Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey announced in late 2020 he would be retiring after two terms in the upper house and three terms in the U.S. House. At first glance, Dave McCormick looks like an ideal candidate to fill the soon-to-be-vacant seat: a West Point graduate and Gulf War veteran, an Ivy League doctorate in international affairs, successful business leader and job creator.
The Pennsylvania native, who recently moved back to the state after living in Connecticut much of his adult life, says the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan served as the catalyst for his decision to run. And he has picked up some big endorsements, including those of former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas); former Trump press secretary Sarah Sanders, who is running for governor of Arkansas this year; and the president of the National Border Patrol Council.
But Diane Gramley, president of the American Family Association of Pennsylvania, has some issues with the GOP hopeful. First, she accuses McCormick of trying to buy the Senate seat.
"[That] is a major issue," she argues. "Plus, McCormick just recently moved back to Pennsylvania, I believe, to take advantage of the opening that was created when Sean Parnell withdrew from the race because of family issues."
Gramley also points out that among the sponsors at a recent fundraiser in New York for McCormick was the founder of a consulting firm representing the controversial Dominion Voting Systems. "That's a very major issue here in Pennsylvania – and that's not good as far as everything that happened in Pennsylvania in November 2020," she adds.
Other major issues for the Pennsylvania family advocate? "He is pro-abortion … and he has made big bucks by lobbying for Communist China. [There are] a lot issues with David McCormick," she concludes.
McCormick – a former official in George W. Bush's Treasury Department – was also among a group of Republicans and "conservatives" who, in 2013, signed on to an amicus brief supporting same-gender "marriage." The case, which eventually went to the Supreme Court, challenged California's pro-tradition marriage Proposition 8.
BallotPedia lists 16 GOP candidates vying for the vacant Senate seat, among them Dr. Mehmet Oz. The only true conservative in that May 17 primary, according to Gramley, is Kathy Barnett.
