Progressive organization calls for primary challenge to Fetterman

A major organization launched an effort to train and recruit potential primary candidates for the commonwealth’s 2028 US Senate primary. 

The Pennsylvania Working Families Party is calling for an open challenge to US Sen. John Fetterman’s (D-Pennsylvania)for his seat in Pennsylvania’s 2028 US Senate Democratic primary. 

“At a time when Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress are doing everything they can to make life harder for working people, we need real leaders in the Senate who are willing to fight for the working class,” Shoshanna Israel, Mid-Atlantic Political Director for the Working Families Party, said in a statement. 

The Pennsylvania Working Families Party, which is a third party that helps elect progressive Democrats to office in Pennsylvania, recently launched a portal for recruiting candidates and volunteers for the 2028 US Senate primary. 

Axios reported last month that US Reps. Brendan Boyle (D-Philadelphia) and Chris Deluzio (D-Allegheny) and former US Rep. Conor Lamb were named by political insiders as potential challengers to Fetterman.  

Fetterman was the only Democrat to visit President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago following the 2024 election and tied with US Sen. Jean Shaeen (D-N.H.) for most voters for Trump’s cabinet nominees. 

Earlier this year, Fetterman supported US Attorney General Pam Bondi to lead the US Justice Department even though Bondi tried overturning Pennsylvania’s 2020 election results. 

More recently, Fetterman was one of a handful of Democrats in the US House and Senate to vote with Republicans during the government shutdown, while members of Fetterman’s party were pushing for the permanent extension of the Affordable Care Act tax credits set to expire at the end of this year. 

Last year, the Pennsylvania Working Families Party knocked on over 733,000 doors for the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz White House campaign, and in 2023, they became the leading minority party on Philadelphia City Council after defeating Republicans, who controlled those seats for 70 years.

“The people of Pennsylvania deserve a Senator who won’t enable Trump or vote with Republicans to rip healthcare away from over 400,000 of our neighbors,” Israel added.

“We deserve real working class leadership in the U.S. Senate. Senator Fetterman has sold us out, and that’s why the Pennsylvania Working Families Party is committed to recruiting and supporting a primary challenge to him in 2028.”