Overview
- Pennsylvania’s Working Families Party publicly committed to recruiting and backing a primary challenger to Sen. John Fetterman in 2028.
- The group has opened an online portal, planned statewide candidate trainings, organized volunteer sign-ups, and begun fundraising, though no candidate has been named.
- Leaders cite policy breaks as the catalyst, focusing on Fetterman’s vote with Republicans to end the government shutdown without guarantees on Affordable Care Act subsidies, as well as his positions on Israel and immigration.
- Fetterman defended his vote as choosing country over party and was one of eight Senate Democrats who supported the GOP-led measure to reopen the government.
- Fetterman has not said whether he will seek reelection, and recent context includes a ventricular fibrillation-related fall with a short hospital stay and the WFP’s prior opposition to him in the 2022 primary.