Sen. John Fetterman is more popular with Pennsylvania Republicans than Democrats, a Quinnipiac poll finds, as his own party questions his loyalty.

The Hill reported that a Quinnipiac University poll of likely Pennsylvania voters shows Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) drawing far stronger favorability from Republicans than from members of his own party.

Among Pennsylvania Republicans, 72 percent held a favorable opinion of Fetterman. Nineteen percent viewed him negatively, and 7 percent said they had not heard enough.

Among Pennsylvania Democrats, only 13 percent viewed him favorably. Sixty-nine percent did not, and 15 percent had not heard enough.

Independents sat in between: 27 percent favorable, 49 percent unfavorable, and 23 percent not heard enough. Across all likely Pennsylvania voters surveyed, 37 percent held a favorable view of Fetterman, 46 percent an unfavorable view, and 15 percent had not heard enough.

The poll was conducted Oct. 1, 5 among 1,159 likely voters in Pennsylvania. The margin of error was 3.9 percentage points. Quinnipiac released the results Wednesday.

Republicans rate Fetterman higher than their own GOP senator

The same survey asked Pennsylvania Republicans about GOP Sen. Dave McCormick. Sixty-seven percent felt favorably about McCormick, 13 percent did not, and 20 percent did not know enough.

That left Fetterman slightly ahead of McCormick on Republican favorability in his own state, an unusual result for a Democrat.

The numbers land after months of friction between Fetterman and Democratic colleagues. Party loyalty questions grew after he broke with the left on several high-profile votes and made a virtual appearance at a Republican midterm convention in September.

At that event, Fetterman introduced McCormick and described him as a “great friend.” Democratic colleagues grew frustrated after the video circulated.

Those tensions fit a wider pattern of Pennsylvania Democrats turning on Fetterman over his conduct and distance from the party base.

Fetterman still caucuses with Democrats, and says he will stay

Fetterman has voted with the Democratic caucus 90 percent of the time, according to the reporting. He has also split from the party on major issues.

He helped Republicans block a Senate war powers resolution. He voted with GOP lawmakers against cutting off aid to Israel. He previously said at a Hill Nation Summit that he would leave the Democratic Party if it turned its back on Israel entirely.

After the convention video, he restated his position.

Fetterman said:

"I’m a lifelong Democrat who votes overwhelmingly with my party, and should the Senate flip in November, I will still be the 51st vote that I ran on."

In mid-September he pushed back harder on switch talk.

Fetterman said:

"And if I turn a Republican, then I’ll be a liar... My name is not on the ballot. Chill,"

He has repeatedly asserted he will not “be a Republican.” When reporters press him on his future with the party, he has asked them to “just wait” until the midterms. That pressure has already produced public friction, including moments when Fetterman lost patience with reporters over Republican-switch questions.

GOP leaders say they would take him

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and a number of other Republican senators have stated they would welcome Fetterman to the GOP. No full quotes from those senators appeared in the coverage, but the open invitation is part of the public record around his recent moves.

Fetterman’s Senate seat is not up until 2028. He is not on the ballot this cycle. That gives him room to keep voting as he chooses while both parties watch the next two years.

He continues to defend the Democrat label even as he refuses to sound like a locked-in partisan foot soldier, a stance also reflected when Fetterman defended his Democrat label without treating every party demand as automatic.

His Israel stance remains a clear fault line. He has argued the Democratic tent has room for voices he rejects on national security and the U.S.-Israel relationship, a clash captured when Fetterman said Democrats’ tent fits 9/11 apologists better than Israel allies.

What the numbers actually show

Strip away the cable-news spin and the poll is simple. Pennsylvania Republicans view Fetterman favorably by a wide margin. Pennsylvania Democrats do not. Independents lean against him. Statewide, unfavorable still outruns favorable.

The gap tracks his record. He backs Israel aid. He has broken with Democratic leadership on selected national-security votes. He showed up, virtually, at a Republican event and praised a GOP colleague. His party base answered with single-digit favorability. Republican voters answered with numbers closer to a home-state ally.

That is the political bill for refusing the left’s full script. Fetterman still caucuses with Democrats. He still says he is a lifelong Democrat. He still promises to be the 51st vote if the Senate flips. The voters in this survey are grading the choices he has already made, not the label on his filing papers.

When a sitting Democrat polls better with the other party’s voters than with his own, the problem is not a bad weekend of headlines. It is a party that punishes dissent on borders, crime, and allies, and a senator who, on a few hard votes, still refuses to go along.