OPINION:
Sen. John Fetterman, Pennsylvania Democrat, told The New York Times last week that he would “never” switch parties, saying he votes “90-something percent” with Democrats. In an op-ed in The Washington Post earlier this year, he said he would make a “terrible Republican” and vowed to continue working across the aisle to deliver results for Pennsylvanians.
“It wasn’t long ago when Democrats wanted a secure border,” Mr. Fetterman wrote in The Post in May. “It wasn’t long ago when Democrats believed shutting our government down was wrong and put American livelihoods at risk. … It wasn’t long ago when we believed it was crucial to support allies such as Israel against threats to their safety and peace.”
Still, Mr. Fetterman has been labeled a traitor within his own party for his voting record to uphold those principles. He has taken a strong stance against the rise of Democratic Socialists of America within the Democratic Party, and Sen. Bernard Sanders criticized him as “way out of touch” with Americans.
Mr. Sanders pointed to a Quinnipiac University survey in July that found 19% of Pennsylvania Democrats approved of Mr. Fetterman’s job performance while 69% disapproved. Although Mr. Fetterman is not up for reelection until 2028, some progressives within the party are already looking to primary him. If that primary were held today, Mr. Fetterman would most likely lose.
Although Mr. Fetterman has pledged to stay loyal to his party, the Quinnipiac poll found that he is making inroads with Pennsylvania Republicans, with 77% approval. Among independents, Mr. Fetterman holds a 44% approval rating, more than double that of Democrats.
If Mr. Fetterman wants to remain in the Senate, his most likely path forward is not to become a Republican. It is to switch party affiliation to independent status, collecting support from across the political spectrum except die-hard DSA voters.
Mr. Fetterman is not courting their votes anyway.
“[DSA candidates] aren’t Democrats,” Mr. Fetterman told The Times on Friday. “We can have different views on certain things, but would you want to abolish the border, abolish prison, abolish the presidency, abolish the Senate? That’s just full-on communism.”
Former Sen. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, who left the Democratic Party to register as an independent in 2024, agrees.
“I support the good ideas, but how could you support some of the crazy stuff they’re for?” Mr. Manchin replied to whether he would ever support a self-described socialist candidate on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday.
“Have you seen their platform?” he asked host Margaret Brennan incredulously. “They’re for just dismantling everything that we know, whether it be the- whether it be the structure of government, Congress itself, or the Senate, they want to get rid of. And then they start talking about all the crazy things. No police, no this, no this, no that. Are you crazy? We want- we want a crime-free area. We have to have police for that.
“We want a strong defense. We want a strong border. But if Democrats can’t say that and they start lining up with the socialist demands of how- what you are to be a socialist, energy will be gone. There’ll be no energy, OK?” Mr. Manchin predicted the demise of the Democratic Party.
He cited an analysis by The New York Times that revealed Democrats lost ground to Republicans in every state that tracks voter registration by political party from the 2020 to 2024 elections, shedding roughly 2.1 million registered voters while Republicans gained 2.4 million.
Mr. Manchin, along with his daughter Heather Manchin, is organizing the Independent Leadership Council to elect independent candidates to public office. According to a CNN poll, 47% of American adults identified as political independents, the highest level in more than a decade.
“MAGA has taken over the Republican [Party], and now you have the DSA seems to be having a lot of energy on the- on the Democrat side,” Mr. Manchin explained of the current political environment. “What happened to the people that live their lives in the middle that make decisions that make things work in America? They got nobody speaking for them.”
Mr. Fetterman is.
“Being an independent voice that works with the other side to deliver for Pennsylvanians might put me at odds with the party that I have stayed committed to and have no plans to leave — but I will continue to put the commonwealth and the country first,” Mr. Fetterman explained in his Washington Post column.
Perhaps he should team with Mr. Manchin, for millions of Americans are with them, lost in the middle.
• Kelly Sadler is the commentary editor at the Washington Times.
Follow the author
Please read our comment policy before commenting.