EXCLUSIVE — When Republican Senate candidate David McCormick faces Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) on the debate stage next month, the message he’ll have for undecided Pennsylvania voters is simple.
If you want more of the same problems, vote for Casey — but if you’re ready for change, then he’s your candidate.
“I’m running as someone who’s an outsider, someone who’s been a leader in the military [of] combat veterans, someone who’s run companies to help create jobs in Pennsylvania and running on commonsense policies,” McCormick told the Washington Examiner in an interview Monday evening.
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McCormick offered this contrast: “Sen. Casey has been a career politician, 30 years in elected office, 18 years in the Senate, and he’s adopted a weak, liberal set of positions that are completely out of touch with Pennsylvanians.”
McCormick is hoping to block the incumbent Casey from a fourth Senate term in one of the most closely watched congressional races this cycle.
Both Casey and McCormick have agreed to two October debates, with the first on Oct. 3 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, followed by an Oct. 15 debate in Philadelphia. A debate on Oct. 9 in Pittsburgh is presently being worked out due to the candidates accepting invitations on two different networks.
According to the RealClearPolitics poll average, Casey leads McCormick by 3.4 percentage points, while a recent CNN poll showed the two candidates tied at 46%. The Cook Political Report rates the seat as “Leans Democratic.”
But Democrats face a steep climb in keeping control of the Senate after Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV) announced his retirement and Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) engages in a tough reelection battle.
Casey’s seat will be crucial to the Democrat’s ability to hold the Senate, but should McCormick unseat Casey, it would bolster the GOP’s efforts to flip the Senate.
On Monday evening, McCormick spent nearly 90 minutes with podcast host Dan Senor, former 2012 senior foreign policy adviser to Mitt Romney, and a packed room of Jewish supporters at Lower Merion Synagogue in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, just outside of Philadelphia. They were joined by former President George W. Bush’s press secretary Ari Fleischer.
McCormick and Senor were recording a live interview of the Call Me Back podcast where the key topic at hand was Israel’s battle against Hamas, 11 months after Hamas had launched a surprise terrorist attack on Oct. 7.
“What’s happening right now in the world and in the United States is that Israel is under siege by Hamas, a terrorist group that’s underwritten by Iran,” McCormick said. “And we have Israel under attack, and we have Jewish students and our Jewish community under attack here at home.”
“We have to support our ally Israel in eradicating Hamas, and we have to have leaders of character and moral courage to stand up and fight against antisemitism,” he continued. “And those two issues are very connected, and Sen. Casey has been a weak voice.”
Democrats have long faced tensions with the party’s more progressive base, which has called for the U.S. to sever funding to Israel and has alleged that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is committing genocide against Palestinians living in Gaza with the prolonged counterattack to root out Hamas. Republicans, across the board, including McCormick, have seized on these tensions to excoriate the Democratic Party as they hope to take back the White House and Senate.
The Jewish vote in the Keystone State could help tilt the Senate race in McCormick’s favor in a race that will be close. In 2022, there were 434,165 Jewish residents in Pennsylvania, accounting for 3.3% of the state’s population. But he faces some headwinds. In 2021, 67% of the Jewish electorate leaned or was Democratic. However, tensions over the Middle Eastern war could play in the Republican’s favor.
Casey’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Huge amounts of money have poured into the Senate race as both political parties battle for control of the upper chamber.
During the general election race, more than $281 million have been spent on advertising or for future reservations, according to AdImpact. The sum is far more than the $230 million spent on the 2022 Senate race that saw then-Democratic candidate John Fetterman defeat Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz.
Keystone State Republicans have attacked Casey over his affiliation with Vice President Kamala Harris, whom McCormick blasted as an “extreme left San Francisco liberal,” as Democrats have also sought to tie McCormick to former President Donald Trump.
The state GOP has campaign literature featuring a photo of Casey next to Harris with the phrase “Weak Bob Casey follows the far left wherever they go” that volunteers can hand out. On the flip side of the campaign handout is a photo of McCormick with another photo of Trump praising him underneath.
The former president is backing McCormick after snubbing him during the 2022 Senate GOP primary against Oz. The two have since reconciled.
Casey and Democrats have painted McCormick as an anti-freedom Republican who will vote to take away the rights of the public. The Pennsylvania senator has also featured the economy and helping struggling families in his bid to win reelection.
At last month’s Democratic National Convention, Casey blamed corporations that engage in price gauging for harming the pocketbooks of families.
“The corporations say your prices are up only because their costs are up,” Casey said. “They are selling you a lie. It’s in the bag with the diapers. Prices are up because these corporations are scheming to drive them up.”
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McCormick, unsurprisingly, isn’t buying Casey’s attempts to blame corporations for high grocery prices, and he’s hoping that his call for change will resonate in the Keystone State.
“Elections are always about choices, but the choice this time could not be more stark,” he said. “And the way I say it on the campaign trail … is if you’re comfortable with the status quo, then you should vote for Sen. Casey. If you think we’re in trouble, we need new leadership, we need change, then I’d be honored to get your vote.”
