Dave McCormick, John Fetterman step up after Pennsylvania's booth left empty at Trump's state fair

WASHINGTON, DC: Pennsylvania Senators John Fetterman and Dave McCormick stepped in to restore the state's presence at Donald Trump's Great American State Fair after Pennsylvania's booth was left empty on the event's opening day.

Their bipartisan intervention quickly filled a highly visible gap at the National Mall. It also drew fresh attention to the state's last-minute planning problems after Governor Josh Shapiro's administration said it could not secure business sponsors in time. 

Dave McCormick and John Fetterman secure private sponsors

In a joint announcement, Republican McCormick and Democrat Fetterman said they had lined up private-industry sponsors to operate Pennsylvania's booth without using taxpayer money. Sponsors include the

Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau and several other organizations.

"Pennsylvania is where America's story began, and there was no way we were going to let the Commonwealth go unrepresented during our Nation's 250th birthday celebration," McCormick said.

Fetterman framed the move as a bipartisan effort rather than a political statement.

"Celebrating America's 250th birthday and Pennsylvania's special role in our country is important and bipartisan," he said. "We discovered our commonwealth wasn't participating in the Great American State Fair on the National Mall, and we should be."

The announcement came one day after visitors found Pennsylvania's designated booth largely vacant except for a "250" flag marking the state's reserved space.

Josh Shapiro cites costs and timing

The empty booth followed Governor Josh Shapiro's decision not to move forward with official participation after his administration said it could not find a Pennsylvania business willing to sponsor the exhibit.

Speaking earlier in the week, Shapiro told The New Republic that when his administration contacted major Pennsylvania companies, "none were interested."

"It reflects this sad state of affairs that we find ourselves in — that the president has politicized this to a degree that businesses don't want to participate," Shapiro said.

But sources familiar with the sponsorship search told the Philadelphia Inquirer that at least two major Pennsylvania companies had agreed to donate products and giveaways but could not participate because of the short notice.

After the senators announced their plan Saturday, a Shapiro spokesperson said the administration had been "unwilling to spend hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to fund the Great American State Fair amid the historic slate of events across Pennsylvania in 2026."

Chamber points to last-minute outreach

Questions over how the booth ended up empty also focused on the compressed timeline.

According to Jon Anzur, senior vice president of public affairs for the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, the governor's office asked the organization for help less than two weeks before the fair opened, while many other states had been preparing their exhibits since January.

"The Governor's team asked us for assistance with business outreach for the Great American State Fair just two weeks before the event," Anzur said. "While there was interest, the short time frame made it difficult for many businesses to fully commit."

He added, "We are now reengaging those and other companies as we partner with Senators McCormick and Fetterman."

According to the report, Shapiro later spoke with McCormick about the senators' plan and offered to send additional state literature.

Pennsylvania's Department of Agriculture also supplied materials for the booth, while Crayola agreed to provide crayons, markers and coloring books for a children's coloring station expected to be operating as early as Sunday.