Hedge Fund Manager David McCormick Joins Pennsylvania Senate Race

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One on One With David McCormick, the Latest Candidate in the Pa. Senate Race

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Time for America’s leaders to confront China’s Communist Party head on

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As an Army combat paratrooper, I learned two things: always be clear-eyed about your enemy and never forget that there’s only one language that matters — strength.

That’s why I believe it is past time for America’s leaders to confront head-on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which poses the greatest economic and national security threat to the United States.

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If given the honor of representing Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate, I will do everything in my power to end our dependence on China, protect our communities and our jobs, counter their attempts to reshape the world in their authoritarian image, and ensure America remains the world’s unrivaled military and economic superpower.

For years, China has oppressed its own people while getting rich through unfair trade deals with America and by stealing our technology, intellectual property, and personal information. They have directly threatened our nation’s health, prosperity, and security, and that of all Pennsylvanians.

The CCP knows Chinese manufacturers couldn’t compete head-to-head with Pennsylvania workers, so they unlawfully dumped steel to undercut our fair prices, unfairly subsidized their companies, manipulated their currency, and stole our intellectual property, with no accountability.

The result? Since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, the Commonwealth has lost over 137,000 jobs, many in the manufacturing sector.

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Among the many great companies from which they stole technology and trade secrets is U.S. Steel. The Chinese military has even sought to infiltrate our world-class universities, including recruiting a Penn State professor in a scheme to use American taxpayer dollars to help “develop China’s expertise… through his undisclosed partnership with a Chinese university controlled by the Chinese government.”

And most destructive of all, the CCP unleashed COVID-19 on the world, killing nearly 38,000 Pennsylvanians, forcing businesses to close, and doing untold mental and emotional damage to our children, all while they accelerated the most dangerous military buildup in recent memory.

President Trump did our nation a great service by standing up for the principles of fairness, security, and reciprocity. Pennsylvanians would say this seems obvious. A grand jury of Pennsylvanians brought the first ever criminal charges against Chinese state actors because we know our trading partners must play by the same rules we do and should suffer the consequences when they don’t.

The Biden administration just doesn’t get it. That is why now more than ever we need new leadership in Washington to boldly defend our national interests. That’s what putting America first is all about, and it’s exactly the kind of leadership that I have always stood for.

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I have been in the room with Chinese leaders. I know how they negotiate. In fact, I took such a hard line approach during my time serving in government that top Chinese leaders appealed to the president of the United States to soften the technology controls I put in place. And as a businessman, I developed a reputation for viewing China as the threat it is, unlike many other business leaders.

I learned firsthand that Communist China responds only to strength, and that is what I will bring if the voters of Pennsylvania send me to Washington on their behalf, by introducing legislation that would:

First, restore American self-sufficiency by helping move medical, pharmaceutical, and other critical supply chains out of China and bringing manufacturing jobs back home to the Commonwealth.

Second, protect American jobs, intellectual property, and values. We must enforce President Trump’s approach of reciprocity in trade and data privacy, blocking Chinese acquisition of U.S. technology, and countering Chinese propaganda, especially on Big Tech platforms.

Third, take the fight to China. Instead of just playing defense, I will push for sanctions on Chinese companies and CCP officials for crimes including stealing our IP, perpetuating genocide in Xinjiang, and covering up COVID, which caused unnecessary death and economic destruction and for which Americans deserve to be fairly compensated.

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Additionally, I will push to create an outbound investment review commission to ensure U.S. investors do not fund China’s military or genocide, whether actively or unwittingly through portfolio investments. And I will demand that China stop fueling America’s opioid epidemic by trafficking fentanyl into the U.S.

And finally, I will ensure America remains the world’s unrivaled military and economic superpower. The competition with China starts at home by winning the race for the technologies of the future, from artificial intelligence to quantum computing, rebuilding our military, and standing up for the American Dream and Pennsylvania values.

I have no doubt we can confront China and win, but we need strong leaders. No other U.S. Senate candidate in Pennsylvania has the experience, knowledge, and determination to make that a reality.

I know from experience what it takes to create good jobs right here in the Commonwealth, to face the Chinese across the negotiating table, and to fight for America.

