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DALLAS — A rogue Senate Democrat toying with the idea of leaving his party drew a hard line in the sand after making a surprise appearance at the GOP’s Trump-centric convention.
Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., has been welcomed with open arms by Republicans to join the party after he floated leaving his own caucus, and spurred further speculation that he would jump ship after dropping a video introducing his colleague, Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., at the Republican National Committee’s midterm convention on Wednesday.
But in a statement to Digital, the progressive-turned centrist said that he wasn’t turning his back on the Democratic Party, even as the knives have come out to cut him loose from the Senate.
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Senator John Fetterman, D-Pa., left, pictured alongside Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., right (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images; Heather Diehl/Getty Images)
“My remarks introduced Dave McCormick as a great American and friend. We are in different parties, but we are both Team PA,” Fetterman said. “We have delivered hundreds of millions of dollars back to Pennsylvania, fought for improved transportation and affordable housing, and the Steel Way of Life.”
“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,” he continued.
Fetterman started his career in the Senate after besting Dr. Mehmet Oz in a tight race for power in 2022, where he clinched a historically thin Democratic majority in 2022 running on a progressive platform.
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But since then, he has become a thorn in Democrats’ side, and challenged the direction of the party.
Earlier this year, Fetterman warned that if Democrats became more entrenched in anti-Israel policy positions, he would exit the party, and has taken jabs at the party’s direction during this midterm election cycle as far-left progressives, like Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, have emerged as standard-bearers.
Fetterman has routinely bucked Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his colleagues on a handful of key issues, like President Donald Trump’s war in Iran or voting with Republicans to end the marathon government shutdown last Fall.
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Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., speaks during a Senate Republicans press conference at the U.S. Capitol on June 2, 2026, flanked by Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc)
His latest edict followed a bombshell report that alleged through leaked texts with his aides that the maverick Democrat would often brush off duties of his office, like meeting with paralyzed veterans or charging that a three-hour funeral service for slain police officers was a “non-starter.”
And Republicans would gladly welcome him into the fold. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said in July that he and others in the Senate GOP have had “had conversations with him in the past … about the challenges he faces in his caucus.”
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“And, you know, there are many of us who I think would welcome the opportunity to have him join the Republican conference,” Thune said.
But for now, Fetterman is staying put even if Democrats flip the Senate in November.
