BUCKS COUNTY, Pennsylvania — Democratic Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego spoke at a Pennsylvania town hall Saturday during which he, to the disappointment of many attendees, failed to bring up the name of his embattled colleague, Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman.
Fetterman has made a series of headlines after a May 2 New York Magazine article suggested that the maverick first-term lawmaker was in poor mental and physical health, prompting his fellow Senate Democrats to reportedly discuss both ways to help him and potential replacements for him in the event he were to resign. A recently-released Pittsburgh poll conducted in February pointed to western Pennsylvania Democrats’ disapproval of Fetterman — which also held true throughout the rural Bucks County town hall on the other side of the state.
“I don’t like him and I hate that I voted for him,” one Gen Z voter, who claimed to have knocked doors for former Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Fetterman is the only person that I [voted for] that I’m like, ‘Fuck you.’”
In classic town hall fashion, voters lined up behind the microphone to ask Gallego questions after his speech.
Kyle, a Pennsylvania voter who identified as a lifelong progressive, praised the senator for initially running to challenge former Democratic-turned-independent Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema — a centrist lawmaker who often pushed back against Democrats on certain votes — and compared Sinema’s Senate tenure to Fetterman’s.
At the mention of Fetterman’s name, collective groans and quiet agreements filled the auditorium.
“Glad to hear people agree,” Kyle said before asking Gallego what he would do differently in comparison to Fetterman. The voter implied that Fetterman’s January visit to President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence mirrored Gallego’s meeting with pro-Trump billionaire Marc Andreessen the following month.
Gallego claimed that the purpose of his visit with Andreessen, a longtime Democratic donor who endorsed Trump in 2024, was to bring more jobs to Arizona. The senator appeared to not answer the question of how he would be different from Fetterman.
Voters frequently pointed to Fetterman’s apparent move to the center as an issue, recalling how differently he presented himself at the beginning of his Senate term compared today.
“I remember it was the American flag in rainbow and the stars were the weed flowers. I’m like, if that’s not the most liberal shit I’ve ever seen,” the door knocker told the DCNF, likely referring to flags Fetterman flew outside his office in 2021, while serving as Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor. “I was like, ‘I love this guy!’ But then you might as just hang a Nazi flag at this point cause you’re guilty by association.”
Another male attendee was upset Fetterman was not focusing on the economic issues impacting people in his state, pointing to him as the “biggest issue” for Pennsylvania’s representation in Washington.
“I think Fetterman is the biggest issue. He’s not acting like the way he was on the campaign trail,” the attendee told the DCNF. “I think he’s changed viewpoints on Israel and is less focused on other stuff like economic issues. I think he’s going to face a primary challenge. I just don’t know who it’s gonna be.”
One woman told the DCNF she was angry Fetterman and nine other Democrats in March “chose not to” close the federal government in resistance to the Trump administration’s agenda.
“I was pissed off … We could have closed the federal government and he chose not to. They had the power,” the woman said.
Another attendee vehemently agreed, saying, “I think we should have shut down the government, because that would have been our first big ‘We’re not fucking around.’”
The desire among some Democratic voters to close the government is not just in opposition to Fetterman, but also Democratic Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer who gathered a total of ten Democratic votes, including Fetterman’s, to pass a continuing resolution and avoid a shutdown.
Fetterman’s position on war in Gaza as well as his co-sponsorship of the Laken Riley Act, a bipartisan immigration law which Gallego also co-sponsored, sparked dissent among the town hall’s attendees, but they still held some concern for him amid the negative reports of his health.
Fetterman had a stroke during his successful campaign for the Senate in 2022. The following year, he received treatment for clinical depression.
“I’m totally disappointed in Fetterman. I thought he’s lost his freaking mind,” a woman told the DCNF. “It sounds like he might have some cognitive stuff, which I can see that could be true.”
As the situation surrounding the senator has grown, more Democrats have shared their thoughts with reporters, sparking concerns that New York Magazine’s story is in fact not a “one-source hit piece,” as Fetterman has maintained. The Hill published an article Monday citing three anonymous Democratic Senators who shared how worried they are for Fetterman.
“I know we’re all in touch with each other having conversations about how to intervene. I haven’t heard anybody say they’re not worried about it,” one senator told the outlet regarding the discussions being had about how to help Fetterman.
Another Democratic senator told The Hill, “Every time I see him, I’m worried about him.”
In addition to taking stances on immigration and foreign policy at odds with much of his party, Fetterman was notably the only member of the Senate Democratic Caucus to vote to confirm Trump administration Attorney General Pam Bondi in January.
However, Gallego still expressed support for his Pennsylvania colleague’s continued membership in the party in a Saturday interview from Pennsylvania, conducted separately from the town hall.
“There needs to be space for Fetterman and for other senators in our caucus,” Gallego said in the interview as first reported by Politico. “He still is a senator that fights for working-class people. We may not be 100 percent in agreement a lot of times in a lot of areas, but we don’t have to be.”
In the same interview, Gallego was also asked if the GOP is trying to convince Fetterman to switch parties.
“Of course,” the Arizona senator answered. He dismissed the purported attempts to get his Pennsylvania colleague to become a Republican as “fuck-fuck games,” a term he attributed to his time in the U.S. Marine Corps.
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