EXCLUSIVE: Dave McCormick hopes his new book “Superpower in Peril: A Battle Plan to Renew America” will offer “a positive vision… to transform the country and take it in the right direction.”
McCormick, who’s considering a second straight Republican Senate run in the crucial general election battleground state of Pennsylvania, emphasized in an exclusive on-line interview with Fox News Digital that “I think we need to do two things as Republicans. We need to win elections and we need to have good ideas for taking them forward and I think those two things are very related and that’s what this book is about.”
McCormick, a former hedge fund executive, West Point graduate, Gulf War combat veteran and Treasury Department official in former President George W. Bush’s administration, explained that “I sold the book and started writing it a couple of years ago, long before I decided to run for the Senate.”
“And it was just based on the same motivation of running for the Senate, which is a belief that the country was headed in the wrong direction and a belief that we needed good ideas as conservatives and as Republicans for taking the country in a different direction. I had the book well underway when I decided to run [in the 2022 cycle],” he said. “I put it on a bit of a hold for the primary and then… came back and finished it.”
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Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick speaks to supporters during a primary election night event on May 17, 2022 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images) (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)
McCormick conceded last June to Mehmet Oz after trailing the cardiac surgeon and celebrity doctor by less than a thousand votes in the Republican Senate primary. Oz narrowly captured the GOP nomination in part thanks to the support and endorsement of former President Donald Trump, who remains the most influential politician in the Republican Party. But Oz was one of a handful of high-profile Republican nominees heavily backed by Trump who went down in defeat in the general election.
McCormick says his experiences on the campaign trail last year gave his book, which releases Tuesday, more “validation.”
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“I’m hoping that this really helps and shapes the debate around the future of the country,” he said. He notes that the cover and the title of his book “are very ominous… I really think we’re at a very risky inflection point, but I’m optimistic about the future. The further decline is not inevitable, but neither is renewal. It really depends on what we do.”
McCormick warned that “China has a plan for global primacy, and we don’t have a plan. So my hope is that by putting forward this plan, which is really about education our people, confronting China, and securing our country.”
A new book by 2022 Senate Republican candidate Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania, titled ‘Superpower in Peril: A Battle Plan to Renew America,” is released on Tuesday, March 14, 2023 (Fox News)
McCormick said that even though he lost last year, “I didn’t lose my motivation to serve the country. I feel like an obligation to do that. I’m trying to think about how to best serve and contribute. One way to do that might be running for the Senate again. I haven’t made that decision.”
McCormick has remained politically active the past couple of months, attending receptions with influential Republican officials, activists, and donors in recent weeks. He recently made the rounds at a National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) gathering in Florida. He’s also made some political hires recently.
“When I conceded on that rough night in June, I said ‘hey I’m not going anywhere.’ And I’m actually just doing what I said I was going to do. Which is; I’m very active in Pennsylvania. I live in Pennsylvania. I have a home in Pennsylvania. My folks are in Pennsylvania. So I’m staying very actively involved in Pennsylvania politics.”
He explained that “in terms of the Senate, we’re going to get through this book tour and it’s a big decision. It’s not one we feel like we have to make right now. And we’ll be thinking about it as a family and praying about it.”
Democratic Sen. Bob Casey Jr., who’s recovering from recent prostate cancer surgery, has not formally announced whether he’ll seek re-election next year for a fourth six-year term serving Pennsylvania in the Senate.
If Casey runs for re-election, he’ll be heavily targeted by the GOP as Republicans aim to flip the seat and regain the Senate majority in the 2024 elections. But it won’t be easy to defeat Casey if he runs. The former state treasurer and son of a former two-term governor is extremely well known in Pennsylvania and won his 2018 re-election by 13 points.
Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., speaks during the Pennsylvania Democratic Party’s 3rd Annual Independence Dinner in Philadelphia, Friday, Oct. 28, 2022. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) (The Associated Press)
McCormick isn’t the only Republican considering a Senate run in Pennsylvania next year.
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Former state Sen. Doug Mastriano, a far-right Trump loyalist who lost last year’s gubernatorial election by double digits, is also mulling a bid.
McCormick declined to weigh in when asked if Mastriano was the kind of candidate Republicans need on the ballot in 2024. But he did say that “I think we need candidates, not just in Pennsylvania but nationwide, who can obviously win primaries, win general elections, but most important… I think we need to look forward. I think we need a positive vision.”
