Dave McCormick Poised to Mount Another Senate Run

The former U.S. Senate candidate shores up support from Pennsylvania Republicans.

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Pennsylvania GOP Senate Candidate Dave McCormick speaks during a rally on May 16, 2022. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Former hedge fund CEO and 2022 Pennsylvania GOP Senate candidate Dave McCormick continues to signal he’s seriously considering another Senate run in 2024, this time against three-term Democratic Sen. Bob Casey. Now he’s getting encouragement from other elected Republicans.

“He’s an outstanding person. He was a great campaigner,” GOP Rep. Dan Meuser of Pennsylvania said in a brief  interview in the U.S. Capitol last week. “He’s just tremendous. So a lot of people are encouraging him to run.”

“He’s doing all the right things laying the groundwork for a potential run,” GOP Rep. Lloyd Smucker of Pennsylvania told The Dispatch. If and when he announces, Smucker added, “he’ll be a great candidate.”

McCormick has spent recent weeks glad-handing with influential Republicans in Washington, D.C., sitting for interviews to promote his new book, and launching a new political action committee aimed at helping the Pennsylvania GOP close Democrats’ mail-in voting gap and boosting Republican candidates for state office. Later this week, he’ll be a featured speaker at the conservative Pennsylvania Leadership Conference in Harrisburg alongside Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway.

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  1. Janicewfahy

    What’s his position on abortion rights?

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    Loganrjudy

    This is irrelevant to actual policy, but I have always thought he had the face of somebody who would be cast as a villain in an Aaron Sorkin movie.

    That's not his fault I suppose but it is a bit weird.

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  3. BSamuel

    I heard him on a non-Dispatch podcast and it sounds like his only strategy change to capture more of that populist crowd is to lean into "anti-wokeness" in schools. Other than that, he was literally quoting Milton Friedman. I don't know if GOP primary voters in PA will go for it.

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      Ben Connelly

      Milton Friedman has some great quotations

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  4. Keatonm88

    If it wasn’t for Trump pushing Oz, McCormick would be a senator right now.

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  5. Rune485

    I wish McC the best. He was the only candidate I ran across in ‘22 that didn’t stink up the joint, and I was hoping PA would make him their nominee.

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  6. Natty Bumpo

    McCormick is clearly a more acceptable candidate than Mastriano. I will likely remain registered to vote in the 2024 primary to do my part in keeping Mastriano as far from the Senate as possible. I actually would like to see a McCormick v Casey general election without any extremist right or left wing candidates.

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  7. Rch22

    On the one hand, McCormick came SO close to beating Oz; I really thought he would pull it off. On the other hand, Barnette's late surge showed how much the PA Republican electorate was in thrall to MAGA craziness. I don't think that this has changed enough for McCormick to have a chance unless multiple candidates split the extremist vote (assuming his own lane isn't crowded with more pragmatic options).

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    ~sg

    I hope that even in a primary, McCormick will reprise the "all counties" strategy that worked well for Fetterman. Casey will be hard to beat, though, especially if the Senate makeup is still perceived as pivotal to whatever is left of abortion rights at the national level. I worry about what a second loss would do to McCormick's future political career. I don't think such a loss in 2024 would position him well to challenge Shapiro for the governor's office in 2026. Not that he's ever mentioned any interest in being governor, that I know of. It's what I'd like, though!

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  9. J. Everett Schubert

    McCormick should've been the nominee last time, instead of the goofy TV doctor with no ties to the state. Seriously, I always gave Pennsylvania Republicans credit for being a little more rational, pragmatic. Nope.

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  10. Stormer93

    It's beyond my ability to comprehend why the GOP grassroots are so infatuated with a guy who lost a winnable race by 15 points. Perhaps that election was "stolen" as well?

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      Mitch

      I think it's because he was sponsored by the letter Q.

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