against Iran; it failed roughly 47-49. He has continued to work across the aisle with McCormick on constituent business, including a $96 million rail-vehicle replacement grant the two jointly announced this month for Pittsburgh's and Philadelphia's transit systems.

The setting mattered as much as the message. Republicans changed party rules in January to permit a midterm convention for the first time; the only precedents belong to Democrats, whose midterm conferences in 1974, 1978 and 1982 were widely judged failures and abandoned. Organizers built a two-night program at the American Airlines Center with dozens of speaking slots, Trump keynoting both nights and Vice President JD Vance closing the first. That a sitting Democratic senator's face appeared on the same screen was, Republican officials made clear, deliberately positioned as evidence the party's appeal extends beyond its own base.

How the break widened

Fetterman's clearest dividing line with Democrats has been Israel. He has remained one of the Senate's most outspoken pro-Israel Democrats even as his party has grown more openly critical of Israel's conduct in Gaza, and has said his personal "red line" for leaving the party would be Democrats becoming, in his words, "the anti-Israel party." He skipped the party's 2024 convention, has missed Senate votes and hearings, and did not attend a funeral for slain police officers this year, according to reporting from Spotlight PA. No Pennsylvania Democratic candidate has requested his help on the campaign trail this cycle, a reversal from 2024.

"He is antagonizing Democrats, seemingly for pleasure," said J.J. Abbott, a Democratic strategist, describing the party's exasperation with Fetterman's public conduct.

Other Pennsylvania Democrats were sharper still. "Fetterman would bring us more harm than good — people are mad at him and don't want anything to do with him," said Lori McFarland, chair of the Lehigh County Democratic Party. Cindy Durian, a Democratic voter in suburban Harrisburg, put it more bluntly: "I think he might as well change parties, he might as well change from a D to an R." State Rep. Peter Schweyer of Allentown said Democrats had expected an ally: "We assumed we'd get somebody who'd fight for us. What we got instead was somebody who just disappeared." Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Pa., said Pennsylvanians "expect him to be a Democrat in these two years left."

Fetterman has pushed back on suggestions he is preparing to switch parties outright. "I'm not going to be a Republican, but I'm going to be a Democrat that's going to have a conversation with whoever is playing it straight," he told Fox News's Sean Hannity in a recent interview. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has said Republicans would welcome him if he did switch, a scenario that would matter for control of a chamber Democrats need to flip by four seats.

Fetterman and McCormick's alliance predates Wednesday's video. The two launched a joint fundraising committee earlier this summer that Democratic officials in Pennsylvania criticized as, in one strategist's phrase circulated at the time, "another betrayal." A PennLive/Bravo Group poll this summer found 58% of Pennsylvania voters would prefer "someone else" in Fetterman's seat against 40% who would vote for him again — an 18-point deficit for a sitting senator less than two years removed from his last election. Fetterman has largely shrugged off the numbers publicly, framing his positions as pragmatic rather than partisan, and has continued to describe himself as a Democrat even as national Republicans increasingly treat him as an ally of convenience.

What happens next

The Dallas convention continues Thursday night with Trump delivering the closing keynote; roughly 64% of contacted House Republican candidates in competitive races declined to attend, and First Lady Melania Trump also skipped the event, according to organizers' attendance figures — a sign of headwinds facing the party over the economy and the administration's Iran policy even as it stages its first midterm gathering.

For Fetterman, the more immediate question is 2028, when his Senate seat is up again. A shadow primary is already forming among Democrats who have criticized him, including Reps. Deluzio and Brendan Boyle and former Rep. Conor Lamb — all potential challengers who have publicly questioned his standing as a Democrat over the past year, according to Spotlight PA's reporting on the emerging field. Pennsylvania Democrats, meanwhile, are trying to protect Gov. Josh Shapiro's reelection and flip the state House, state Senate and four U.S. House seats on Nov. 3 — a midterm map that will now be read, in part, through the lens of how much distance the party can put between itself and its most unpredictable senator, and how much Republicans continue to elevate him as a foil in their own messaging heading into the vote.