Is the Democrats’ Tent Big Enough for Senator Fetterman?

The emergence of candidates throwing their hats in the ring to challenge Senator John Fetterman in a Democratic primary underscores just how sui generis the solon has been during his first term in office. Mr. Fetterman was elected in 2022, and is firmly a solon of the left on domestic affairs. His steadfast support for Israel, though, has made Mr. Fetterman a persona non grata in a party increasingly hostile to the Jewish state.The Democrats won the midterms in a rout, but is their newly enlarged tent big enough for the likes of Mr. Fetterman, who suffered a stroke in 2022? The answer is given in the negative by the Gaza-born Ahmed Moor, who has filed to run against him in 2028. He has averred that “‘Zionist Israel’ does not have the right to exist.” He also asked the Jewish Daily Forward “Why are Zionists so resistant to the idea of Palestinian resistance?”In 2014, Mr. Moor, then writing in the Huffington Post, celebrated Hamas’s use of “crude, unguided workshop missiles to reclaim the balance of fear.” Our Alex Zdan reports that Mr. Moor, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, also has “advocated for Israel to be split up into four separate states and favors a Nuremberg-style war crimes trial for Israeli officials.” Mr. Moor accuses President Biden of aiding “a ghastly genocide.”On Tuesday a Pennsylavnia congresswoman, Madeline Deane, announced that she is also contemplating a challenge to Mr. Fetterman. She declares herself to be “very disappointed in his activity as a senator and in his votes.” Another Keystone State lawmaker, Congressman Chris Deluzio, tells Politico that he is also mulling a challenge to Mr. Fetterman. Mr. Deluzio, citing Israel, declares that he is giving the matter “serious thought.” Could Mr. Fetterman’s future be red rather than blue? President Trump told reporters last month that “I’d love to see him as a Republican. He does better as a Republican than he does as a Democrat.” Mr. Fetterman wrote in the Washington Post in May that he would be a “terrible Republican who still votes overwhelmingly with Democrats.” In September he doubled down with the claim that “I’m not going to be a Republican.”Mr. Fetterman, though, appears to have cogitated on one scenario for switching. In July, he told CNN that his “red line” would be crossed if the “Democratic party becomes officially anti-Israel, then that’s when I would force me out. If they make it the official platform of the party, then that’s a much different situation.” On Tuesday, 12 of Mr. Fetterman’s Democratic colleagues issued a letter opposing greater military cooperation with Israel.Mr. Fetterman has struck up a bipartisan friendship with his fellow Keystone State senator, David McCormick. That has further raised the hackles of Democratic purists. Mr. Fetterman says that “My views really haven’t changed; what’s really changed is the party.” Democratic voters are willing to lurch left in primaries — Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed attest to that trend. Will they punish Mr. Fetterman for his support for Zion?

Is the Democrats’ Tent Big Enough for Senator Fetterman?

Is the Democrats’ Tent Big Enough for Senator Fetterman?

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