Sen. John Fetterman's standing among Pennsylvania Democrats has cratered so sharply that no Democrat in the state wants him on the campaign trail, and a shadow primary for his 2028 Senate seat is already taking shape.
Not a single Pennsylvania Democrat running in a competitive race has asked Fetterman to show up, knock doors, or cut a ribbon. The Lehigh County Democratic Party chair, Lori McFarland, put it bluntly: nobody wants him around. A New York Times poll from August found that roughly two in ten registered Democrats in the state now view the senator favorably, down from 74 percent in 2024. Among Republicans, the mirror image: 73 percent give him a positive rating, up from 25 percent a couple of years ago.
That is not a slow drift. It is a full reversal. And it tells a story about what happens when a politician stops answering to the people who elected him, regardless of which direction he drifts.
A July Quinnipiac poll confirmed the trend: most Republicans now approve of how Fetterman handles his job, while most Democrats do not. The senator won his seat in 2022 as a progressive folk hero, the hoodie-wearing populist who beat a celebrity Republican in a battleground state. He campaigned county-to-county for fellow Democrats, the Associated Press reported, and was in high demand up and down the ballot.
That version of Fetterman is gone.
Progressive frustration started in late 2023 with his staunch support for Israel's war against Hamas. It deepened when he began criticizing left-wing candidates affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America, a group he has publicly called "deeply anti-American." Since President Trump took office, Democrats have watched Fetterman belittle their attempts to push back on the administration while becoming a fixture on conservative media.
He told Fox News host Sean Hannity:
"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."
That line captures the tension. Fetterman insists he is still a Democrat, citing his support for labor unions and LGBT rights, but his voting record and public conduct say something different to the party faithful back home.
The ideological break alone might be survivable. What makes Fetterman's isolation complete is the conduct that accompanies it. He has racked up missed votes and missed hearings in the Senate. He avoided the funeral of three police officers killed in the line of duty. He has skipped meetings and public events across Pennsylvania.
A Wall Street Journal investigation previously detailed how Fetterman skipped a meeting with paralyzed veterans to do a Fox News hit on Israel. Leaked texts later revealed a broader pattern of resistance to basic constituent responsibilities.
One episode in Washington stands out. Representatives from a teachers union met with Fetterman, and the meeting broke up after the senator began repeating himself, shouting, and slamming his hands on a desk. The union's name was not disclosed in the reporting.
State Rep. Peter Schweyer of Allentown said he has not seen Fetterman in years:
"I couldn't tell you. We assumed that when we got him there that we were going to get somebody who's going to fight for us. And what we got instead was somebody who just disappeared."
That word, "disappeared", keeps coming up. Fetterman won his seat after suffering a stroke on the campaign trail in 2022 and was hospitalized for clinical depression in the first months of his term. Those health episodes earned him sympathy. But the pattern of absence that followed has exhausted it.
Private texts that surfaced earlier showed Fetterman pushing back against basic constituent duties, reinforcing the sense among Pennsylvania Democrats that their senator checked out long ago.
Pennsylvania is a marquee battleground this cycle. Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro is running for reelection. The party is trying to hold its state House majority, capture the state Senate, and flip four U.S. House seats. In Lehigh County alone, Democrats are contesting a congressional seat and a state Senate seat.
None of those campaigns have called Fetterman.
Bob Harvie, the Democrat challenging Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick in one of the state's most competitive House races, has not asked Fetterman for help, his campaign confirmed. McFarland, the Lehigh County party chair, was direct about why:
"I absolutely think that Fetterman would bring us more harm than good. Nobody's asked to see him, nobody's requested his presence, and people, quite honestly, they're mad at him and they don't want anything to do with him. The local feel here is they feel betrayed by him."
Rep. Chris Deluzio, a fellow Pennsylvania Democrat who has become one of Fetterman's most outspoken critics, told the Associated Press he is campaigning with Democrats in the toughest districts across the state, and Fetterman is not part of the picture.
"I don't think that Democrats want John Fetterman campaigning for them, and I say that as a guy who's campaigning with Democrats in the most competitive and toughest districts across Pennsylvania."
Cindy Durian, a Democratic voter in suburban Harrisburg who cast a ballot in May's primary, said she would never vote for Fetterman again: "I think he might as well change parties, he might as well change from a D to an R."
While Democrats freeze him out, Fetterman has moved closer to the Republican side of the aisle. He voted repeatedly with Republicans to end the government shutdown last year. He supported multiple Trump nominations. He opposed efforts to end the war in Iran.
Most strikingly, Fetterman and Republican Sen. David McCormick of Pennsylvania launched a joint political fundraising committee, an unusual arrangement for senators from opposing parties. He has appeared at events alongside McCormick and often sits alone in the hallway during Senate votes, avoiding conversations with colleagues inside the chamber.
Democratic strategist J.J. Abbott offered a sharp summary: "He is antagonizing Democrats, seemingly for pleasure."
Senate Majority Leader John Thune made clear in July that Republicans have noticed. He said he and other GOP senators had spoken with Fetterman about the "challenges" he faces in the Democratic caucus:
"If he ever comes to the conclusion that he's ready to move, we'd certainly welcome him."
Fetterman has repeatedly said he will not switch parties, pointing to his positions on labor and LGBT rights. But he has also refused to close the door entirely, saying the Democratic Party becoming anti-Israel would be a "red line" that would force him out. The stakes are real: Democrats hold 47 Senate seats, and if the party picked up four seats in the November election, a Fetterman switch could reset the chamber to a 50-50 split, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tiebreaker.
Earlier this year, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer reportedly pleaded with Fetterman to stay in the party, a sign of how seriously leadership takes the defection risk.
Fetterman's Senate seat comes up in 2028, and Pennsylvania Democrats are not waiting. A shadow primary is taking shape. Deluzio said he will decide after the November election whether to run. Reps. Brendan Boyle and former Rep. Conor Lamb, both outspoken Fetterman critics, are mentioned as potential challengers.
Gov. Shapiro, widely seen as a likely 2028 presidential candidate, is leading the party's statewide efforts this cycle. Fetterman is not part of those efforts. His office and political adviser did not return messages seeking comment on the reporting.
Deluzio framed the expectation plainly:
"Pennsylvanians elected John Fetterman as a Democrat to the United States Senate. They expect him to be a Democrat in these two years he has left in this term."
That expectation is the crux of the Democratic complaint. Fetterman ran as one thing and governed as something else. Whether that makes him a traitor to the left or a man who found his own mind depends on where you sit.
From the right, the lesson is straightforward. Pennsylvania Democrats turned on Fetterman not because he started thinking for himself, but because he stopped thinking like them. The party that demands lockstep loyalty does not handle dissent well, and Fetterman, whatever his faults, is proving it in real time.
When your own party treats independence like betrayal, it says more about the party than the man.
