From Philly to Texas, Democrats have moved on from Fetterman

AUSTIN, Texas — It would be unfair to compare the vibrant reception U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico received at the recent Texas Tribune Festival to the muted response U.S. Sen. John Fetterman drew here two days later.

But allow me to do so anyway.

It was a hometown crowd for the rising Talarico, who, if the polls are to be believed, may become the first Texas Democrat elected to statewide office since 1994. When the doors closed to a capacity crowd at First Baptist Church — with more than 100 people left outside to grumble in the humid 95-degree weather — the vibe as groups of young people rushed to find seats was more pop star than politician.

Even with media access, I barely made it inside. A standing ovation greeted Talarico, and it seemed like every other sentence uttered by the charismatic 37-year-old was met with applause. I had no such trouble finding a seat for Fetterman.

Yet, it wasn’t long ago that the Pennsylvania Democrat elicited similar swooning during his own Senate run in 2022, or that the imposing Fetterman — who leaned progressive and ditched the suit and tie for gym attire — seemed like the future of the party.

Cut to TribFest 2026 and the biggest reaction the Keystone State senator produced from the largely polite, mostly liberal audience was gales of laughter and some jeers from the balcony as he misspoke and identified himself as a “lifelong Republican.”

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While some called it a Freudian slip, perhaps Fetterman had seen the Inquirer/New York Times/Siena University poll published earlier that week that showed a majority of Pennsylvania voters saw him more as a Republican than a Democrat.

I couldn’t help but feel for the senator, who expressed genuine exasperation over being questioned about his ideological loyalty. He was speaking my language, after all, when he said he respected Republicans and that to tackle the important kinds of problems facing the nation, “we’re going to need bipartisanship.”

Fetterman is also right when he says he votes with Democrats around 90% of the time. Unfortunately, when he splits, it’s been a doozy.

The senator has unquestionably backed the Israeli government’s response to the brutal Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas in which terrorists killed about 1,200 people and kidnapped more than 200 others. Israel’s subsequent invasion of Gaza has resulted in the deaths of more than 74,000 Palestinians, in what is labeled by some (including many Democrats) as a genocide.

Support by the government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has increasingly emboldened illegal settlements and violence in the occupied West Bank, as well.

On Tuesday, Fetterman was the lone Democrat to vote against a measure that would have required the U.S. Department of State to report on any investigations into the killings of nine U.S. citizens by Israeli security forces or settlers since 2022.

Fetterman has also blindly supported President Donald Trump’s war of choice in Iran, telling his Texas audience that “the Iranians are really no different than the Nazis.” The senator has been the only Democrat to consistently reject efforts to enact a war powers resolution to rein in the White House, most recently on Sept. 24.

What comes through listening to Fetterman defend his positions is his earnest belief in what he’s doing. He tried to frame his actions as those of someone led by common sense and a plain understanding of right and wrong.

“We’re the good guys,” he said. “The problem is Iran and Hamas.”

When questioned by an audience member about his apparent black-and-white worldview and whether there was room for nuanced positions in U.S. geopolitics, Fetterman said he was nothing but.

“My argument is nuance,” he noted. “That’s why it’s not a genocide [in Gaza], and that’s why is Iran allowed to build a nuclear bomb? That there is nuance.”

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Maybe later I’ll coin the term for the sound of a mass skeptical smirk, but here I’ll just call it the audience response to Fetterman’s answer.

The senator’s problem — and why he’s losing Democrats across the country — is that regardless of his earnest belief in what he’s doing, he’s wrong.

He can’t see that you can understand that what happened on Oct. 7 was an atrocity and that the Israeli government’s reaction has gone beyond any reasonable response; that while Iran was a rogue nation that punished its people and sought to undermine Western allies, Trump’s ill-planned war has done nothing but destabilize the region, raise energy prices, and make America weaker.

Still, there seems to be a method to Fetterman’s foolhardiness, and his time on the Texas stage was a mix of defensiveness and defiance.

Pennsylvania’s senior senator seems to be betting on the fact that even if someone like the beloved Talarico wins his race, the electoral reality may leave the Senate almost evenly split between Democrats and Republicans.

“What if that happens …? Who’s 51 …? Oh, yeah,” he mugged. “Wait until the midterms and let’s see what happens.”

Sure, let’s.

Based on his misguided stubbornness, if Fetterman is going to receive any standing ovations from a Texas crowd, it will be down the road in Houston at the 2028 Republican National Convention.