Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania is facing an organized revolt from his former political allies on the far left, who have launched a long-term campaign to drive him out of office in the 2028 Democratic primary.
According to Western Journal, the Working Families Party a left-wing third party that once championed Fetterman as a progressive standard-bearer has unveiled a new website, PrimaryFetterman.com, dedicated to recruiting volunteers, steering donors away from the senator, and compiling opposition research against him.
The site, funded by the Working Families Party PAC, urges Pennsylvanians to help unseat Fetterman nearly three years before his next election and serves as a clearinghouse for activists eager to punish him for breaking with the partys hard-left orthodoxy.
We supported John Fetterman in 2022. Since then, hes sold us out. Its time to replace him, the website declared, signaling a dramatic rupture between the senator and the movement that once helped propel him to national prominence. The site further charges, Fetterman was the deciding vote for a Republican budget bill that will increase healthcare costs for 500,000 Pennsylvanians. He has supported more of Trumps nominees than any Democratic Senator. He consistently skips votes and Senate work. We deserve better.
The Working Families Party, which employs a former Fetterman staffer, reportedly began laying the groundwork for this primary challenge in November. Since then, the group has attracted a wave of interest from potential challengers, grassroots volunteers, and donors eager to bankroll an intra-party fight aimed at punishing Fetterman for his willingness to work with Republicans and occasionally align with President Donald Trumps agenda.
Fetterman, for his part, has responded with a mix of defiance and mockery, suggesting that any challenger the far left fields will only underscore his own relative moderation. In a late November appearance on Fox News The Story, he laughed off the effort, saying, Ooh, ooh, oh, I hope, promise. I hope so, before adding, Because I guarantee whoever they put up, theyre going to make me look the reasonable guy thats going to work with both sides together and find a way for Pennsylvania.
The senators recent record helps explain why progressive activists are so enraged and why some conservatives see him as a rare Democrat occasionally willing to buck his partys left flank. Fetterman has repeatedly broken with Democratic leadership, becoming the first sitting Democrat to meet with President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, staunchly defending Israel during the Gaza war, criticizing his own partys leaders, and joining only a small group of Democrats to help end the record-breaking fall 2025 government shutdown.
He has also signaled openness to ideas long associated with Trumps more unconventional foreign policy instincts, including the notion of the United States purchasing Greenland. Speaking to reporters on Jan. 7, Fetterman remarked, Ideally we could purchase it. And thats not scandalous either, a comment that further inflamed progressive critics already accusing him of drifting too far from the lefts agenda.
The Working Families Party is now using those positions as ammunition in its campaign to portray Fetterman as a traitor to progressive priorities and a de facto ally of Trump-era policies. While Sen. John Fetterman is supporting Trumps use of American tax dollars to run Venezuela or buy Greenland, 500,000 Pennsylvanians are about to see their health care premiums rise because of the Republican budget bill he supported, charged Nick Gavio, the partys mid-Atlantic communications director and a former Fetterman staffer, in comments to NBC News.
Gavio went further, accusing Fetterman of betraying the very activists who helped send him to Washington. People across Pennsylvania did not put time, money and energy into supporting his campaign just to elect a Democrat who votes against our interests time and time again. We need new leadership, he said, encapsulating the lefts fury at a senator they once hailed as a progressive insurgent.
Both the Working Families Party and Fettermans office declined to respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation, leaving key questions about the scope and strategy of the primary effort unanswered. What is already clear, however, is that the campaign against Fetterman exposes a widening rift inside the Democratic Party between activists demanding rigid ideological conformity and officeholders who, under pressure from voters in swing states like Pennsylvania, occasionally cross party lines or embrace more centrist or nationalist positions.
Whether Fetterman ultimately faces a serious primary challenger or not, the early and aggressive push to replace him highlights a broader dynamic: a Democratic Party increasingly pulled toward ideological purity tests, even at the risk of alienating moderate voters in battleground states that will decide control of the Senate and the White House.
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