I’m battle-tested, Pennsylvania true. That’s why I’m running, and that’s how the voters of Pennsylvania can rest assured I will never let them down.

Dave McCormick is a former U.S. Army paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division, a veteran of the first Gulf War, and has been the CEO of two successful businesses. He is currently running as a Republican to represent Pennsylvania in the United States Senate.

Mehmet Oz is spending millions on TV to boost his Senate campaign in Pa. He’s not alone in an ultra-wealthy GOP field

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Mehmet Oz at the 14th annual L’Oreal Paris Women of Worth Gala in New York. Read more

If you live in Pennsylvania, there’s a good chance you’ve been seeing Mehmet Oz on your television — and not like you used to.

The celebrity surgeon and former talk show host known as “Dr. Oz” is pouring millions of dollars into campaign ads as he runs for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, buying up slots during Jeopardy!, Wheel of Fortune, morning news shows and Fox News staples as he tries to grab an early advantage in a sprawling GOP primary.

Oz has already booked nearly $5 million of ad time from his Nov. 30 campaign launch through early February, drawing some comparisons to Gov. Tom Wolf’s big splash in the 2014 Democratic primary. Wolf, a millionaire businessman with almost no political profile, ran a barrage of early ads about himself and his Jeep, and sprinted to the forefront before his rivals even got off the starting line. He never looked back.

“It was a great example of the power of early communication,” said J.J. Balaban, a Democratic messaging strategist from Philadelphia.

But unlike Wolf, Oz has rivals who can compete with his financial firepower.

Two other ultra-wealthy Republican candidates, David McCormick and Carla Sands, are also spending big on television, preventing Oz from having the airwaves, and messaging, to himself.

The blasts of cash — four months before the primary — show the impact of the Republican candidates’ immense personal wealth, and signal an extraordinarily expensive and drawn-out campaign, one that could saturate (and maybe overwhelm) viewers with competing information. It could also potentially squeeze candidates in both parties with less to spend. In a state as large as Pennsylvania, covered by more than a half-dozen media markets, television advertising is crucial for reaching a mass of voters, though it isn’t always decisive.

“This level of spending, the pace of spending and the placement of the ads reminds me more of three weeks out from Election Day, and not four months out,” said Christopher Nicholas, a Republican strategist based in Harrisburg.

The race carries national weight: With incumbent Republican Sen. Pat Toomey retiring, it’s one of the most competitive Senate contests in the country, and could determine control of the chamber.

None of the Republican candidates, including developer Jeff Bartos, conservative commentator Kathy Barnette and attorney George Bochetto, has ever held elected office, so the TV spending comes as they all try to define themselves to voters for the first time. Oz, while famous as a TV personality, has tried to reintroduce himself politically as a “conservative outsider,” echoing the appeal once used by Donald Trump. McCormick, an Army veteran, calls himself “battle-tested,” while Sands, the U.S. ambassador to Denmark under Trump, has tried to carry the former president’s ideological banner. Her latest ad attacks President Joe Biden’s immigration policies, vowing to fight “amnesty.”

» READ MORE: Who’s running for Pa.’s open Senate seat in 2022

McCormick, who most recently lived in Connecticut and until this month led the world’s largest hedge fund, only formally announced his campaign on Thursday, but had already been on the air. He’s spent $3 million since late December, according to AdImpact, which tracks political advertising. His campaign launch included two new ads, including one aiming to ground him as a down-to-earth Pennsylvanian who grew up in Bloomsburg and hunts and clears hay bales.

Sands was the first candidate on the air, in October, but has since spent less than her rivals, around $2 million overall, according to AdImpact. She was previously CEO of Vintage Capital, an investment management firm founded by her late husband, Fred Sands.

And a super PAC supporting Bartos has its own $2 million ad purchase starting next week, Fox News reported Friday.

But Oz has led the way.

Since entering the race in late November, he’s already spent more on television alone than the 2016 Democratic nominee, Katie McGinty, spent on her entire primary campaign during a competitive contest (though she also had significant support on the air from allied campaign groups). Oz’s first financial disclosure report, which will show even more spending on other parts of his campaign, is due at the end of the month.

