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Reintroducing Dave McCormick
In the wake of his embarrassing primary loss to Dr. Oz in 2022, Mitch McConnell’s 2024 recruit, Dave McCormick, spent months trying to paper over his already rejected record from the comfort of his luxe Connecticut mansion.
But no matter what he says, Pennsylvanians remember the truth. Dave McCormick is a Wall Street insider who has outsourced jobs, wants to ban abortion, has troubling ties to China, and hired fake electors to work on his campaign.
Ahead of his campaign launch, here’s a refresher on the real Dave McCormick:
- Dave McCormick made millions as a Wall Street insider who did all he could to enrich himself.
Messenger: Wealthy GOP Hopefuls Bring Benefits – But Also Raise Tax Questions
- Divorce records obtained by The Messenger from McCormick’s 2015 divorce from Amy Richardson, which showed the division of assets, revealed that he and his ex-wife held $39 million worth of assets, including six Credit Suisse bank accounts worth $4.3 million. The Swiss bank is famous for its banker-client confidentiality.
- That was the same year the Senate released an extensive investigation that found Credit Suisse helped their American clients evade taxes.
Bloomberg: McCormick’s Second Senate Try Hinges on Fitting a Changed GOP
- Running for Senate in 2022 McCormick dazzled old guard Republicans with his military, government, and business credentials, only for Trump to slam him as a “liberal Wall Street Republican” and “not MAGA.” Primary voters narrowly nominated Trump’s pick, celebrity surgeon Mehmet Oz, who lost to Democrat John Fetterman.
- “Ten, 15 years ago when you still had a lot of suburban Philadelphia Republicans voting in primaries, Dave McCormick would be your central casting figure. Those people are gone, they’re not in the electorate anymore”
- Dave McCormick didn’t just outsource Pennsylvania jobs, he also made a profit teaching other companies how to do the same.
Heartland Signal: David McCormick taught other companies how to outsource jobs
- “From 2001 to 2004, McCormick was the chief executive officer of a global software company called FreeMarkets. The company described its operationsas a resource to help other businesses “lower costs, reduce risks and increase profitability.”
- When FreeMarkets was purchased by Aribain 2004, McCormick stayed and became the president of Ariba while FreeMarkets’ many services carried over, which included “procurement outsourcing.”
- In 2003, Ariba released a guidefor “Low-Cost Country Sourcing,” which lays out strategies for businesses to cut costs and save money via shipping jobs overseas. The company also had a specific page on their website that outlined its strategy for “low-cost country sourcing.” One of these “low-cost countries” was India, which McCormick called an important location for country sourcing.
- “Big multinational companies are interested in doing business in India and, being in the business of spend management, we help them to work out what they buy and who they buy from,” McCormick said in a 2004 interview. “Services like the low-cost country sourcing programme [sic] are a key differentiator for Ariba, as they enable it to offer complete spend management solutions to customers.”
- McCormick, who is framing himself as a job creator, has been accused by both Republicans and Democrats of having outsourced jobs during his business career. Most recently, a conservative super PAC that supports Dr. Mehmet Oz’s Senate campaign released an ad accusing McCormick of outsourcing Pennsylvania jobs.
- In February 2003 that McCormick, then the CEO of an online auction company called FreeMarkets Inc., announced a new monitoring center in New Delhi with more than 100 jobs. The company had announced 50 layoffs at its Pittsburgh headquarters just one month earlier — though the company disputes the idea that the two moves were related.
- Dave McCormick wants to ban abortions, even in cases of rape or incest.
Axios: These GOP Senate candidates oppose most exceptions to abortion bans
- The views of these GOP front–runners go far beyond what Republicans have traditionally embraced: exceptions for rape, incest and the life of a mother. If elected, these candidates — from J.D. Vance in Ohio to Herschel Walker in Georgia — would push the party further right.
- David McCormick — who’s facing a heated primary with his Trump-backed opponent, Mehmet Oz — said during a debate in Harrisburg last month he’s fully against all scenarios involving abortion, apart from “in the very rare instances there should be exceptions for the life of the mother.”
