‘If you’re 20% with me, you’re 100% my friend’: Is this Democrat senator preparing to switch parties?

(The Center Square) – While the governor’s race took center stage at the conservative-backed Pennsylvania Leadership Conference over the weekend, there was another statewide Democrat’s 2028 campaign that wasn’t too far from mind.

Pennsylvania Republican Party Chairman Greg Rothman told The Center Square he’s spoken with several people interested in running for U.S. Senate in two years’ time, though supporting incumbent Democrat John Fetterman isn’t off the table either – as long as he switches parties.

“We’re still trying to wrestle with what happens if John Fetterman switches party and becomes a Republican,” Rothman said on Saturday in an interview with The Center Square, when discussing the 2028 race.

Rothman, a state senator representing the suburbs of Harrisburg, has been at the helm of the Pennsylvania Republican Party since February 2025. He said that he has not talked to Fetterman about potentially switching parties and when asked if he thought it was a real possibility the state’s senior senator would become a Republican, he said “I don’t know.”

“Look, there are 20% of the issues that he’s with us on, they’re pretty big issues right now, immigration and the war in Iran and our ally of Israel, but there’s 80% of the issues that I don’t think our party will agree with him on,” Rothman said. “But hey…I believe in the sort of the Ronald Reagan idea that if you’re 20% with me, you’re 100% my friend, and the things that matter most right now, John Fetterman is with us.”

“And he supported most of President Trump’s nominees, which is a big deal,” he added.

During prepared remarks at the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference on Saturday morning, Rothman also mentioned Fetterman by name.

“I would rather be a united Republican Party than a Democratic Party where the governor isn’t talking to the senior senator,” he said, noting the two Democrats reported strained relationship. Rothman claimed that Fetterman has been “making more sense than any Democrat in America.”

Rothman also said that he’d “love to see” NASA Administrator and Pennsylvanian Jared Isaacman run or “someone like him.”

“But there will be people who emerge,” he said.

Since the beginning of Donald Trump’s second term, Fetterman has increasingly become at odds with some in his party over a variety of issues, including being the only Democrat who voted to confirm several of his cabinet nominations, the administration’s immigration enforcement, the U.S. war with Iran, and supporting GOP plans to fund the government.

Fetterman has fired back over those criticisms and recently claimed in an interview with “The All-in” podcast that the Democratic Party is “governed by the TDS,” a reference to what the president has called “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

Recent polling has also shown that Fetterman is more popular among Republicans in the state over Democrats.

A Quinnipiac University Poll conducted in mid-February said that 46% of Pennsylvanians approve of Fetterman’s handling of his job as senator, while 40% disapprove, and 14% had no opinion.

However, 73% of Republicans approve of Fetterman’s job performance, while 18% disapprove. Only 22% of Democrats approve of Fetterman’s handling of his job, while 62% disapprove.

CNN’s Harry Enten noted Fetterman was a +68 with Democrats in Pennsylvania back in 2023, meaning the recent polling shows a 108-point swing among his party.

Fetterman’s fundraising also took a dip in 2025, another potential sign that his standing with the party isn’t as strong as it was.

However, Fetterman has repeatedly rejected the idea that he’d switch parties over the past few years. The Center Square contacted his office for comment but has not yet received a response.

If he runs for reelection in 2028, as a Democrat, he may face primary challengers.

Reports have surfaced that U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-2nd District, Chris Deluzio, D-17th District, and former U.S. Reps. Conor Lamb and Susan Wild could seek the Democratic Party nod in 2028.

This story originally appeared in The Center Square.