Sen John Fetterman’s maverick streak sparks Democratic primary challenge threat

John Fetterman used to be known, sadly, as the guy who had the stroke.

And maybe the man who always wore the hoodie.

That has dramatically changed.

Now the Pennsylvania senator has alienated much of his own Democratic Party with an independent streak that often finds him siding with the Trump administration.

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Now he’s become Joe Manchin, who drove the Biden people crazy by resisting many of their liberal initiatives.

But I’d go further than that. I think he’s become more like the late John McCain — without the POW part, of course — as a maverick who seems to delight in breaking with party orthodoxy. The Republican McCain, you’ll recall, was a champion of campaign finance reform with an actual Democrat in Russ Feingold.

Is Fetterman paying a price? Oh, yeah.

Fetterman’s popularity has taken a beating. In 2023, he was at plus 68 points. Now he’s at negative 40 points. That is a 108-point swing, absolutely stunning.

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Now some Democrats are openly talking about a primary challenge against Fetterman in 2028, assuming he runs again.

In an appearance on Fox News, Fetterman explained his latest transgression: voting to confirm President Trump’s pick, Markwayne Mullin, as Homeland Security secretary, and proved to be the deciding vote in getting his nomination out of committee. Mullin was just confirmed.

“I believe in a very secure border,” Fetterman told Lara Trump. “We also agreed that we should deport all of the criminals. My friend Markwayne and I, we agree on that…

“I know I’m going to take a lot of Democratic blowback, which is strange to me, because there wasn’t really a lot of Democratic outrage when 300,000 people were encountered at our border during the prior administration. I was…We might be in the same Democratic Party, but clearly they didn’t have a problem with that open-border situation.”

He added: “That may isolate me with some people in my party. But that’s not country over party.”

Country over party? Does the concept even exist anymore in this hyperpolarized age? That sentiment used to be admired. Now, not so much.

Let’s face it, Democrats would have voted against any DHS nominee this side of Bernie Sanders simply because that person was picked by Trump.

In the same vein, Fetterman has largely supported the president’s war against Iran, the world’s leading terror state since 1979, again breaking with Chuck Schumer and the party line, which is that the attack can only be criticized. 

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On X, Fetterman alluded to the fact that he had urged President Trump to fire Kristi Noem.

He’s also said that his party is motivated by Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS).

James Carville, who admits to suffering from TDS and has attacked Trump in obscenity-filled tirades, has also been ripping Fetterman.

“Can I say a public prayer?” Carville said on a podcast. “John Fetterman, whatever you do, keep your position. Don’t change. We don’t want you. Stay right where you are. Because you’ve been wrong about every (expletive) thing that you’ve ever said, and we don’t want you to break your streak.”

Fetterman responded to Carville in his Fox News interview: “Jim has been struggling for relevance for the last 30 years now. I’m proud to be on the right side of Epic Fury. I’m proud to be on the right side about staying in with Israel… 

“He acknowledged that [he’s] blinded by TDS. I’m a guy that actually represents Pennsylvania. I’m not an angry weird guy online. You know, to represent a state like Pennsylvania that keeps you honest, and I’m the only one this cycle that flipped a seat as well.”

Fetterman is drawing plenty of critical press. The Guardian reports that his vote for Mullin “prompted US House member Brendan Boyle, another Pennsylvania Democrat, to say that the vote showed why Fetterman was Donald Trump’s ‘favorite Democrat.’”

“He needs to go,” Boyle said.

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Rep. Pat Ryan, D-N.Y., said: “If you needed any more proof that Fetterman has completely abandoned his constituents, here it is. Pennsylvanians deserve a senator that actually fights for them.”

In the 2022 U.S. Senate race, Fetterman trounced former Rep. Conor Lamb, D-Pa., in the primary before defeating Dr. Mehmet Oz, R-Pa., in the general, despite a horrible debate in which Fetterman could barely function.

Lamb now says: “Did people think this vigilante was voting to protect their rights? Come on.”

Moe Davis of North Carolina, who ran unsuccessfully for the House, is now apologizing for sharing his donor list with the Fetterman camp. “I sincerely regret whatever part I had in helping to elect [Fetterman] in 2022.”

On the other side, Washington Examiner columnist Salena Zito, who has reported extensively from Pennsylvania, shared this statistic with radio host Hugh Hewitt: “The argument that Lamb is making, that Fetterman is not a true Democrat, Fetterman votes 93% of the time with Democrats, whereas Lamb voted 68% of the time with Democrats. That’s almost a 30-point difference.”

Zito added that “there is a lot of posturing, but the Democrats that I talk to, even they know that there’s sort of this online movement against Fetterman, it’s very difficult for me to find anyone outside of the far-left, and by the way, this all has to do with Israel, right?” 

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If you put partisan warfare aside for a moment — very difficult, I know — Fetterman is showing the courage of his convictions. The man has guts.

Maybe Fetterrman, who still wears the trademark hoodie, has strayed too far from his Democratic constituents, but that’s a risk he chooses to take.

I wonder if battling back from a stroke is a factor here. In a brutally candid memoir, Fetterman admits he struggled with depression, even suicidal thoughts, and was exiled by his wife from the family’s home because his presence was too tough on the kids. In hindsight, he wrote, “I should have quit.”

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“Paranoid. Not eating. Not sleeping. Not speaking. Not functioning. Resigned. Ashamed. Despairing.”

John Fetterman was harder on himself than anyone. I wonder if that fueled his desire to say what he really thinks, whatever the political cost. No matter what happens with his Senate career, he’s been through much worse.