Ahmed Moor challenges Fetterman for Pennsylvania's 2028 Democratic Senate nomination

Democrats won at least 54 Senate seats in the midterms

Democratic Sen. John Fetterman faces a challenge in the 2028 Democratic primary for Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate seat from Ahmed Moor, a 42-year-old Palestinian American democratic socialist. Moor, a writer and journalist born in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, previously wrote for The Guardian. He told the Philadelphia Inquirer that he was “not really running against Fetterman.” “I’m running for good government. I’m running for the rule of law. I’m running because I believe in America,” he said.

The Guardian described Fetterman as a “maverick Democratic senator” who has “provoked widespread anger by increasingly siding with Republicans.” Moor said he would run in a primary to be the Democratic nominee in 2028, when Fetterman’s seat is up for reelection. An accompanying photograph shows Fetterman on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on March 18, 2026, in an AP photograph by Manuel Balce Ceneta.

The Guardian characterized Moor’s move as “the first sign of Fetterman’s weakened position in the party” following last week’s U.S. midterm elections. Democrats won at least 54 of the Senate’s 100 seats. The prospect of a comfortable majority means Fetterman’s vote could no longer be decisive, relieving Democratic strategists who had feared they could not rely on him on contentious issues.

The Guardian said Fetterman had already caused “widespread disillusionment among many Pennsylvania Democrats,” who campaigned for him in the 2022 midterms when he ran as a progressive outsider. The Guardian also said he has “sparked anger” by, on occasion, speaking out in support of Donald Trump. Trump praised Fetterman as “a great guy” and said he would “love” him to become a Republican.

Democrats said Moor was unlikely to be the only challenger. The Guardian reported that Fetterman “provoked outrage in his own party” in September after sending a video message to the Republicans’ midterm convention in Texas in which he praised Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Dave McCormick.

Moor said he supports withdrawing U.S. aid from Israel and imposing sanctions aimed at securing equal rights for Palestinians. His Palestinian background places that contrast at the center of the challenge to Fetterman, whose pro-Israel position the Guardian described as having become “increasingly strident” since the 7 October 2023 attack by Hamas.

The Guardian said the 7 October 2023 attack by Hamas left about 1,200 people dead on the Israeli side and that more than 74,000 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children, were killed in “Israel’s retaliatory military response.”

Fetterman has said he has no intention of leaving the Democratic Party but strongly suggested he would change his mind if the party became “anti-Israel.” “That’s my red line,” Fetterman said last July. “If the Democratic party becomes official anti-Israel, then that’s when I would force me out. If they make it the official platform of the party, then that’s a much different situation.”

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Fetterman has met more often with Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, than with Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker.

Mike Weidinger, a veteran Lancaster County Democrat with statewide connections, said: “I’m pretty confident that you’ll see some bigger, mainstream kind of names, involved.” He cited Chris Deluzio, a representative from the Pittsburgh area, and Malcolm Kenyatta, a Pennsylvania state legislator, as likely challengers.

Weidinger said: “Generally people think [Fetterman] either misrepresented himself when he ran the first time, or he changed completely from what he said he was.” He also said: “We just had an election here in Pennsylvania where a lot of us busted our ass for [Pennsylvania governor Josh] Shapiro and a lot of other people, and he didn’t spend one penny or do one thing for a single Democrat candidate here last week.”

On the possibility of Fetterman joining the Republicans, Weidinger said: “If he wants to switch, he can switch. If it would have been 51 to 49, it would have mattered. But it doesn’t matter now.”