Trump may have less bite in 2024 for some in the GOP

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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) Donald Trump’s attacks on fellow Republican David McCormick contributed to the former hedge fund manager’s loss in Pennsylvanias Senate primary. Now, as McCormick considers another run for the Senate, Trump’s taunt may not be a liability.

Although McCormick, 57, has not said whether he will challenge three-term Democratic Sen. Bob Casey in 2024, he is making moves that indicate a campaign may be in the works, including attending recent receptions with influential GOP strategists and donors. McCormick also plans to publish a book in March Superpower in Peril: A Battle Plan to Renew America that could raise his profile.

He will be running in what could be a very different political environment.

Trump dominated the GOP primaries this year, using the power of his endorsement to elevate his preferred candidates to the party’s nomination. But many of those contenders, including Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania, lost in the general election. The latest is Herschel Walker, whose loss Tuesday in Georgia gave Democrats 51 of the Senate’s 100 seats.

Trump now faces blame from some Republicans for contributing to the parties’ midterm shortcomings, and could make room for McCormick and others without worrying about blowback from the former president.

McCormick hasn’t come to any definite conclusions even though we’ve tried to persuade him to run, said Christine Toretti, the GOPs national committeewoman from Pennsylvania. I think he’s a fantastic candidate and I’d love to see him run.

McCormick did not respond to a request for an interview.

Flipping a Senate seat in one of the most competitive states won’t be easy.

Casey, 62, has not said whether he will seek re-election. He has never won a Senate race by fewer than 9 percentage points and, as the son of a former two-term governor and a seven-time state runoff, is an institution in Pennsylvania politics.

The 2024 race in the closely contested state could also be influenced by the parties’ choice of presidential nominees that year.

Some Republicans expect the Senate field to freeze until McCormick makes a decision. He was the establishment favorite in the party’s seven-way primary in May where he lost to Oz by less than 1,000 votes.

McCormick is a West Point graduate who was awarded a Bronze Star for service in the Gulf War, earned a doctorate from Princeton University, became a tech entrepreneur and served at the highest levels in President George W. Bush’s administration before running the largest hedge fund in the world .

And he’s worth nine figures.

With his resources, the party would be foolish to actively recruit someone to oppose him, said Vince Galko, a Republican campaign strategist based in northeastern Pennsylvania. He checks most of the boxes that Republicans care about.

Over the weekend, McCormick seemed to be everywhere at the Pennsylvania Society, an annual cluster of dinners, receptions, fundraisers and get-togethers for Pennsylvania’s social and political elite in New York City. McCormick attended a reception hosted by Toretti and several events held by prominent donors and organizations.

Another name popping up in Republican circles as a potential Senate candidate is state treasurer-elect Stacy Garrity, who campaigned hard for fellow Republicans on the 2022 ticket. Garrity did not return a request for comment.

Perhaps an equally big problem as Casey for McCormick or any other Republican candidate is the embarrassing performance of the GOP in the last election.

The finger-pointing follows GOP losses in races for senator, governor and three toss-up congressional districts, and its loss of the State House majority. Oz lost by 5 percentage points to Democrat John Fetterman, while the parties’ nominee for governor, Doug Mastriano, lost by 15 points to Democrat Josh Shapiro.

Party leaders are now warning that the GOP must end its reluctance to vote by mail, fueled by Trump’s baseless claims that such voting is rife with fraud.

They also say the party should be firm in its endorsements in primaries to weed out weak candidates in the general election and avoid primary bruisers, a prospect sure to benefit McCormick.

And after GOP candidates again lost large swaths of densely populated Pennsylvania suburbs, there is renewed talk that the party must do a better job countering the ideas of Democrats and engaging with talk themselves into moderate voters.

That must be fixed before 2024 if a GOP candidate is to be successful, said Sam DeMarco, a McCormick supporter and chairman of the Allegheny County GOP.

However, it is not clear that McCormick can capture the GOPs primary electorate.

During this years primary campaign, McCormick tapped deep connections throughout the world of finance, politics and government to gain support for his campaign and he was the choice of many in the establishment. He’s rich enough to pay for his own TV ads, spend $14 million of his own money, and is backed by a super political action committee that spends millions more.

To try to endear himself to key working-class voters, his campaign ran ads of McCormick shooting guns, riding motorcycles and reminiscing at a bar about scoring touchdowns as an athlete in high school. school.

But McCormick has been attacked by key rivals who say he is a carpetbagging political opportunist trying to buy the seat after living for the past 12 years in Connecticut. He has also drawn criticism for being soft on China after running a hedge fund notable for its large portfolio that caters to Chinese investors investing in China.

In the end, McCormick was not the choice of many of the party’s far-right voters.

And he was not the choice of Trump, who endorsed Oz and attacked McCormick as the candidate of special interests and globalists and the Washington establishment.

If Trump is on the ballot in 2024, McCormick will have to share the campaign trail with a fellow Republican who tried to defeat him and continues to peddle baseless claims about how the 2020 election was stolen from him saying party leaders want to hide. they

For a party that just came off a tough election year in Pennsylvania, it’s certainly not too early to start talking about 2024, said Keith Rothfus, a former congressman who spoke with McCormick recently. He said candidates, even those as wealthy as McCormick, should start talking to donors now and build a network of people who will give to their campaign and support them.

It’s also important for Republicans to get an early start in Pennsylvania, where Democrats have won most statewide races and have a slight advantage in voter registration.

Pennsylvania is not a purple-red state, its purple at best for Republicans, Rothfus said. A Republican can win, but you have to run a flawless campaign and you have to do almost everything right.

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Follow Marc Levy on Twitter: http://twitter.com/timelywriter

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