WASHINGTON — Sen. John Fetterman said he would leave the Democratic Party if it “officially” becomes “the anti-Israel party.”
For the first time this week, the Pennsylvania Democrat laid out a specific condition that would cause him to quit his party as his relationship with fellow Democrats has soured deeply.
“If they put that in our platform — no aid for Israel — and officially become the anti-Israel party, then yeah, that’s a red line for me,” Fetterman told NBC News on Thursday. “Democrats, we’ve always should support Israel. That’s our special ally, you know? In the only democracy in the entire region, that’s Israel. So I’m always proud to stand with Israel.”
He added that it would be a problem for him “if the Democratic Party officially says, ‘Israel is the problem, Israel doesn’t deserve to exist, and I’m never going to support aid, and I’m not going to call out Hamas and Hezbollah and Iran as terrorists, and they are the problem in the region.’”
Notably, Fetterman did not say whether he would switch his affiliation to the Republican Party — or if he’d become an independent and continue to caucus with Democrats, as Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema did prior to retiring in 2024.
American public sympathies have been shifting away from Israelis and more toward Palestinians during the war in the Gaza Strip, particularly among Democrats. On Wednesday, 103 House Democrats voted for an amendment by Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., to cut off U.S. aid to Israel. Republicans overwhelmingly opposed the measure.
“I’ve been frustrated by the way the Democratic Party continues to turn its back to Israel,” Fetterman said, emphasizing that he’d consider exiting the party if Democrats put “no aid for Israel” in the party’s “official platform.”
Fetterman, who was first elected to the Senate in 2022, has had some high-profile splits with his party, most notably on Israel. He has voted with Republicans on other issues, too, like on government funding and some of President Donald Trump’s administration nominees.
Fetterman’s approval ratings in Pennsylvania have fallen to a dismal 19% among Democrats, according to a Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday. That would make it extremely difficult for him to win a Democratic primary if he opts to run for re-election in 2028. His approval rating among Republicans was 77% in the poll, although it’s far from clear whether they would vote for him.