Oz’s most recent spots, released Thursday, feature him speaking with people at the Pennsylvania Farm Show and on a factory floor pledging, “I can’t be bought.”

» READ MORE: Senate candidate Mehmet Oz says he’s a Pennsylvania resident now. So why’s he still hanging out in his New Jersey mansion?

He’s even running a significant share of his ads in the Philadelphia media market, one many candidates shy away from early on because it’s so expensive and inefficient (the area is heavily Democratic and includes many viewers in New Jersey and Delaware who can’t vote in Pennsylvania). It still accounts, though, for about 30% of the vote in Republican primaries, according to Nicholas.

McCormick and Sands’ ads have been more concentrated in other, less pricey areas that tilt more Republican, such as the Harrisburg and Wilkes-Barre markets, as well as the Pittsburgh area.

Oz’s rivals argue that he’s advertising so heavily to get ahead of his vulnerabilities and lingering distaste from some of his controversial medical advice. But both Balaban and Nicholas said his image is still malleable when it comes to the Senate race.

“He’s not known in a political context,” Balaban said. “There’s a whole swath of voters who have heard his name and may have seen him on TV but have no opinion of him as a U.S. senator.”

The big money from the three Republicans isn’t likely to slow down. Once campaigns go on the air, they tend to stay on, because if not, the messages fade fast from voters’ memories, Balaban said.

“At least three candidates think they have enough money to do this until Election Day because you never start TV advertising and then slow it way down,” Nicholas said.

Republican rivals have accused the trio of trying to buy the race, particularly when none of them showed up to a Senate candidate forum Wednesday hosted by Republicans in Lawrence County, a small county northwest of Pittsburgh, on the Ohio border.

“They think they’re going to phone in this election from their penthouses,” Barnette said at the event. “They have no intentions of really spending time with you.”

Bartos, also a multimillionaire, emphasized his work to build support by traveling the state and meeting with grassroots party activists.

“You cannot help save Main Street in this commonwealth if you cannot find Main Street,” he said during the forum. “It’s a shame that many people didn’t show up here tonight.”

Money and television exposure alone, of course, aren’t enough to win. Several operatives pointed to the example of billionaire Michael Bloomberg in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, who spent big and crashed quickly because he was out of sync with his party’s voters. Tom Knox spent heavily on the 2007 Philadelphia mayoral primary, only to lose to Michael Nutter.

“You have to do more than just buy TV ads,” Nicholas said.

The airwaves could quickly get crowded. Along with the candidate spending, super PACs supporting Oz, Bartos and Bochetto are also lurking. (Such groups can’t formally coordinate with the candidates, but can accept donations without the normal federal limits).

The Democratic Senate race doesn’t have as much personal wealth, but Lt. Gov. John Fetterman has emerged as a grassroots fund-raising powerhouse, building up a $5.3 million war chest.

U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb has said he had $3 million at the end of December, though as of Friday morning neither Montgomery County Commissioner Val Arkoosh nor State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta had released their latest fund-raising figures, due at the end of January. Both have trailed in raising money.

That race has yet to ramp up on television, but surely will in the coming months.

When it comes to TV spending, “just because you’re first, doesn’t mean you’re best,” Balaban said. But other things being equal, he added, you’d rather be the campaign that can do it, than not.

Republican ‘carpetbagger’ candidates for U.S. Senate take heat from primary competitors

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Mehmet Oz watches play during the women’s singles final of the U.S. Open tennis championships, in this file photo from last year. Oz is running in the wide-open race for the Pennsylvania seat being vacated by two-term Republican Sen. Pat Toomey. Read more

Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate derided as “carpetbaggers” made it easy for their primary competitors in a forum Wednesday evening.

They didn’t show up. And the competitors made sure the crowd in Lawrence County, on the state’s border with Ohio, heard about it.

Jeff Bartos of Lower Merion opened with a knock on candidates known for swanky addresses in other states — Mehmet Oz of New Jersey, Carla Sands of California, and David McCormick of Connecticut — joking that “being a lifelong Pennsylvanian is a distinguishing characteristic in this campaign.”

Kathy Barnette, a conservative commentator from Montgomery County, closed the forum on a harder note.

