Fetterman to headline Florida Democratic event amid push to exclude ‘genocide advocate

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) is again sparking progressive outrage, this time for being the keynote speaker of the Florida Democratic Party’s annual fundraiser this weekend attended by party officials and activists.

The state party’s Progressive Caucus says the staunchly pro-Israel Democrat shouldn’t be welcomed because he’s “betrayed the trust of his constituents” with his “abandonment of progressive values and alignment with divisive rhetoric,” most notably on Israel.

“His recent statements and actions, particularly regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, stand in stark contrast to the values of equality, justice and peace that this supporters stand for,” the caucus wrote in a letter to the state party calling on them to cancel Fetterman’s appearance.

Carolina Ampudia, the caucus’s Broward Chapter president who’s leading the effort and started an online petition, told the Washington Examiner that she and other Florida progressives will not “participate giving a platform to a genocide promoter.”

The event, dubbed Leadership Blue, will be held Friday through Sunday at Disney’s Contemporary Resort in Orlando, with Fetterman’s address set to occur Saturday evening.

Both Fetterman and the state party aren’t budging.

Fetterman urged for unity and said the focus should be on defeating former President Donald Trump and reelecting President Joe Biden.

“I fully embrace a diversity of views within the Democratic Party, but we’re six months out from the presidential race, and we’ve got to be united on reelecting Joe Biden,” Fetterman said in a statement. “The stakes are too high. Just this week in Florida, we’ve got an abortion ban going into effect. We can’t let these disagreements lead to a second Trump term.”

Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Nikki Fried lauded Fetterman as a “powerful voice for the Democratic Party and embodies the spirit of Florida Democrats — never backing down from a fight.”

The state party did not respond to a request for comment regarding efforts to cancel Fetterman.

The state Progressive Caucus has fueled backlash of its own for opposing Fetterman. Former Democratic National Committee member Nikki Barnes, of Florida, posted on social media that “nobody gives a S**T about what the Progressive Caucus says.”

State party officials have “mostly ignored” the endeavor to boot Fetterman from the gala’s lineup, according to Ampudia, a move she views as bad politics.

“We know party loyalists will just continue cheerleading whatever decision the party makes,” Ampudia said. “The party is choosing to ignore all of us, and I think it’s not just wrong but a bad political strategy. These are the activists the party needs if it is serious about winning elections.”

The fundraiser comes at a particularly fraught moment for the Democratic Party, in which divisions over the Israel-Hamas war have been exacerbated by recent pro-Palestinian protests at colleges across the country that have included violence and antisemitism.

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Fetterman’s outspoken defense of the U.S. ally throughout the foreign conflict has increasingly put him at odds with progressives.

“I don’t speak for anyone other than myself. But I’ve been very clear with my opinion on the protesters,” Fetterman recently told the Washington Examiner. “When you become violent or you are smashing, damaging property and taking over a building and everything — I could never defend that. I think we could all agree that we can never have that in this world.”