DALLAS — Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) appeared Wednesday night, Sept. 9, 2026, in a pre-recorded video at the Republican midterm convention, praising Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.) and saying he would work with President Donald Trump to defend Pennsylvania’s steel industry.

NBC News and The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Fetterman was not physically at American Airlines Center. The video introduced McCormick on stage. Per NBC’s transcript of the message:

“Yes, I’m a Democrat. Why am I here talking to you today? Because, well, I’m a common-sense Democrat. I’m always going to stand with America. I’m always going to reject the extremes and socialism and the anti-American way of life. Dave McCormick is the kind of senator that gets the job done, and he’s going to fight for Pennsylvania. I’m proud to count him as my friend.”

Fetterman also pointed to a U.S. Steel mill behind him and said he and McCormick would “work with President Trump to fight and defend the steel way of life, right here in the Steel Valley,” NBC and the Inquirer reported. McCormick thanked Fetterman for his “friendship” and “courage,” per NBC. The Inquirer quoted McCormick asking the hall, “How great is John Fetterman, right?”

Steel deal politics, not a party switch

The appearance lands eight weeks before the midterms and escalates Fetterman’s months-long break with Democratic orthodoxy. He has repeatedly rejected speculation he will switch parties while criticizing Democrats and praising Trump since Trump returned to office, the Inquirer noted.

The steel framing tracks the Nippon Steel–U.S. Steel deal. The Inquirer reported that Biden blocked the sale, Fetterman and McCormick both criticized a foreign takeover before Trump took office, and Trump later secured pledges including an American CEO, no layoffs, and a U.S. “golden share.” McCormick told the convention Trump’s deal protected and created “over 100,000 American jobs,” per the Inquirer.

Fetterman and McCormick also set up a joint fundraising committee this summer, the Inquirer and NBC reported — rare for senators in opposite parties. McCormick defended Fetterman after a Wall Street Journal report on constituent engagement, calling leaks from the left an attempt to “cancel” an independent thinker.

Democratic reaction was harsh. DNC vice chair and former Fetterman primary rival Malcolm Kenyatta called him “Benedict Arnold, but lazy” on X, per the Inquirer. Former Fetterman aides speaking to NBC called the GOP-convention boost “beyond the pale”; one former aide, Trè Easton, called it “pathetic” and questioned the politics of “bear-hugging Trump” given low state approval numbers.

Voters get to sort loyalty theater from governing. An elected senator can talk to whoever he wants. Party machines that treat that as heresy are advertising how little room they leave for dissent — which is exactly the dynamic Fetterman is needling.

Sources