The Pennsylvania Working Families Party announced it will be launching a campaign to primary Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) in 2028, though they have not selected a candidate to run against him yet.
Though the WFP initially supported Fetterman in his 2022 Senate race against Mehmet Oz, the party called him a “Trump-enabling corporate Democrat” in their Tuesday announcement. The decision to primary Fetterman comes in the wake of his support for the GOP-led funding bill to end the government shutdown.
“We’re primarying John Fetterman. Last week, Fetterman once again sold out working Pennsylvanians. He was the deciding vote for a Republican budget bill that will strip healthcare from over 400,000 Pennsylvanians,” the group wrote on X.
Without any selected candidate to run against Fetterman, the group is holding “candidate trainings” to find their person, organizing volunteers, and asking for donations.
Fetterman, one of eight Senate Democratic caucus members who broke with their party on Obamacare subsidy demands to vote with Republicans to end the shutdown, has sparred with his own party on occasion this year.
He defended his vote to reopen the government throughout the shutdown, saying, “I’m the guy that’s gonna consistently vote for country over party,” while also voicing his support for extending the Obamacare subsidies after the shutdown.
“2 MILLION Pennsylvanians depend on SNAP to feed their families. For me, it’s hungry Americans over party. Paying our military over party. Paying Capitol Police and federal workers over party. I choose country over party,” Fetterman wrote on X.
In addition to getting criticized by Democrats over his shutdown vote, he has blasted Democrats for “virtue signaling,” called the Trump administration’s strikes in Iran “entirely appropriate,” and has signaled support for President Donald Trump’s moves on trade.
“We deserve real working class leadership in the U.S. Senate, not a Trump-enabling corporate Democrat. Senator Fetterman has turned his back on us, and that’s why the Pennsylvania Working Families Party is committed to recruiting and supporting a primary challenge to him in 2028,” the WFP wrote.
Fetterman, who has been open about his mental and physical health struggles, recently fell due to a ventricular fibrillation flare-up while on a walk in Pennsylvania. The incident came just days after the senator released his memoir Unfettered, in which he opens up about his May 2022 stroke and his battle with depression.
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The senator is not up for reelection until 2028, but there have been rumblings among Pennsylvania Democrats about opportunities to replace him, as some look back to Fetterman’s previous primary challenger, former Rep. Connor Lamb (D-PA), with hopes that he might give it another go.
Fetterman’s team did not respond to the Washington Examiner‘s requests for comment.