HuffPost: GOP Senate Recruits Back The Same Extreme Abortion Positions That Cost The Party In 2022
- McCormick, the former CEO of the world’s largest hedge fund, has been touted as a moderate, business-friendly Republican — the kind of recruit favored by the NRSC because he can self-fund an expensive campaign to take on incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey.
- His views on abortion may repel the same suburban voters who, in theory, might be drawn to his business experience: McCormick has said that life begins at conception and that he does not support exceptions in abortion laws for rape or incest, stances out of step with a state that allows abortion up to 23 weeks of pregnancy.
- Dave McCormick kickstarted his company’s major investment in China and has made millions off his close ties with the country.
- As both a public official and private citizen, McCormick in the late 2000s delivered speeches, made comments, and wrote essays that praised China’s economic growth and touted the benefits of U.S. access to a vast, rising market. He advocated for welcoming high-skilled immigrants, urged America to embrace free trade and globalization, and warned repeatedly against protectionism and “Buy USA” provisions in federal law.
- Most notably to McCormick’s GOP primary rivals, just three months ago the hedge fund where he was CEO, Bridgewater Associates, raised $1.25 billion for an investment fund in China. McCormick has said it was a small fraction of the fund’s holdings, but according to the Wall Street Journal, it made Bridgewater one of the largest foreign managers of private money in China.
- But Trump in 2020 suspended the H1-B program for such immigrants, and his administration pushed new rules to sharply curtail those visas. McCormick kept arguing in favor of such visas as recently as last year, including in a May piece he coauthored in the conservative National Review. He framed it as an important step to confront China.
- It is with this robust understanding that we recognize China is at a unique inflection point – a globally impactful economy with deepening capital markets which are lowly correlated to those in other developed economies, making Chinese assets a valuable source of diversification. Consistent with our goal of working with the largest pools of capital in the world and our long-term commitment to China, we look forward to helping investors on the mainland
Bloomberg: Ray Dalio’s China Fascination Predates His Ties to Beijing’s Billions
- Bridgewater has been managing Chinese state money since 1993, and counts among its clients the sovereign wealth fund — the $1 trillion China Investment Corp. — as well as the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, which manages foreign-currency reserves and also has $1 trillion in externally managed assets. In total, Dalio’s firm oversees about $5 billion for the two entities, making China one of its biggest clients by assets, according to people familiar with the firm.
- Dave McCormick embedded fake electors into his own campaign, tying himself directly to those who tried to subvert the 2020 election results.
- In the weeks before and after his loss in the 2022 race for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination, Dave McCormick’s campaign paid nearly $40,000 to a special assistant and political operative for former President Donald Trump.
- Michael Roman, who reported toformer White House counsel Don McGahn and served as Trump’s head poll watcher in 2020, is now accused with Trump and 17 others of a plot to overturn the results of Georgia’s presidential election.
- Public records and published reports show Roman is one of five people with ties to McCormick and his 2022 Senate campaign who played roles in the so-called fake elector plan to disrupt the certification of electoral college votes for President Joe Biden on Jan. 6, 2021 by presenting slates of votes for Trump from seven battleground states.
- Allegheny County GOP Chairperson Sam DeMarco III is the head of McCormick’s PAC, Pennsylvania Rising, which has raised just over $1 million that McCormick has said will be used to help other Republican candidates.
- DeMarco was one of 20 peoplein December 2020 who signed a certificate casting electoral votes for Trump in the event that election results in favor of Biden were overturned.
- Two other fake electors, Bill Bachenberg and Suk Smith, and the secretary of the electoral college meeting where the Trump votes were cast, Lisa Vranicar-Patton, also received money for their work or support for the McCormick campaign.
- Sam DeMarco III and McCormick, who lost the Republican Senate primary last year, are on the bill of speakers with 10 other Republican candidates at a fundraiser Thursday evening in Allegheny County for the Bethel Park Republican Committee.
- “After groveling for Donald Trump’s endorsement last year, now McCormick is refusing to say whether he’d endorse Trump after the former president has been indicted for trying to overthrow our democracy. It’s time for McCormick to stop hiding,” McDaniel’s statement read.
- And the fact that DeMarco and the other fraudulent electors were absolved of criminal liability may not offer much cover for McCormick, Muhlenberg College pollster Christopher Borick said.
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