Updated

Updated · The Guardian · Jul 10

Fetterman, McCormick Launch Common Ground PA as 2028 Democrat Fuels Party-Switch Talk

Updated

Updated · The Guardian · Jul 10

Fetterman, McCormick Launch Common Ground PA as 2028 Democrat Fuels Party-Switch Talk

Q: What does this fundraising model offer donors that single-party committees do not?

It offers donors a one-stop way to give a much larger total amount and have it split among several participating committees, rather than writing separate checks to each one. In this case, a joint fundraising committee can collect one contribution and allocate it across the senators’ campaign committees and affiliated PACs, each up to its legal limit. That makes giving simpler for donors and can raise more money overall than a single committee could take on its own. The model also gives donors broader reach. Instead of backing only one candidate committee or one party-related account, a donor can support a combined political network in a single transaction. That is especially attractive to major donors who want efficiency and coordinated impact. Recent changes in campaign-finance law have made that structure more valuable. With parties now able to spend without the old caps on coordinated expenditures with candidates, money raised through joint structures can be more tightly aligned with campaign strategy and messaging. In practical terms, donors get convenience, a higher aggregate giving capacity, and a more integrated way to support multiple allied entities than a single-party or single-candidate committee typically provides.

3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Jul 10

FEC records filed Monday show John Fetterman and Dave McCormick created Common Ground PA, a rare joint fundraising committee linking both senators’ campaign committees and leadership PACs.
The bipartisan arrangement intensified scrutiny of Fetterman’s rightward drift, with Democratic critics and anti-Trump strategist Rick Wilson openly speculating he could eventually switch parties.
Fetterman, once a prominent progressive, has increasingly broken with Democrats in Trump’s second term by backing several cabinet nominees, parts of the administration’s immigration agenda and the US war with Iran.
The move comes as Fetterman heads toward a 2028 re-election race with about $1.99 million cash on hand; he wrote in May that he has 'no plans to leave' the Democratic party.
Pennsylvania’s two senators have worked together repeatedly and call each other close friends, but neither currently holds majority approval—Quinnipiac found Fetterman at 46% and McCormick at 37% in February.