John Fetterman called his own party "an orgy of socialism" and Democrats never forgave him.

Now he's teaming up with a Republican to raise campaign cash together.

And what Fetterman and his new partner just built has Pennsylvania Democrats bracing for something worse than a bad news cycle.

A Bipartisan PAC With No Modern Precedent in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania Sens. John Fetterman, a Democrat, and Dave McCormick, a Republican, filed paperwork this week creating a new political action committee called Common Ground PA.

The filing landed with the Federal Election Commission on Monday.

It lists four participants: Fetterman's Every Vote PAC, McCormick's Pennsylvania Honor, and each senator's principal campaign committee.

A joint fundraising committee lets a donor write one check that gets split between multiple campaigns instead of writing separate checks to each candidate.

McCormick campaign spokesman Mike DeVanney said the arrangement was donor driven, framing it as a group of contributors who simply want to back both senators at once.

Longtime Pennsylvania GOP consultant Christopher Nicholas told The Center Square he's never seen anything quite like it, calling it a clear sign the two senators are now coordinating on politics, not just policy.

Joint fundraising committees almost always stay inside party lines, because most donors have zero interest in splitting a check with the other side.

Fetterman and McCormick just blew through that norm in a state that could help decide who controls the Senate.

The only real precedent is the old Problem Solvers Patriots PAC, which also crossed party lines to fund candidates from both sides.

Joint War Chest With a Republican Has Bettors Pricing In What's Next

Former Congressman Conor Lamb, who lost the 2022 Senate primary to Fetterman and hasn't ruled out running for his seat again, didn't wait to react.

Lamb called the new PAC "Another betrayal from Fetterman" in a post on X.

Western Pennsylvania Rep. Chris Deluzio, who says he's gotten "a lot of encouragement" to challenge Fetterman himself, posed his own pointed question online.

"Helping the Republicans raise money to spend against Democrats is bad, right?" Deluzio wrote.

Fetterman's campaign didn't respond to a request for comment on either shot.

He doesn't exactly need Pennsylvania Democrats in his corner anymore.

His approval among Republicans in the state has been climbing while his standing with his own party keeps collapsing.

Fetterman's overall fundraising fell to less than half of what he raised the previous year, even as prominent GOP donors keep finding their way into his accounts.

Meanwhile, prediction markets tracking a possible Fetterman party switch have started moving.

Kalshi traders currently give him only a slim chance of leaving the Democratic Party before this November's midterms, but that number balloons the further out the calendar goes, climbing toward a coin flip by the start of 2028.

Where This Leaves Pennsylvania's Shaky Democrat Bench

Fetterman has denied for months that he's leaving his party, and he's said so plainly.

"Plus, I'd be a terrible Republican who still votes overwhelmingly with Democrats," he wrote earlier this year.

Maybe that's still true today.

But a sitting Democrat senator just built a shared campaign account with a Republican, took incoming fire from two men who could run to replace him, and didn't bother defending himself.

That's not what a man planning to stick around for his party looks like.

Pennsylvania Democrats aren't waiting around to find out what Fetterman decides either.

Lamb and Deluzio are already jockeying for a Senate seat they seem to assume is coming open.

If Fetterman is bluffing, he's doing it while his own bench measures the drapes.

Sources:

• Bryan Chai, "Alert: Dem Sen. Fetterman and GOP Sen. McCormick Launch Joint Fundraising Project, Adding to Speculation Fetterman Will Switch Parties Soon," The Western Journal, July 10, 2026.
• John Cole, "Fetterman and McCormick campaigns team up for joint fundraising committee," The Center Square, July 9, 2026.
• "Fetterman and McCormick launch joint fundraiser as Democrat's support wanes in his party," Washington Examiner, July 9, 2026.