Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) became the first Democrat in the upper chamber to throw his weight behind Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) to be President-elect Donald Trump’s secretary of state.
While top Democrats across the country have already pledged to buck Trump’s White House agenda, Fetterman’s support for the GOP chief’s likely pick to head the State Department signals that he could be one of the few Democrats in the upper chamber willing to work with the next Republican administration.
“Unsurprisingly, the other team’s pick will have political differences than my own,” Fetterman said in a post to X on Tuesday morning. “That being said, my colleague @SenMarcoRubio is a strong choice and I look forward to voting for his confirmation.”
Unsurprisingly, the other team’s pick will have political differences than my own.
That being said, my colleague @SenMarcoRubio is a strong choice and I look forward to voting for his confirmation. pic.twitter.com/OUIDx5KK4J
— Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) November 12, 2024
Trump has not yet confirmed Rubio as his choice to head the State Department, though he has tapped a slew of other candidates to lead other federal agencies. Should Rubio take the job, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) will appoint a temporary replacement to fill his vacant Senate seat until a special election is held.
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Former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a Trump critic, also recently announced support for Rubio. With Republicans holding a majority in the upper chamber, joined with Fetterman’s support, the Florida lawmaker’s path to senate confirmation appears smooth.
Fetterman’s support for Rubio comes after he had previously said he was a “fan” of the Florida senator. He made the bipartisan gesture after Trump picked Vice President-elect J.D. Vance to be his running mate, instead of Rubio, another top contender for the position.
“I’m a fan of my colleague from Florida,” Fetterman said during a Fox News interview last month. “I was actually shocked that Trump didn’t pick him over Vance.”
The Pennsylvania Democrat, formerly the state’s lieutenant governor, has proved to be a political maverick of sorts since he won his Senate election in 2022, often publicly breaking with leaders in the Democratic Party over policy issues such as the war in Gaza. Although he allied himself with Vice President Kamala Harris’s losing campaign for the White House, Fetterman repeatedly issued strong warnings that she needed to take enthusiasm for Trump in his home state more seriously. Harris lost Pennsylvania, and with it, the election.
After the Democratic Party’s losses in the Senate, House, and White House last week, Fetterman continued to criticize the Left, saying he believed its rhetoric had alienated men, losing the party a key voting bloc.
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“We have a challenge. We have our own kind of ‘childless cat ladies’ situation: ‘Bros.’ People refer to these young guys as bros, and clearly that’s not a positive term,” the Pennsylvania senator said during an interview with Semafor defending his willingness to appear on Joe Rogan’s popular podcast, which boasts a large male audience.
First in what I expect will be a many-part series of talking to Dems about what happened. Here's John Fetterman on why he went on Rogan and Dems have a problem w men https://t.co/sztMcRs8qr pic.twitter.com/RAPO4Vf0Zz
— David Weigel (@daveweigel) November 8, 2024
“They’re described as dopes or gullible or brutes,” he continued. “That violates the basic, basic rule of politics. Don’t subtract, do addition. I think that was part of the new coalition that really delivered a pretty crushing victory for Trump.”
