John Fetterman was a Bernie Sanders ally. He was the progressive mayor of a struggling steel town in western Pennsylvania who wore basketball shorts to the Senate floor and made a brand out of working-class authenticity. He was the kind of Democrat that the party’s activist base celebrated as proof that progressivism could win in Trump country.
That was before the stroke. Before the Iran war. Before the DHS shutdown. Before the Senate became the place where Fetterman had to decide, over and over, whether he was going to vote with his party or vote with his conscience.
He has been voting with his conscience. His party has not forgiven him for it.
In 2025, Fetterman voted with Trump and Republicans more than 140 times — the most of any Democrat in the Senate, by a significant margin. He voted to confirm Pam Bondi as Attorney General — the only Democrat to do so. He has broken with his caucus on voter ID, saying it is “not unreasonable” and that most Americans agree. He has been the lone Democratic voice defending the administration’s Iran military operation, voting against the war powers resolution that would have required congressional approval for continued strikes and calling critics of the operation “the Ayatollah’s apologists.”
On the DHS shutdown — the fight that has defined the Senate this winter — Fetterman has been the only Democrat to vote with Republicans to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security through every single vote. When Senate Democrats blocked DHS funding for the fifth time, leaving 50,000 TSA workers without pay during spring break travel season, Fetterman’s statement was direct: “I remain the lone Dem to vote with my Republican colleagues to fully fund DHS and get people paid. It should never come to this point.” When Elon Musk offered to personally cover TSA salaries, Fetterman praised him — while other Democrats attacked the offer.
He cast the deciding vote to advance Markwayne Mullin’s nomination as DHS Secretary. His party’s response: “He needs to go.”
The voting record would be remarkable enough on its own. The things Fetterman has been saying out loud make it extraordinary.
On the Iran military operation, he said of the Supreme Leader’s killing: “One of the most evil people was erased.” Of critics: “Let’s see who grieves for that garbage.” Of Iran’s new Supreme Leader: “They should kill him, too.”
On his own party’s leadership, in a March 20th appearance on the All-In Podcast, he was asked who leads the Democratic Party. His answer: “I would say it’s TDS.” He elaborated: “Our party is governed by the TDS and now it’s made it virtually impossible without being punished as a Democrat to agree something’s good or I agree with the other side. Trump could come out for ice cream and lazy Sundays and now suddenly Democrats would hate it.”
On Democrats forgetting why they lost: “Our party has forgotten why we lost. Trump is not an autocrat.”
These are not comments made by a senator trying to manage his relationship with his caucus. These are comments made by someone who has decided the caucus’s opinion of him is no longer the primary consideration.
The political cost has been precise and measurable. Fetterman’s approval rating among Pennsylvania Democrats has collapsed from plus 68 to minus 40 — from near-universal Democratic approval to deeply underwater — since he began breaking with his party. Only 22 percent of Democrats now approve of him. The Working Families Party has launched PrimaryFetterman.com and is actively recruiting a challenger. Progressive groups have declared him “despicable” for the Mullin confirmation vote.
Meanwhile, 62 to 73 percent of Republicans approve of him — a complete mirror-image inversion of his political coalition.
He is not up for reelection until 2028. He appears unbothered.
In interviews on both the Sean Hannity podcast and with Bill Maher, Fetterman has credited his 2022 near-fatal stroke with giving him “the freedom to leave progressivism.” He called it “very liberating.” Whatever the source of the transformation, the political trajectory is clear: the man who entered the Senate as a progressive champion is now the figure his party wants to destroy and conservatives want to understand.
His 91 percent voting alignment with Democrats means he is not a Republican. His willingness to vote against his party when it is wrong means he is something rarer and more interesting than a partisan: a senator who votes what he believes rather than what the caucus tells him.
The Democratic Party’s activist base has decided that a Democrat who votes right 91 percent of the time and wrong — from their perspective — on the 9 percent that matters most is an enemy to be eliminated. That reaction tells you more about the current state of the Democratic Party than anything Fetterman has said.
He called it TDS. His party’s response to his honesty confirms the diagnosis.
