GOP money benefits Fetterman

WASHINGTON – A rare bipartisan joint fundraising committee backed by Pennsylvania Sens. John Fetterman, a Democrat, and Dave McCormick, a Republican, drew primarily from Republican donors, a recent federal filing showed, the latest sign of Fetterman’s growing appeal among some Republicans.

Common Ground PA, which was formed in July, had raised nearly $250,000 by the end of September. Republicans accounted for nearly four-fifths of the money raised, according to an analysis of the donors’ contribution histories and party registrations.

More than $94,000 of the donated funds were allocated to Fetterman’s principal campaign committee, and almost $10,000 went to Every Vote PAC, which Fetterman sponsors.

More than half of the individual donations were made the day after Fetterman’s surprise video appearance at the Republican Midterm Convention in Dallas, where he called McCormick a friend who “gets the job done.” Since the appearance, Fetterman’s campaign has sent out a slew of fundraising emails and texts aimed at Republican donors, as recent polls indicate Pennsylvania Republicans view the senator far more favorably than Democrats do.

“He’s given Republicans every bit of good reason to donate to him. There’s no doubt about that,” said T.J. Rooney, senior partner at Rooney Novak Isenhour Group and former chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party.

Joint fundraising committees allow candidates and political committees to combine their fundraising efforts and collect donations through a single entity. The money is then distributed among political committees according to an agreed-upon formula.

Usually those candidates are in the same party.

Fetterman’s partnership with his GOP counterpart drew national attention when the committee was created. It was the latest in a series of decisions by Fetterman — starting with his visit with then-President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago almost two years ago — that have frustrated the progressives who once made up the senator’s base.

In the years that followed that meeting, his support for controversial Trump cabinet nominees and his decision to break with many of the Democratic Party’s core voters over U.S. support for Israel have led to speculation that Fetterman could cut ties with Democrats entirely.

Fetterman has repeatedly and vehemently denied that he’s considering becoming a Republican, and despite the notable disagreements with many in his party, he has sided with Democrats on the vast majority of votes.

Since he took office in 2023, Fetterman has only broken with the caucus about 12% of the time.

Still, that’s higher than nearly all other Senate Democrats.

He has said that if the Democrats ever become “anti-Israel,” that would lead him to leave the party — a move that could be critical in a closely divided Senate at a time when Democrats and Republicans are locked in a fierce battle for control of the chamber in the November elections.

Neither senator, nor Common Ground PA, responded to requests for comment.

Since McCormick’s election two years ago, when he unseated longtime Democratic Sen. Bob Casey Jr., he and Fetterman have formed a relationship that’s increasingly rare in the modern era of hyper partisanship.

Even before Fetterman’s glowing video introduction at the Dallas convention, the two began appearing together frequently at public events, conducted joint interviews and, in their public statements, avoided criticizing each other even when excoriating the opposing party.

The paperwork forming Common Ground PA put that partnership in ink — and raised questions about who, in this era of zero-sum partisan warfare, would put their money behind a bipartisan political action committee.

The recent filing offered the first glimpse.

The list of donors was “Lehigh Valley-centric,” Rooney said, referring to an area of the state that has swung from Democrats to Republicans and back again in recent elections, making it one of the most politically important areas of the country’s largest swing state.

Scott Wagner, a former Republican state senator who ran for Pennsylvania governor in 2018, was among Common Ground PA’s early donors. When reached by phone on Oct. 19, he called himself a friend of McCormick’s who does not know Fetterman well and said he saw the committee as an “opportunity to get some stuff done.”

“I just want to see things happen,” Wagner said. “And the system, the way it’s working right now, it’s not working. It’s not good.”

He contributed more than $5,000 to the committee at the end of August.

Another donor, Hyman Properties CEO Nat Hyman, a registered Democrat, said in an interview that he likes both McCormick’s positions and Fetterman’s openness to work with Republicans despite pressure from “the Democratic powers that be.”

“As a registered Democrat, I am not upset with the fact that [Fetterman] often aligns himself with the Republicans. That, frankly, is the way senators conducted themselves 30, 40, 50 years ago,” Hyman said. “But things become so partisan that the Democrats now — and I am a Democrat — want to vilify him for reaching over the aisle. And I think that’s the wrong message to send.”

Hyman, who donated $5,000 to the committee, has given money to candidates from both major parties.

Ultimately, the $250,000 raised so far by Common Ground PA is miniscule compared to the billions of dollars that are being poured into critical races from Texas to Maine to Iowa to Ohio, where candidates are doing battle to win races that will determine who wields power in Washington during the final two years of the Trump administration.

But beyond the midterms, the two senators behind the PAC — and the alliance they’ve formed — could have outsized influence in a closely divided Congress ahead of the next presidential election, when Fetterman, if he runs for re-election, will also be on the ballot.

“I feel like it’s more symbolic than anything else, right?” said Adam Carlson, founding partner of the Democratic polling firm Zenith Research. “Unless the donations really ramp up.”

Post-Gazette staff writer Jimmy Cloutier contributed to this report.