President Trump, never one to leave a good recruit on the table, publicly called on Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania to switch parties and become a Republican, just weeks before the 2026 midterm elections could flip control of Congress.
Trump made the pitch Saturday at Joint Base Andrews as he returned to Washington from a rally in Tennessee. “I’d love to see him as a Republican,” Trump told reporters. “He does better as a Republican than he does as a Democrat.” Hard to argue with that, honestly, because Fetterman clearly doesn’t fit in a party that’s been taken over by the socialism-and-open-borders crowd.
Fetterman, for his part, is not packing his bags for the other side of the aisle. He wrote in The Washington Post back in May that he would be a “terrible Republican who still votes overwhelmingly with Democrats.” That tracks, because Fetterman party switch debate Fetterman has walked the Democratic Party line in a whopping 90 percent of his votes, crossing over only four times.
Still, the man is not exactly a glowing advertisement for today’s Democratic Party. Last month he recorded a video for the Republican midterm convention praising his fellow Pennsylvania senator, Republican Dave McCormick. In it, Fetterman declared, “I’m always going to stand with America. I’m always going to reject the extremes and socialism and that anti-American way of life.” Which, again, sounds like a guy who got lost on his way to a GOP rally and just kept talking.
His relationship with Senate Democrats has gotten downright frosty since then, and it’s not hard to see why Trump keeps dangling the possibility. Fetterman is staunchly pro-Israel, pro-capitalism, and has been loudly critical of the “democratic socialist” wing of his own party. In a Senate Democratic caucus that looks more like a Bernie Sanders fan club every year, Fetterman sticks out like a normal person at a faculty meeting.
But let’s be clear-eyed about this. The 90 percent party-line voting record is real. The temptation to recruit him is understandable, especially with certain election scenarios potentially producing a tied Senate, and history does offer examples of senators switching sides. Arlen Specter, anyone? Even so, this is a very long shot, and Republicans shouldn’t count on Fetterman riding to the rescue.
The Senate was unable to pass the SAVE America Act, which means election integrity gaps remain, and Republicans will need to turn out every voter they’ve got. The old-fashioned way still works fine: get every Republican and right-leaning independent with a pulse into a voting booth. John Fetterman will probably keep caucusing with the Democrats and occasionally making them miserable, which honestly might be the best anyone can hope for from the last sane member of that party.
