Sen. John Fetterman stood alone among Senate Democrats on Tuesday, voting against a war powers resolution that would have limited President Trump's military authority over Iran, and the backlash from his own party was immediate. Within hours, a growing roster of rumored 2028 primary challengers took to social media to publicly condemn the Pennsylvania Democrat, with one former congressman calling him "a coward."
The Senate passed the resolution 50, 48, with four Republicans crossing party lines to support the measure. Fetterman was the only Democrat to oppose it. The vote, on S.J.Res. 104 sponsored by Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, marked the latest in a string of breaks between Fetterman and his party, and the sharpest signal yet that Pennsylvania Democrats are preparing to make him pay for it in 2028.
The resolution directed the president to remove U.S. Armed Forces from hostilities with Iran. Breitbart reported that the four Republicans who broke ranks were Sens. Susan Collins, Bill Cassidy, Lisa Murkowski, and Rand Paul. Sen. Jim Risch, the Idaho Republican, warned that passage would undermine negotiations: "If this passes, the Iranians are going to simply stand up and walk away from negotiations. They're going to say, 'This thing's over, that Congress has told the President of the United States leave us alone.'"
On Fox News Tuesday, Fetterman framed his position in blunt terms. The Center Square reported his remarks:
"If you have such contempt for Israel, I mean, you're also anti-American and you're anti-Western civilization."
That clip set off a cascade of criticism from Democrats who have been circling his seat for months. Former Congressman Conor Lamb, a veteran who represented the Allegheny County area and has been traveling the state over the past year in what many see as groundwork for a Senate bid, fired back on social media Wednesday:
"Israel's national security minister just said 'all of Lebanon needs to burn' so as a proud American veteran I say the pro-American point of view is to hold contempt for him and the government that gives him a ministry. Fetterman is a coward."
Rep. Chris Deluzio, who represents Pennsylvania's 17th District, posted his own response the same day:
"I'll tell you what's un-American: putting Israel or any foreign country ahead of America. We should be focused on Americans' prosperity at home, not carrying water for Netanyahu's genocidal and reckless wars."
And Rep. Summer Lee of the 12th District posted Thursday afternoon with a message that left little to the imagination: "2028 can't come fast enough for PA."
Fetterman's Iran vote did not arrive in a vacuum. Since the start of Trump's second term, the senator has repeatedly sided with the administration on matters that infuriated his base. He voted to confirm several Trump cabinet nominations. He supported the administration's immigration enforcement efforts. He backed GOP plans to fund the government. And he voted to advance Markwayne Mullin's nomination to lead the Department of Homeland Security, a move that drew sharp criticism from party allies.
Rep. Brendan Boyle of the 2nd District has been the most persistent critic. After Fetterman's Mullin vote, Boyle said the senator was showing why he is "Trump's favorite Democrat," adding flatly: "He needs to go."
When a NOTUS report surfaced Monday stating Fetterman was "the latest member of Congress to violate a federal transparency and insider trading law", the STOCK Act, Boyle piled on via social media: "You mean the trust fund baby who cosplays working class? Knock me over with a feather." Fetterman's camp attributed the violation to an "administrative error."
In a March interview with ABC27, Boyle laid out his broader frustration at length:
"Well, there have been a number of votes that I've taken issue with where he has been the only Senate Democrat to side with President Trump or Republicans. But for some reason, despite a voting record that I concede is much more Democratic-aligned than a Republican, it is unfortunate to me that almost every day, if not every day, our Democratic senator from this state goes on TV, most often on Fox News, never criticizes President Trump and is always criticizing Democrats."
Boyle added: "I really wish he would take an approach that is more constructive. I think that that would be better for him, and I think that would be better for the commonwealth."
A mid-February Quinnipiac University poll captured the strange political ground Fetterman now occupies. Overall, 46 percent of Pennsylvanians approved of his job performance, while 40 percent disapproved and 14 percent had no opinion. But the partisan breakdown was remarkable: 73 percent of Republicans approved of Fetterman, compared to just 22 percent of Democrats. Among Democrats, 62 percent disapproved.
CNN's Harry Enten noted that Fetterman was at a net-positive 68 points with Pennsylvania Democrats in 2023. The swing since then: 108 points. That is not a gradual drift. It is a collapse among the voters he would need to survive a primary.
Fetterman won every single county in the 2022 Democratic primary and defeated Republican Mehmet Oz by roughly five points in the general election. His breaks with the party on Iran and other issues have transformed him from a progressive icon into the most polarizing Democrat in the commonwealth.
An Axios report from October stated that Lamb, Deluzio, and Boyle have all been considering a 2028 Senate run. None has formally declared, but none has ruled it out, either.
Deluzio, speaking at the Pennsylvania Press Club earlier in the week, was careful but not coy. "I'm running for re-election, which is this year, as folks know, every two years," he said. Then: "28's a long way away." But he acknowledged the obvious: "I've said pretty clearly, publicly, I get encouraged. I will look at it at the time when it comes. I don't know. I don't know what the senator's plans are in 2028 either."
Former Congresswoman Susan Wild said "nothing's off the table" but did not confirm she would run. The Fetterman campaign did not respond to a request for comment from The Center Square. Neither did Lee's campaign.
As of Thursday afternoon, the prediction market PredictionEdge listed Boyle with the best odds for the 2028 Democratic Senate nomination in Pennsylvania, followed by Lamb and Lee. Gov. Josh Shapiro has also pressured Fetterman to fall back in line, a sign the senator's independence is generating friction well beyond Capitol Hill.
Fetterman has defended his Iran stance directly. The Washington Examiner reported his explanation in characteristically blunt terms:
"I'm the only Democrat that voted for that, because all the other Democrats, we've all said in the past, we can't let Iran build the nuclear bomb. And now, when someone did something about that to really prevent that, you know, why wouldn't I support that? So I'm proud to have that vote."
He added: "People in my party have forgotten that the Iranians actually are the really bad guy."
Iran reportedly told the U.S. it had enough enriched uranium to produce 11 nuclear bombs within 10 days, a claim Trump's team cited as justification for military action. National Review noted that the War Powers Act requires such resolutions to receive a floor vote within 10 days in the Senate. Speaker Johnson dismissed the resolution's significance.
The earlier Senate vote on a similar war powers measure failed 47, 53, AP News reported, with Fetterman again the sole Democrat voting against it. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer framed the stakes before that vote: "Today every senator, every single one, will pick a side." Kaine said: "Nobody gets to hide and give the president an easy pass or an end-run around the Constitution."
The 60-day statutory deadline under the War Powers Resolution of 1973 expired on May 1, Newsmax reported, adding urgency to the congressional push.
What Fetterman's would-be challengers share is not a policy platform but a grievance: the belief that the senator has betrayed the party that elected him. Boyle calls him a cosplayer. Lamb calls him a coward. Deluzio accuses him of putting a foreign country ahead of America. Lee says 2028 cannot arrive fast enough.
But the numbers tell a different story from the one these Democrats want to hear. Fetterman's overall approval in Pennsylvania sits at 46 percent, hardly terminal. His Republican approval is 73 percent. His problem is entirely within his own party, where 62 percent disapprove. That is a primary problem, not a general-election problem.
For a party that spent years demanding ideological conformity, Fetterman's independence is intolerable. That a Democratic senator can draw 73 percent approval from Republicans simply by supporting border enforcement, voting for qualified nominees, and refusing to hamstring a president engaged in preventing a nuclear Iran tells you more about the state of the Democratic Party than it does about John Fetterman.
When doing the right thing on national security makes you the loneliest man in your own caucus, the problem isn't the man, it's the caucus.