Rep. Chris Deluzio (PA-17) said Sunday that he might run against Sen. John Fetterman in the 2028 Democratic primary. While a number of current and former elected officials are expected to consider challenging the freshman senator, this is as far as any of them have gone on the record.
Chris Stirewalt asked him directly on NewsNation’s "The Hill Sunday" whether he would run. “I might, I haven’t decided that,” Deluzio said. He added that he’s spending the fall on congressional races and on building Gov. Josh Shapiro’s majorities in Harrisburg, and that he will take up 2028 after the midterms.
In the interview, Deluzio said Fetterman is “nowhere to be seen on the campaign trail,” and that he doubts any Democrat in the state wants the senator at their events. He went further on Fetterman in a second interview on MS NOW's "The Weekend". The Wall Street Journal had reported last week that Fetterman ducks constituent meetings, sits through committee hearings without speaking and had gone close to a year without a public event in Pennsylvania. Fetterman told CNN the story was a hit piece from disgruntled former staffers. Deluzio said that answer made his case for him. “John Fetterman as always is making it all about himself,” he said. “He doesn't want to do the job.”
Deluzio had already written on X, the morning the Journal story landed, that Fetterman has no sense of duty and that “we in Pennsylvania will do something about it in 2028.” Asked on Sunday whether he worries Fetterman will switch parties, he said Pennsylvanians elected the senator as a Democrat and expect him to finish out his term in the caucus.
Deluzio is 42 and grew up in Thornburg, a small borough west of Pittsburgh. He went to the Naval Academy, spent six years as a surface warfare officer and deployed to Iraq with an Army civil affairs unit. He later graduated from Georgetown Law, clerked for a federal judge, then worked on voting rights and election security at the Brennan Center and at Pitt Cyber. He helped organize Pitt faculty with the Steelworkers.
In 2022 he won the seat former Congressman Conor Lamb had given up a Senate run (Lamb got 26% to Fetterman’s 59% in the primary). After winning his first term 53-47, two years later Deluzio beat state Rep. Rob Mercuri by eight points in a district covering Beaver County and the Pittsburgh suburbs.
Since then he has been making an argument about the future of the Democratic Party. He took the House floor in March 2025 alongside members from Rosa DeLauro to Ro Khanna to say Democrats have to run on economic patriotism and that ”the era of the spineless Democratic Party must end.” He told Compact last year that monopolists and big corporations took the American Dream rather than it slipping away on its own. He has relayed that pitch to rallies with Sen. Bernie Sanders and to areas far outside his district.
Deluzio is on the ballot himself in November, but his seat is now considered safe. He had over $1 million is his campaign account as of June 30th, the last reporting period.
(Photo: Rep. Chris Deluzio, via Chris Deluzio for Congress)