Pennsylvania Republican Party Chairman Greg Rothman said he has spoken with several people interested in running for the U.S. Senate in 2028, but added that supporting incumbent Democrat John Fetterman is "not off the table" if the state's senior senator crosses the aisle.
Rothman made the remarks in an interview with The Center Square over the weekend, on the sidelines of the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference, where the governor's race dominated the agenda. But it was the chairman's candid assessment of Fetterman's political trajectory that cut through the noise.
The comments land at a moment when Fetterman occupies one of the strangest positions in American politics: a Democrat who draws 73 percent approval from Republicans and just 22 percent from his own party, according to a Quinnipiac University poll conducted in mid-February. Sixty-two percent of Democrats disapprove of his job performance. Among all Pennsylvanians, he sits at 46 percent approval and 40 percent disapproval, with 14 percent offering no opinion.
Those numbers tell a story no spin can paper over. Fetterman has become more popular with the opposing party than with the one whose primary voters nominated him.
Rothman, a state senator representing the suburbs of Harrisburg who has led the state GOP since February 2025, framed the Fetterman question through a Reagan-era lens. He told The Center Square:
"We're still trying to wrestle with what happens if John Fetterman switches party and becomes a Republican."
Asked whether the party would back Fetterman in that scenario, Rothman was blunt: "I don't know." But he did not close the door. He acknowledged the gap between Fetterman's record and Republican orthodoxy while arguing the points of agreement carry outsize weight right now.
"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."
Then Rothman reached for the Reagan playbook:
"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."
He also pointed to Fetterman's record on confirmations. Fetterman was the only Democrat who voted to confirm several of President Trump's cabinet nominations, a fact that earned him no friends in progressive circles but plenty of goodwill on the right.
"And he supported most of President Trump's nominees, which is a big deal."
Rothman drew an explicit contrast between Republican unity and what he described as Democratic fractures in Harrisburg and Washington. He said Fetterman has been "making more sense than any Democrat in America."
And he delivered a line aimed squarely at Democratic infighting in the Keystone State:
"I would rather be a united Republican Party than a Democratic Party where the governor isn't talking to the senior senator."
That remark captures the uncomfortable reality facing Pennsylvania Democrats. Their senior senator has broken with the party on immigration enforcement, backed the administration's posture on Iran and Israel, and supported GOP plans to fund the government. His fundraising took a dip in 2025. And his own voters have turned on him.
Fetterman has not been quiet about the friction. In a recent interview on "The All-in" podcast, he claimed the Democratic Party is "governed by the TDS", a reference to what President Trump has called "Trump Derangement Syndrome."
Yet despite all of it, Fetterman has repeatedly rejected the idea that he would switch parties. He has done so consistently over the past few years, even as his positions have drifted further from the Democratic mainstream.
The Center Square contacted Fetterman's office for comment but had not received a response.
Rothman, for his part, said he has not spoken with Fetterman about switching parties. The chairman's remarks were speculative, a public acknowledgment of a scenario that both parties are clearly gaming out behind the scenes.
Whether or not Fetterman switches, the 2028 Pennsylvania Senate race is already attracting attention. Rothman said he has talked with several prospective Republican candidates, though he declined to name them. He did say he would "love to see" NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, a Pennsylvanian, enter the race, or "someone like him."
"But there will be people who emerge."
On the Democratic side, reports have surfaced that several figures could seek the party's nomination in 2028. Among them: Philadelphia U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle, Rep. Chris Deluzio of Fox Chapel, and former U.S. Reps. Conor Lamb and Susan Wild. If Fetterman runs for re-election as a Democrat, he may face primary challengers from within a party that increasingly views him as a defector in all but name.
Strip away the speculation and the Reagan quotes, and the Quinnipiac numbers tell the real story. A sitting Democratic senator holds 73 percent approval among Republicans and 62 percent disapproval among Democrats. That is not a man caught between two parties. That is a man whose voters have already made their judgment, and it does not match the letter next to his name.
Rothman is doing what any competent party chairman would do: keeping the door open while his options develop. Fetterman may never walk through it. But the fact that a Republican state chairman is publicly quoting Ronald Reagan to justify backing a sitting Democratic senator tells you everything about where the Democratic Party has gone, and how far one of its own members has drifted from the wreckage.
When your opponent's voters like your senator more than your own voters do, the party-switch conversation is already over. The paperwork just hasn't caught up.