“I think it’s very interesting that the three carpetbaggers who are in this race, who have galloped into our state, saying they’re going to listen to us and work for us and yet they’re not here at all because they don’t care about you,” she said. “These very wealthy people are going to phone it in from their penthouses.”

George Bochetto, a Philadelphia attorney who entered the race this week, came out swinging at the outsiders, who all have substantial past ties to Pennsylvania. He punched hardest at Oz, the famous television doctor known for his New Jersey mansion overlooking the Manhattan skyline.

“Why can’t he just admit he’s been living in New Jersey for the last 30 years?” Bochetto said in an interview. “Why does he have to lie to the people and say, ‘I’m a Pennsylvanian’? It’s really insulting to the voters’ intelligence.”

Bochetto’s backers on Saturday registered a new super PAC, From Pennsylvania for Pennsylvania, to hammer home the point. Wealthy businessman Tom Knox, who invested more than $10 million in a failed 2007 bid for mayor, is the super PAC’s assistant treasurer and told Clout he plans to contribute “a substantial amount” in an effort to raise about $5 million.

Money is, as always, a major factor since the accused carpetbaggers are all wealthy, making them potentially competitive self-funders. They are already the top Republican television spenders in the race, according to the advertising tracking firm AdImpact, with Oz at $4.6 million, McCormick at $3 million, and Sands at $2 million.

Oz, who now says he is renting a Bryn Athyn home owned by his wife’s parents, went to medical and business school at the University of Pennsylvania, got married here, and saw two of his four children born here.

Sands, appointed ambassador to Denmark by former President Donald Trump, notes that she grew up in the Harrisburg area and registered to vote in Pennsylvania in 2020, nine months before Sen. Pat Toomey announced that he would not seek a third term.

McCormick grew up in Bloomsburg and, while officially joining the race Thursday, touted himself as a seventh-generation Pennsylvanian who has owned his family’s Christmas tree farm there for more than a decade.

At the Farm Show, the doctor will see you now

A pair of Democratic Senate candidates who are also medical doctors took Oz to task this week after he roamed the Pennsylvania Farm Show on Sunday, offering to check the blood pressure of people attending. This all happened, of course, in the shadow of the show’s half-ton butter sculpture.

Oz, who used an automated machine rather than a manually inflated blood pressure cuff and stethoscope, posted video on Twitter of himself testing a man — both maskless — by slipping the cuff over the arm of his flannel shirt.

Montgomery County Commissioners Chair Val Arkoosh, an anesthesiologist, seized the opportunity to note the many accusations that Oz has pushed bogus COVID-19 treatments and got famous touting magical fat burners on television.

“Thinking of the damage this quack would do as a U.S. Senator should raise all our blood pressure,” Arkoosh told Clout in an email.

Kevin Baumlin, a Philly emergency-room doctor, accused Oz of “bad medical practice.”

“Making a show out of taking blood pressure measurements at this time, without displaying proper infection control protocols, is irresponsible and unethical,” he told Clout.

Oz’s camp pushed back, saying that “many Americans have been hurt ignoring chronic heath issues due to COVID-19 fears” and that his “small tips and advice can go a long way” toward helping them.

Northeast Democrats unite behind Dillon

Well this is a change of pace. Democratic ward leaders in Northeast Philadelphia have agreed about something.

The ward leaders with divisions in the state Senate’s 5th District met Monday and unanimously selected one of their own, 66A Ward leader Shawn Dillon, 56, as a candidate for a special election.

Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who presides over the Senate, on Saturday set the special election for the same day as the primary election, currently May 17.

Two state representatives, Ed Neilson and Mike Driscoll, along with former Lt. Gov. Mike Stack III had expressed interest in the seat, now open because former State Sen. John Sabatina Jr. was sworn in last week as a Common Pleas Court judge. Dillon was the only person nominated for the opening.

Party factions in Northeast Philly have been openly at odds for seven-some years. Dillon, who retired this year from the state Auditor General’s Office, said Monday’s vote signals the end of that strife.

“I think that stuff is all behind us,” he said. “I think we’re all moving in the same direction here.”

The Republican City Committee did not respond when asked this week about selecting a candidate for the special election.