John Fetterman's political shift draws ire of Pennsylvania Democrats

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Throughout his 2022 campaign for U.S. Senate, John Fetterman often took to social media to needle the few centrist Senate Democrats with histories of breaking party ranks.

Then Pennsylvania's lieutenant governor, Fetterman cast himself as the anti-Joe Manchin and anti-Kyrsten Sinema candidate who would give Democrats a reliable 51st vote in the Senate.

The oversized, tattooed, hoodie-and-shorts-wearing Fetterman overcame Dr. Mehmet Oz's celebrity status and his near-fatal stroke to become the only Democrat to flip a GOP Senate seat during that cycle.

Fast forward four years, and the former Braddock mayor finds himself playing the part he once deplored.

And many of the people who voted for him have taken notice.

"Overall, we feel abandoned," Erie, Pennsylvania, Democrat Freda Tepfer said. "Most of us do. We feel unrepresented.

"We're highly disappointed with Fetterman," she said. "He's certainly not made himself available to the people in the district. I think the people who expected him to be a progressive were overly hopeful of who he was."

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Fetterman, 56, has rankled his party over his votes to reopen the federal government, including in November when he backed a continuing resolution, and again in February when he supported funding the Department of Homeland Security, which remains shut down because of the budget battle.

He's been a staunch supporter of Israel in its attacks on Palestine in Gaza and, more recently, he's supported Israel and the Trump administration's war in Iran.

He's also backed Trump's deportation crackdown and, in March, was the deciding committee vote to advance fellow Sen. Markwayne Mullin's nomination to secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pennsylvania, who's become one of Fetterman's biggest critics, has called for his ouster.

"Once again Sen Fetterman shows why he is Trump's favorite Democrat," Boyle wrote on X after the committee vote on Mullin. "He needs to go."

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Tepfer, too, said Fetterman has been better than his Republican counterpart, Sen. Dave McCormick, and Oz, whom Trump appointed as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. In 2022, she backed state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta in the Democratic primary.

She can't imagine Fetterman can win support from the party when he's up for reelection in 2028.

"It would be to his advantage to gracefully leave if he must finish his term," she said. "I don't know how he could possibly consider running again."

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