March 28, 2026, 4:59 a.m. ET
- Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman has faced criticism from his Democratic constituents for breaking with the party on several key issues.
- Fetterman, who once campaigned against centrist Democrats, has seen his favorability rise among Republicans while falling with Democrats.
- Some political analysts and party members question whether Fetterman will be able to win reelection in 2028, or if he will even choose to run again.
Throughout his 2022 campaign for U.S. Senate, John Fetterman often took to social media to needle the few centrist Senate Democrats with histories of breaking party ranks.
Then Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, Fetterman cast himself as the anti-Joe Manchin and anti-Kyrsten Sinema candidate who would give Democrats a reliable 51st vote in the Senate.
The oversized, tattooed, hoodie-and-shorts-wearing Fetterman overcame Dr. Mehmet Oz’s celebrity status and his near-fatal stroke to become the only Democrat to flip a GOP Senate seat during that cycle.
Fast forward four years, and the former Braddock mayor finds himself playing the part he once deplored.
And many of the people who voted for him have taken notice.
“Overall, we feel abandoned,” Erie Democrat Freda Tepfer said. “Most of us do. We feel unrepresented.
“We’re highly disappointed with Fetterman,” she said. “He’s certainly not made himself available to the people in the district. I think the people who expected him to be a progressive were overly hopeful of who he was.”
Various constituent groups are planning to gather March 30 at Fetterman’s five offices across Pennsylvania to voice their displeasure. Events are planned in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Wilkes-Barre and Erie.
Tepfer organized Erie’s event through the local chapter of 50501, which has held “No Kings” protests across the country.
“We’re going to be there with signs and people will go in and talk to the staffers and let them know how they feel,” Tepfer said about the Erie event, which will start at noon outside the Erie County Courthouse.
Fetterman’s office did not respond to a request for comment for this article.
Pennsylvania Democrats take swipes at Fetterman
Fetterman, 56, has rankled his party over his votes to reopen the federal government, including in November when he backed a continuing resolution, and again in February when he supported funding the Department of Homeland Security, which remains shut down because of the budget battle.
He’s been a staunch supporter of Israel in its attacks on Palestine in Gaza and, more recently, he’s supported the Israel and the Trump administration’s war in Iran.
He’s also backed Trump’s immigration crackdown and, in March, was the deciding committee vote to advance fellow Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s nomination to secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle, who’s become one of Fetterman’s biggest critics, has called for his ouster.
“Once again Sen Fetterman shows why he is Trump’s favorite Democrat,” Boyle wrote on X after the committee vote on Mullin. “He needs to go.”
Hours later at a town hall meeting in Carlisle, U.S. Rep. Christine Houlahan lobbed another sharp accusation at her fellow Democrat.
“ We have this senator. We have two actually,” Houlahan said, according to reporting from The Keystone. “And I have to be really honest with you. Of the two, I have more success working with the one on the ‘R side of the aisle’ than I do with the one on the ‘D side of the aisle.’”
‘Punished as a Democrat’
Fetterman has been just as vocal as his critics about his standing in the party. On a recent episode of the All-In podcast, he said Democratic leadership was stricken with “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” the concocted malady Trump has used to brush aside criticism.
“Our party is governed by the TDS,” Fetterman said. “It’s made it virtually impossible without being punished as a Democrat to agree something’s good, to agree with the other side.”
On an appearance with “Real Time with Bill Maher,” Fetterman addressed his fitness for office and accusations that he had “gone crazy,” as Maher paraphrased it.
“Parts of my party just want to turn me into a Colonel Kurtz,” Fetterman told Maher, referring to the main antagonist in the 1979 film “Apocalypse Now”, played by Marlon Brando.
‘People are really upset about some of the positions he’s taken’
Questions about Fetterman’s political loyalties arose after a trip to President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, ahead of Trump’s 2025 inauguration, which foreshadowed a much cozier relationship to come between Fetterman and Trump and his MAGA base than what most Democrats anticipated.
In Erie County, where Fetterman chose to relaunch his 2022 campaign following his stroke, Democratic Party Chairman Sam Talarico said he is fielding scores of complaints.
“It’s certainly been a turnaround, but it’s hard to explain,” Talarico said, noting that he can’t recall if Fetterman has made an appearance in Erie since taking office. “And it’s hard to explain because he’s really not available much anymore. Being a public official, that’s not a good thing.”
A Quinnipiac University poll of 836 self-identified registered voters conducted Feb. 19-23 found that Fetterman maintains a 46% favorability rating, but with the support of 73% of Republicans, 48% of independents and only 22% of Democrats.
Fetterman told News Nation’s Chris Cuomo March 25 that he was “confused” by the GOP support given that he’s voted against some of Trump’s big-ticket priorities, including his spending plan, known as “The Big Beautiful Bill,” and the SAVE Act.
Fetterman, who voted to confirm former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, has also noted that he called for her firing, too.
Talarico said he is trying to stay positive.
“I remind people that there’s still some good there, that he still is conferencing with the Democrats and he still votes our way a majority of the time — although we would like to see a little more of that,” Talarico said. “So that’s the positive. People are really upset about some of the positions he’s taken, especially on the war. In the Democratic Party, it’s hard to find anybody who really supports going to war in Iran, and Fetterman supports that.”
Tepfer, too, said Fetterman has been better than his Republican counterpart, Sen. Dave McCormick, and Oz, whom Trump appointed as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. In 2022, she backed state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta in the Democratic primary.
She can’t imagine Fetterman can win support from the party when he’s up for reelection in 2028.
“It would be to his advantage to gracefully leave if he must finish his term,” she said. “I don’t know how he could possibly consider running again.”
Will Fetterman choose to run again?
Robert Speel, professor of political science at Penn State University’s Behrend campus in Erie County, attributes Fetterman’s break from the party to his health.
“Many people seem reluctant to say anything about it, but he did have two health crises within the past five years, and that can change people,” Speel said about Fetterman’s 2022 stroke and a 2025 fall caused by atrial fibrillation.
Unless he makes a major pivot or Pennsylvania expands its closed primary system, Fetterman is unlikely to win another term, Speel said, and that includes as an independent or a Republican.
Speel recalled Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter’s switch from the GOP to the Democratic Party in 2009. Polls showed Specter trailing his eventual successor, Pat Toomey, in the 2010 GOP primary. However, he was also unable to convince Democrats to choose him over then-U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak for the nomination.
“I guess he could try as an independent,” Speel said. “Although, people who have abandoned their party and run as independents in congressional elections in recent decades have almost never succeeded.”
The rare exception is Sen. Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska, who, like Specter, faced a revolt from her party in 2010. The Republican incumbent lost the GOP primary that year to Tea Party candidate Joe Miller, but made history by defeating both Miller and Democratic nominee Scott McAdams as a write-in candidate in the general election, the first time since 1954 that a write-in candidate won a Senate seat.
Names of potential primary challengers to Fetterman in 2028 have emerged in recent months. They include Boyle and former U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb, who was the runner-up in the 2022 Democratic primary, among others, according to various reports.
Speel noted that throughout Fetterman’s political career he’s never had a lot of friends within the party, so it’s not surprising that fellow Democratic officials are speaking out against him.
Talarico, though, wonders if Fetterman even wants another term.
“I’m not even sure if he’s going to run for another term,” he said. “It appears he doesn’t really even like the job. And that’s understandable, because it’s hard to get anything done.”
Matthew Rink is a USA TODAY Network Pennsylvania investigative journalist.
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