(The Center Square) – U.S. Sens. John Fetterman and Dave McCormick may be on opposite sides of the aisle, but their campaigns have teamed up to create a joint fundraising committee. 

First spotted by Politico on Wednesday, Common Ground PA was announced as a new joint fundraising committee. 

Common Ground PA filed with the Federal Election Commission, known as the FEC, on Monday. They list four joint fundraising participants: Every Vote PAC, Pennsylvania Honor, Fetterman for PA, and Friends of Dave McCormick.

Fetterman is listed as the leadership PAC sponsor for Every Vote PAC, while McCormick is named as the leadership PAC sponsor for Pennsylvania Honor.

And, as stated in the names of the campaign committee, Fetterman for PA is the principal campaign committee for Fetterman, as Friends of Dave McCormick plays the same role for McCormick’s campaign.

The Center Square contacted the Fetterman and McCormick campaigns on Wednesday to ask why they decided to team up and who they hope to help with it. 

“This is a donor driven effort,” Mike DeVanney, a McCormick campaign spokesman, said to The Center Square. “This group of donors value the collaboration exhibited by Senators McCormick and Fetterman for Pennsylvania and want to support both of them.”

Fetterman’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment. 

OpenSecrets, a non-partisan watchdog organization, says that joint fundraising committees can be created by two or more candidates, PACs or party committees to share the costs of fundraising, and split the proceeds.

Christopher Nicholas, a longtime GOP consultant and publisher of the PA Political Digest, found the creation of Common Ground PA by Fetterman and McCormick’s campaigns to be noteworthy.

“This would seem to be a very intriguing development, and a further sign of the close coordination on not just policy, but now political issues between Senators McCormick and Fetterman,” Nicholas said to The Center Square. “What most is of interest to me now is who do they want to support through this new joint fundraising committee?”

Nicholas said he's never seen elected officials from opposite sides of the aisle in Pennsylvania join forces to create a joint fundraising committee.

Despite being members of different parties, Fetterman and McCormick have worked together on several issues and have described each other as good friends.

Last Monday, the two made a rare joint appearance in Philadelphia to encourage Pennsylvania families to enroll their children into Trump accounts.

While they tout their friendship and working relationship now, that was not the case just a few years ago.

Following his razor-thin loss to Dr. Mehmet Oz in the 2022 GOP primary for U.S. Senate, McCormick encouraged his supporters to back the Republican nominee over Fetterman, who was representing the Democratic Party. McCormick even donated the maximum allowed under law to Oz for the general election, Politico reported in 2022.

During the 2024 race, Fetterman campaigned in support of then-U.S. Sen. Bob Casey’s bid for a fourth term over McCormick. During Casey’s farewell speech to the Senate in December 2024, following his loss to McCormick, Fetterman called Casey “Pennsylvania’s best senator.”

Since the beginning of Trump’s second term, Fetterman has found himself at odds with his party over his stance on a number of issues, including being the only Democrat who voted to confirm several of the president’s cabinet nominations, backing portions of the administration’s immigration enforcement, and supporting the U.S. war with Iran.

Pennsylvania Republican Party Chairman Greg Rothman even told The Center Square in April that he wouldn’t rule out supporting Fetterman in 2028 for U.S. Senate if he changed parties. 

However, Fetterman penned an op-ed in the Washington Post in May saying that he would not do so.

“Being an independent voice that works with the other side to deliver for Pennsylvanians might put me at odds with the party that I have stayed committed to and have no plans to leave — but I will continue to put the commonwealth and the country first,” Fetterman wrote. “Plus, I’d be a terrible Republican who still votes overwhelmingly with Democrats.”

The Pennsylvania Democratic and Republican Party did not respond to a request for comment about this new joint committee.