{"id":282664,"date":"2026-09-10T03:00:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T03:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/282664\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T03:00:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T03:00:18","slug":"pa-democrat-john-fetterman-delivers-surprise-message-at-republican-midterm-convention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/282664\/","title":{"rendered":"Pa. Democrat John Fetterman delivers surprise message at Republican midterm convention"},"content":{"rendered":"

DALLAS \u2014 Democratic Sen. John Fetterman made a surprise appearance at the\u00a0Republican midterm convention<\/a>\u00a0Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

The independent-minded senator praised his fellow Pennsylvania Sen. Dave McCormick in a video that aired at the Dallas arena, saying that while the two are in different parties, he\u2019s proud to \u201cwork together\u201d and \u201cwill work with President Trump to fight and defend the steel way of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow The Post\u2019s live updates of the 2026 Republican National Convention<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cYes, I\u2019m Senator John Fetterman, Pennsylvania. Yes, I\u2019m a Democrat. Why am I here talking to you today? Because, well, I\u2019m a common sense Democrat. I\u2019m always going to stand with America,\u201d Fetterman said in a video showing himself on the roof of a building overlooking a steel mill.<\/p>\n

\"U.S.Fetterman praised his fellow Pennsylvania Sen. Dave McCormick in a video that aired at the Dallas arena. C-SPAN<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m always going to reject the extremes and socialism and that anti-American way of life,\u201d he added. \u201cDave McCormick is the kind of senator that gets the job done, and he\u2019s going to fight for Pennsylvania. I\u2019m proud to count him as my friend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fetterman also said he \u201cwill work with President Trump to fight and defend the steel way of life right here in the Steel Valley. I have this opportunity to introduce this great American, a great senator, and yes, he is in a different party, but I\u2019m proud to count him as my great friend.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCormick said after taking the stage, \u201cHow great is John Fetterman?\u201d\u00a0The video appearance was first reported by Axios.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a lifelong Democrat who votes overwhelmingly with my party \u2014 and should the Senate flip in November, I will still be the 51st vote that I ran on,\u201d Fetterman added in a statement later.<\/p>\n

The Pennsylvania Democrat is not the first to speak on behalf of a lawmaker at an opposing party\u2019s convention.<\/p>\n

The late Sen. Joe Lieberman, who was a registered independent though caucused with Democrats, spoke on behalf of then-presidential nominee John McCain at the 2008 Republican National Convention.<\/p>\n

In addition, in 2008, late Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), who caucused with the Democrats, spoke at the Republican convention on behalf of late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who was the G<\/p>\n

Notably, a New York Times\/Philadelphia Inquirer\/Siena University survey published in August showed that 73% of registered GOP voters have a favorable view of Fetterman, whereas 63% have that view of McCormick.<\/p>\n

A majority (63%) of Democrats have an unfavorable opinion of Fetterman, even though he votes roughly 80% of the time with his party. Just 22% of registered Democrats view him favorably.<\/p>\n

Fetterman has bucked his party on key votes in the past year to keep the government funded and has suggested he will leave the Democratic Party if it becomes \u201cofficially\u201d anti-Israel.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also ruled out campaigning against McCormick in the future, calling the Republican \u201cmy friend<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

In July, the Pennsylvania senators launched a joint fundraising committee, Common Ground PA, that will spend on the 2026 and 2028 cycles.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Fetterman has stressed that his political stances haven\u2019t changed since he was elected to the US Senate as a progressive Democrat in November 2022.<\/p>\n

\"U.S.U.S. Sen. David McCormick (R-PA) speaks on stage on the first day of the 2026 Republican National Convention at the American Airlines Center on September 9, 2026 in Dallas, Texas. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cMy values have not changed, and I have always turned to those kinds of ideals that defined being a Democrat,\u201d he\u00a0wrote in a Washington Post op-ed<\/a>\u00a0in May. \u201cI remain strongly pro-choice, pro-weed, pro-LGBT, pro-SNAP, pro-labor and even pro-rib-eye over bio slop.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d be a terrible Republican who still votes overwhelmingly with Democrats,\u201d Fetterman also said, adding that many of his party\u2019s\u00a0\u201conce-common views have become increasingly toxic \u2026 a result of catering to the fringe and agitated parts of our base.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has said that the Republican conference would \u201cwelcome\u201d the Pennsylvania Democrat if Fetterman chose to switch parties.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has prodded Fetterman to keep his party affiliation for the remainder of his term.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that Pennsylvanians voted for a Democrat to represent them in the United States Senate,\u201d Shapiro has said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he needs to honor that and continue with his service to Pennsylvania, and, hopefully, get back to what he was elected to do and reflect the will of the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. Chris DeLuzio (D-Pa.) recently suggested that he may challenge Fetterman in a 2028 Democratic primary, telling KDKA-TV in a recent interview that he\u2019s \u201cgotten a lot of encouragement\u201d to do so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DALLAS \u2014 Democratic Sen. John Fetterman made a surprise appearance at the\u00a0Republican midterm convention\u00a0Wednesday night. The independent-minded senator…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4283,69352,28,30,29,50,16330,5019,4519,302],"class_list":["post-282664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-john-fetterman","tag-midterm-elections-2026","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-politics","tag-republican-national-convention","tag-republicans","tag-senate","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}