President Donald Trump and Republicans are quietly testing whether Sen. John Fetterman can be peeled away from the Democratic Party, even as the Pennsylvania lawmaker insists he’s not going anywhere.
According to a report from Politico’s Jonathan Martin, some GOP officials believe that even if Republicans lose up to four Senate seats in November, they could still hold the chamber if they managed to flip Fetterman.
“Trump has made the sell, offering his patented total and complete endorsement plus a financial windfall to the Pennsylvanian. A handful of Senate Republicans are also gently feeling out Fetterman and responding to his concerns over the prospect of defecting from the Democratic Party, multiple high-level GOP officials tell me,” Martin reported.
Fetterman, however, pushed back directly.
“I’m not changing,” he said.
“I’m a Democrat and I’m staying one,” added the senator.
Still, behind the scenes, Republicans appear to see an opening. Martin reported that when a senior GOP lawmaker floated the idea of Fetterman becoming an independent, the senator didn’t immediately shut it down.
“When one senior Republican recently brought up the idea of becoming an independent to Fetterman, he absorbed the suggestion and didn’t embrace or reject the overture, according to a GOP official familiar with the conversation,” the report said.
John Fetterman
The outreach comes as Fetterman’s relationships on Capitol Hill have raised eyebrows in both parties.
“First, the Senate is akin to a high school cafeteria. And Fetterman these days is much more comfortable sitting, quite literally, with the Republicans. He never shows up for Democrat-only gatherings, such as the caucus’s regular luncheons,” Martin said.
“Fetterman gets along well with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, the two text one another regularly.”
“After resisting it because he didn’t want to prompt chatter, Fetterman has now started to hang out in the Senate GOP cloakroom during long votes. For a time, he would remain alone and spend time between votes reading through his phone until [Katie] Britt came out to join him for meals. This was a way he didn’t have to enter either party’s mini-Capitol clubhouse. Now, though, Fetterman is spending hours with Senate Republicans in their cloakroom and in some leadership offices,” Martin’s report continues.
Martin also pointed to growing personal ties between Fetterman and several Republicans.
“If Fetterman does flip, according to officials who were given anonymity to talk about sensitive matters, it will be thanks in large part to his deepening friendship with a pair of senators and their high-profile spouses: Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.), and his wife Dina, and Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), and her husband, Wesley,” he reported.
Despite the chatter, Fetterman publicly dismissed the idea of switching parties during a recent interview.
“My voting record actually reflects that I am a Democrat. You know, what’s changed me with many of my other colleagues is that I don’t agree and I use like extreme rhetoric and say, but I support what I think most Americans should agree with these things. You know, the Democratic Party, you know, we became an open border party, without a doubt. And now that’s wrong, and I support to make our border more security, and deport all of the criminals right now,” he said. “So I can’t be a Republican because in many other areas, I disagree on that. So whether if I’m politically homeless or whatever, but I’m staying in my party.”
Even so, Fetterman acknowledged he’s not exactly a favorite inside his own conference.
“Well, I mean, cordial,” he said with a laugh when asked about his relationships with fellow Democrats. “But I’m not necessarily the popular guy, which is strange to me because it’s like, I am a Democrat and, you know, I’m the guy that flipped the seat.”
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