Fetterman’s Growing Rift With Democrats Draws Potential 2028 Primary Challengers

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., has spent much of his first term drifting away from the political coalition that elected him. A Wall Street Journal report published Friday, detailing what it described as his disengagement from routine Senate duties, has become the latest focus of that rift. Citing current and former staff, the report said Fetterman had for years treated hearings, constituent meetings and procedural votes as largely dispensable — declining a meeting with officials from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia over Medicaid cuts, cancelling a session with paralyzed veterans before appearing elsewhere for a Fox News interview, and skipping a funeral for three police officers killed near his hometown of York because the service was expected to last three hours.

The pattern described in the report is not new, and the figures surrounding it suggest something more structural than a single bad news cycle. Fetterman's favourability rating stands at 73 per cent among Pennsylvania Republicans and 22 per cent among Democrats, according to New York Times polling cited in the report. That gap leaves him more popular with the opposing party than with his own, and more popular among Republicans than Pennsylvania's actual Republican senator, Dave McCormick. A Quinnipiac poll last year found that 62 per cent of Pennsylvania Democrats disapproved of Fetterman's job performance, even as he maintained a net positive rating among all registered voters in the state.

That divide has already begun shaping the 2028 Senate primary field, three years ahead of the election. Axios has reported that Pennsylvania Democrats are actively looking for a challenger. Reps. Brendan Boyle and Chris Deluzio, along with former Rep. Conor Lamb — who lost to Fetterman in the 2022 primary — have been identified by party insiders as potential candidates. Former Rep. Susan Wild has also been described as considering a run. The progressive Working Families Party, which backed Fetterman in 2022, announced last year that it would organise a primary challenge if he seeks re-election. It has since launched a website tracking his votes in support of President Trump's agenda. Christopher Borick, a political scientist at Muhlenberg College, said serious primary challenges to sitting Pennsylvania senators were rare but not unprecedented. He cited Pat Toomey's 2004 challenge to Arlen Specter as an example of an incumbent viewed as out of step with his own base narrowly surviving.

Fetterman has responded to the growing criticism in kind. He dismissed the Axios report on potential challengers by texting, "Enjoy your clickbait!" before ending further contact with the outlet. After a series of progressive primary victories elsewhere this year, he called the winners "dirtbag" Democrats and "avowed communists" who should "form their own party." Regarding the Journal's report, Fetterman has said his mental health struggles have been "weaponized" by media coverage seeking to portray him as unfit. He has put his own voting attendance at roughly 90 per cent and argued that the votes he missed were overwhelmingly procedural. He has also pointed out that other senators, including Bernie Sanders and Patty Murray, miss votes without facing comparable scrutiny. Fetterman has attributed much of the criticism to his staunch support for Israel, which has put him at odds with an increasingly sceptical wing of his party.

What sets Fetterman's position apart from an ordinary intraparty dispute is the durability of the gap between his standing with the two parties. He was elected in 2022 on the strength of a progressive campaign brand, then broke with much of his party over Israel, immigration enforcement and, at times, Trump nominees and priorities that Democrats had organised to oppose. Some Pennsylvania Democrats argue that this trajectory has left him more reliant on crossover Republican support than on the coalition that first sent him to Washington. Fetterman has previously dismissed suggestions that he might switch parties as "amateur hour", while allies note that his general-election numbers remain stronger than his primary numbers suggest. That could give him a viable path back to office even if his own party's voters have largely turned against him.

The scrutiny is unlikely to ease soon. An anonymous account claiming to represent former Fetterman aides has said it plans to release additional internal messages and material when the Senate returns from recess on September 14, describing the Journal's reporting as "just the tip of the iceberg." The claims cannot be independently verified unless and until such material emerges. Fetterman's office did not respond to requests for comment in the original reporting.

Originally published on HNGN