DALLAS — Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told The Post in an exclusive interview Thursday that he’s willing to woo Sen. John Fetterman to join his conference after the Pennsylvania Democrat made a surprise virtual appearance at the Republican convention.
“If and when he is ready to have that conversation, we are certainly ready to have it,” the Republican leader said. “It’s going to be increasingly hard for him to have a home in a Democratic Party that is so far out of step with his core values, and I think that you know what he said yesterday reflects that.”
“I don’t push him on it,” Thune added, speaking on the sidelines of the Republican midterm convention in Dallas the morning after Fetterman appeared on the jumbotron to express support for fellow Pennsylvania Sen. Dave McCormick, a Republican.
Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) dismissed the video endorsement as a “stunt,” before taking aim at Fetterman’s “work ethic” and claiming the senator was “just not present” in his official duties.
“My constituents are livid. Those who went out and knocked doors for him are absolutely livid,” Dean said.
Fetterman took the rare step of praising McCormick, who at one point might have been his 2022 opponent, at the Republican convention as questions swirl about whether he will change his party registration — or be ousted in the future by a primary challenger from his own party.
Fellow Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Chris DeLuzio (D-Pa.) has also said he’s “gotten a lot of encouragement” to primary Fetterman in 2028.
Though he’s sided with the GOP on key votes such as government funding, Fetterman suggested that if his party officially becomes “the anti-Israel party,” he’d have to depart.
“I’d be a terrible Republican who still votes overwhelmingly with Democrats,” he has also said, referring to a voting record that shows at least 80% of the time he joins with his own caucus.
“I’m a lifelong Democrat who votes overwhelmingly with my party — and should the Senate flip in November, I will still be the 51st vote that I ran on,” Fetterman clarified later in a statement.
The cross-party endorsement isn’t without precedent. Former independent Sen. Joe Lieberman, who caucused with Democrats, did the same for his longtime friend Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) at the 2008 GOP convention.
Four years before that, Sen. Zell Miller (D-Ga.) also backed then-presidential nominee George W. Bush at the Republican National Convention.
In Wednesday’s video appearance, Fetterman called himself a “common sense Democrat” and expressed willingness to work across the aisle with McCormick — and President Trump — to deliver for steel workers and other Pennsylvanians.
“I’m always going to reject the extremes and socialism and that anti-American way of life,” he also said.
More Republicans have a favorable view of Fetterman than McCormick, an August survey conducted by The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer and Siena University found.
At least 73% of registered Republican voters expressed a positive opinion about Fetterman, while 63% did about McCormick.
Meanwhile, most registered Democratic voters (63%) have an unfavorable opinion of Fetterman, and 22% have a favorable view.
