EXCLUSIVE — Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) will have at least one Pennsylvania Democrat he doesn’t have to worry about should he run for a second term in the Senate.
Sen. John Fetterman, his home state colleague, told the Washington Examiner he won’t campaign against McCormick in 2030, an unusual promise from a member of the opposite party and one of the clearest signs of their political alliance yet.
“Well, I would absolutely never move against my friend,” Fetterman said when asked if he would support or oppose McCormick. He sidestepped whether he would endorse McCormick’s campaign, instead calling him a “great guy.”
“I would never, ever move against my friend,” Fetterman repeated.
His comments come after the senators formed a joint fundraising committee last month that could be a vehicle for GOP donors to give to Fetterman’s political operation, and vice versa. The move fueled speculation that Fetterman is toying with the idea of leaving his party — something he has repeatedly rejected.
Fetterman’s reluctance to take sides in a future McCormick race represents a reversal from 2024, when he fundraised for Sen. Bob Casey, the Democratic incumbent in Pennsylvania. During the campaign, Fetterman also openly criticized McCormick — who was then Casey’s GOP challenger — as a carpetbagger from Connecticut. (McCormick is a Pennsylvania native but spent years there managing a hedge fund.)
Since then, the two have become friends and often co-sponsor bills or sit for joint interviews in which they emphasize bipartisanship. Fetterman once called Casey his “mentor,” and now uses that label for McCormick.
Fetterman has not said whether he will run again in 2028, when his own Senate term is set to expire, but his neutrality is part of an evolving political brand that has alienated him from his Democratic voting base and made him a darling of the political Right.
He was elected lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania and then senator as an avowed progressive, but has since rejected that label and readily spars with members of his own party — particularly on Israel and the ascendant socialist movement in Democratic primaries.
McCormick’s team did not respond to a request for comment on whether he would extend the same courtesy to Fetterman should he run in 2028. In repeated polls, Fetterman’s favorability rating is higher than McCormick’s among Republicans in Pennsylvania.
In the interview, Fetterman said he and McCormick are “Team Pennsylvania” and that there is nothing “sinister” about the joint fundraising committee, created under the name Common Ground PA.
“I’m not about changing my party,” Fetterman said. “It’s just, we are Team Pennsylvania, and we work together. And it happens to be there are donors that actually like that or support that, and it doesn’t mean that you’re my enemy, or it doesn’t mean that your views are trying to destroy our democracy.”
Fetterman stoked further speculation about leaving the party when he drew a “red line” on support for Israel, telling reporters last month that if Democrats drift too far left on the issue, it would be a “much different situation.”
He’s also criticized multiple Democratic nominees for Senate, mocking Abdul el Sayed in Michigan and Graham Platner in Maine before he withdrew under a cloud of scandal.
Fetterman’s friendships on Capitol Hill are one part of that dynamic. Besides McCormick, he is close with Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) and spends time in the GOP cloakroom off the Senate chamber.
On the Democratic side, Fetterman is close with Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT), his freshman classmate. Welch echoed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in calling Fetterman a good member of the caucus.
“He votes with us 95% of the time, and his views are in the minority on Israel and to some extent Trump appointees, but it’s a big caucus, and he’s with us,” Welch said. “There’s plenty of room for John Fetterman.”
When asked about who he counts as a friend on Capitol Hill, Fetterman also mentioned the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, telling the Washington Examiner the two bonded over their “devotion for Israel and of course Ukraine” and that he was grieving the South Carolina Republican’s death.
Fetterman was part of a small group of senators who attended a memorial dinner for Graham last month and sat on the bus with the McCormicks for the public ceremony honoring him the following day.
“He’s just such a funny guy that I thoroughly enjoyed,” Fetterman said of Graham. “I mean, he checks every box: statesman, serious guy, but also super — a fun dude to hang out with.”
Inevitably, Republicans have felt out whether Fetterman might be willing to switch parties, but he described the outreach as absurd given that President Donald Trump criticizes and often threatens to primary any Republican who bucks the GOP line.
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“Trump just liquidated perfectly great, committed Republicans,” Fetterman said, alluding to the successful primary challenges against Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA). “He just wasted them, ended their careers.”
“And now he’s attacking Thune,” Fetterman added, referring to the Senate majority leader. “What’s going to happen to, like, a Democrat? It’s a pretty strange pitch.”