If Senate Democrats were relieved to hear Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV) will retire next year, then their headaches stemming from his contrarian ways are sure to return thanks to Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA).

Two years into his first term, the Pennsylvania Democrat has swung from progressive darling to populist provocateur and is further stoking the ire of his liberal colleagues by predicting his state will vote for former President Donald Trump in November. Appearing on the ultra-conservative Newsmax, Sen. Fetterman said his home state voters will size up Trump against Vice President Kamala Harris and find out the choice is obvious. “I think if you match up Trump with Harris, and I think that’s what this is really about, and I do believe he’s going to win Pennsylvania. And I do believe it’s going to be close, but whether it’s Biden, whether it was Clinton, or whether it was with Vice President Harris I think it’s going to be very close.”

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Since selecting Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate this week, Harris has drawn fire from fellow Democrats who felt she would have been better off opting for Pennsylvania Gov. Joshua Shapiro, a popular two-term Democrat presiding over a swing state carried by Trump in 2016 and Biden four years later. Fetterman was not among them and indeed helped generate a rumor mill around Gov. Shapiro that his aggressive ambitions would overshadow a Harris administration. Republicans, meanwhile, have accused Vice President Harris of nixing a run with Shapiro over his Jewish heritage. Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), said just as much this week, citing outbursts by anti-Israel progressives who asserted Shapiro as vice president would give the Jewish nation a direct line to the White House.

The past several days have been defined by Gov. Walz’s entrance into the race, allowing Harris to avoid unscripted questions from the media. Her self-imposed public drought becomes all the more difficult to maintain while Democrats like Sen. Fetterman offer up unprompted criticism of her campaign, and Harris spokespersons are already reeling in response to accusations from Sen. Vance and other Trump allies that Walz committed “stolen valor” by running for Congress in 2005 on a military title that had been rescinded.

Polls between July and August show Vice President Harris with a narrow margin in Pennsylvania where she averages a 1% lead, according to FiveThirtyEight. She is intimately aware that a win will almost certainly run through the state, where she announced Walz as her running mate on Tuesday in Philadelphia. Her campaign pointed to Trump’s loss in 2020 as well as the 2022 loss by Republican Senate candidate Mehmet Oz and Republican Doug Mastriano’s 2022 loss to now-Democrat Gov. Shapiro, according to Fox News.

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