Trump urges Sen. John Fetterman to join the GOP as Democrat support craters

President Trump said he’d love to have Sen. John Fetterman as a Republican, citing polls that show the Pennsylvania Democrat far more popular with GOP voters than with his own party.

Speaking to reporters on Oct. 10 at Joint Base Andrews while heading back to Washington from a Tennessee rally, Trump made the pitch plain. He told them it would be hard for Fetterman to win a Democratic nomination and that the numbers already favor a switch.

USA TODAY Network reporting captured Trump’s direct appeal: the president said he would love to see the senator on the Republican side because the polls back it up.

Fetterman, elected as a Democrat in 2022, has repeatedly said he will not leave the party. He has yet to announce plans for a 2028 reelection run. Still, the invitation lands as Pennsylvania Democrats cool on him and Republican voters warm up.

Polls show Fetterman stronger with Republicans than Democrats

An Oct. 7 Quinnipiac University poll laid out the split in hard numbers. Only 13% of Democrats held a favorable view of Fetterman, while 69% viewed him unfavorably. Among Republicans, 72% saw him favorably and just 19% unfavorably.

Across likely voters overall, 37% viewed him favorably against 46% unfavorably. Independents leaned more negative as well. An August poll from The New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer and Siena University showed 79% of self-identified Republicans holding a positive view of Fetterman, higher than the 62% who viewed his Republican colleague Sen. David McCormick favorably.

Trump pointed straight at those numbers when he spoke.

"It's gonna be hard for him to get the nomination as a Democrat, but I’d love to have him as a Republican. If you look at the polls, he does better as a Republican than he does as a Democrat."

That same message appeared in coverage from the New York Post, which also noted Trump calling Fetterman a great guy with common sense and saying he’d love to see the switch.

Fetterman keeps rejecting a party switch while working with Trump

Fetterman has pushed back for months. In a Sept. 15 video published by CSPAN, he told a reporter he would not become a Republican and joked that waiting until the midterms would only make him a liar if he flipped later.

"I'm not going to be a Republican. You know, why can't you guys just wait 'til the midterm? And if I turn a Republican, then I'll be a liar, then."

Last month he still sent a recorded message to a Republican midterm convention. He vowed to work with Trump to defend the steel way of life in the Steel Valley and rejected what he called extremes in socialism.

"We'll work with President Trump to fight and defend the steel way of life right here in the Steel Valley. I'm always gonna reject the extremes in socialism and that anti-American way of life."

He has described himself as a common-sense Democrat. On Israel he has drawn a bright line, telling NBC News that a Democratic platform cutting aid to Israel would be a red line for him and that Democrats should always support the country as a special ally and the only democracy in the region.

His voting record has drifted. Coverage from Fox News noted his party-line vote share falling under 81% in the current session, along with breaks from Democrats on the Iran war and immigration. He has confirmed multiple Trump cabinet nominees and introduced Sen. Dave McCormick at the Republican gathering.

That pattern of independence matches other recent moments when Fetterman broke with Democrats on AI policy and sided with Trump’s warning about China.

He also mistakenly called himself a lifelong Republican at one event, a slip that only fed the speculation. Pennsylvania GOP Chair and state Sen. Greg Rothman has watched the possibility since at least April.

"We’re still trying to wrestle with what happens if John Fetterman switched party and becomes a Republican."

Rothman’s comment to PennLive showed Republican leaders still weighing the practical fallout even as Trump opened the door.

Democratic chill meets Republican welcome

Pennsylvania Democrats offered little support earlier this year when the question of a Fetterman reelection bid came up. That chill sits beside the warm GOP numbers and Trump’s public courtship.

Fetterman has also vowed he will not campaign against his Republican colleague McCormick, a sharp break from party expectations that tracks with other times he has put relationships ahead of team loyalty, much as when he declined to go after McCormick after earlier cycles.

Breitbart reporting added that Fetterman once wrote he would make a terrible Republican who still votes overwhelmingly with Democrats, even while recording praise for McCormick and rejecting party extremes. The contrast between that self-description and the polling reality is hard to miss.

Similar friction has appeared when other Democrats cross the aisle and face blowback from their own leadership, the same dynamic seen when two Democrats sided with Republicans and drew threats for it.

On CNN’s The Situation Room, Fetterman answered a question about winning a primary with a hedged “Yeah,” then added that 2026 remains theoretical. The calendar gives him time. The numbers and the president’s invitation give him a clear alternative.

Trump made the case on the merits of the polls and the fit. Fetterman keeps saying the Democratic label stays. Voters in both parties have already rendered their own verdict in the surveys.

When a sitting Democratic senator polls better with Republicans than with his own base, the party that lost him has some explaining to do.