Republican David McCormick flips the crucial Pennsylvania Senate seat, ousting Bob Casey

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Republicans David McCormick won Pennsylvania's crucial U.S. Senate seat as the former CEO of the world's largest hedge fund defeated the three-term Democratic senator. Bob Casey in Tuesday's election after accusing the incumbent of supporting policies that have led to inflation, domestic unrest and war.

The competitive state contest strengthens Republicans' majority in the Senate, which they wrested from Democratic control this week.

McCormick, 59, recaptured a GOP seat in Pennsylvania that Republicans lost in 2022, paying off a bet Party brass made as they pushed McCormick to run and solidified support behind him.

McCormick used contacts from across government, politics and finance to secure support for his campaign, having served as CEO of the world's largest hedge fund and served at the highest levels of former President George W. Bush's administration.

The victory over Casey is earth-shattering for the Democratic establishment in Pennsylvania. Casey is the namesake of a former two-term governor and the longest-serving Democrat in the Pennsylvania Senate. As of Tuesday, Casey had won six statewide general elections since 1996.

McCormick conveyed the consistent message that Casey was an inactive and weak career politician who was an important ally of the president Joe Biden and vice president Kamala Harris. McCormick insisted he would bring leadership skills to the job.

McCormick also benefited from tens of millions of dollars in campaign cash from billionaires and other allies across the world of hedge funds and securities trading.

It was McCormick's second time Race, this time with a clear primary and the support of former President Donald Trump after he narrowly lost to Trump-backed Dr. Mehmet Oz in the expensive 2022 seven-way primary.

He has a long resume that includes being decorated for military service in the Gulf War, earning a doctorate from Princeton University and running the online auction house FreeMarkets Inc. – which put his name on a skyscraper during the tech boom in Pittsburgh – and sits on the boards of prominent institutions, including Trump's Defense Advisory Council.

He also had luggage.

He repeatedly tried to soften his stance against abortion rights after celebrating the Supreme Court's 2022 decision to overturn the landmark 1972 Roe v. Wade decision and end half a century of federal protection of abortion rights. In the end, McCormick insisted that he would oppose a federal abortion ban and maintain Pennsylvania's law that allows abortion up to 24 weeks of pregnancy.

McCormick has faced accusations — first in the 2022 GOP primary and then again from Casey — that he is a rich bootlegger from Connecticut's elite Gold Coast tried to buy a seat in the Senate. McCormick lived there until he ran for Senate in 2022, and while he bought a home in Pittsburgh, he also maintained a massive home in Connecticut until a stepdaughter graduated from high school earlier this year.

McCormick, in turn, emphasized his Seventh generation roots In Pennsylvania, he talked about his high school days wrestling in northern Pennsylvania towns – a sport that led him to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point – and his childhood as the son of two educators. His father became the first chancellor of Pennsylvania's state university system – under Casey's father.

Still, McCormick helped bring the Carpetbagger caricature to life by mispronouncing the name of one of Pennsylvania's best-known local beers.

McCormick also suffered from a variety of attacks on his hedge fund's investments, including allegations that he became rich at America's expense by purchasing shares in Chinese companies that the federal government later viewed as part of Beijing's military and surveillance industrial complex.

McCormick, meanwhile, sought to capitalize on unrest in the Middle East and on the U.S. southern border with Mexico.

He made an offer for Jewish voters by traveling to the Israel-Gaza border, speaking to Jewish audiences across the state and arguing that Casey and the Biden administration had not fought Anti-Semitism or supported Israel strongly enough Israel-Hamas war.

At the border, he supported Trump's promise to carry out a mass deportation of immigrants in the country without permission – giving priority to people with criminal records – and vowed to push for the US military action in Mexico to target fentanyl trafficking networks, a controversial idea that originated with Trump.

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