Former President Donald Trump is backing Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick in Pennsylvania \u2013 after throwing his support to a different candidate during McCormick\u2019s first run for the Senate two years ago.<\/p>\n
\u2018I am officially giving my endorsement to David McCormick tonight. He\u2019s a good a man. He wants to run a good ship. He\u2019s a smart guy, who was a very successful guy. He\u2019s given up a lot to do this,\u2019 Trump declared on Saturday, as he spoke at a large rally in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
McCormick, a former hedge fund executive, West Point graduate, Gulf War combat veteran and Treasury Department official in former President George W. Bush\u2019s administration, launched his second Senate bid last year. He\u2019s running unopposed in the crucial battleground state\u2019s April 23 primary and will face off in November against longtime Democratic Sen. Bob Casey Jr.<\/p>\n
\u2018I\u2019ll tell you what: He\u2019s the nominee of the Republican Party, David McCormick. Go out and vote for him because Casey doesn\u2019t do a damn thing,\u2019 Trump emphasized.<\/p>\n
Casey, the son of a popular former governor, served a decade as Pennsylvania\u2019s auditor general and then treasurer before winning election to the Senate in 2006.<\/p>\n
The Senate race in Pennsylvania is one of a handful across the country that will likely decide if the Republicans win back the majority in the chamber.<\/p>\n
Democrats currently control the U.S. Senate with a 51-49 majority, but Republicans are looking at a favorable Senate map this year, with Democrats defending 23 of the 34 seats up for grabs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Three of those seats are in red states that Trump carried in his 2020 election defeat to President Biden \u2014 Ohio, Montana and West Virginia, where Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin is not running for re-election. And Pennsylvania is one of five key general election battlegrounds where the Democrats are defending seats. Democrats may also have to worry about holding the open Senate seat in blue Maryland, where former GOP Gov. Larry Hogan is running.<\/p>\n
McCormick was not at Saturday\u2019s rally. His campaign told Fox News the\u00a0candidate had a previously scheduled family commitment that he made long\u00a0before Trump recently announced his rally in Schnecksville, which is located in the Lehigh Valley, a highly competitive part of the northeastern swing state.<\/p>\n
Following the rally, McCormick thanked Trump for the endorsement in a social media post.<\/p>\n
\u2018Thank you, President Trump,\u2019, he said. \u2018Together we will deliver a big win for Pennsylvania and America in November.\u2019<\/p>\n
McCormick was part of a crowded and combustible battle for the 2022 GOP nomination. He ended up losing the nomination by a razor-thin margin to celebrity doctor and cardiac surgeon Mehmet Oz, who secured a primary victory thanks to a late endorsement from Trump. Oz ended up losing the general election to Democrat John Fetterman.<\/p>\n
\u2018I don\u2019t know David well, and he may be a nice guy, but he\u2019s not MAGA,\u2019 Trump said of McCormick at the time, as he referred to his legions of Make America Great Again loyalists and supporters.<\/p>\n
This time around, McCormick faces no major opposition in the GOP primary. He is backed by longtime Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and the Pennsylvania GOP, and was encouraged to run by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which is the party\u2019s Senate campaign arm.<\/p>\n
McCormick endorsed Trump early last month after the former president scored major victories in the coast to coast Super Tuesday contests and Nikki Haley \u2013 Trump\u2019s last remaining rival for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination \u2013 dropped out of the White House race.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s visit to Pennsylvania is his third this year. He made a Feb. 9 stop in Harrisburg to address NRA members gathered at the group\u2019s Great American Outdoor Show. Days later, he made an unusual stop in Philadelphia at \u2018Sneaker Con\u2019 \u2013 a major trade show \u2013 to hawk new Trump-branded sneakers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Pennsylvania is one of six battleground states where Biden narrowly edged Trump in the presidential election four years ago to capture the White House.<\/p>\n
Most of the latest public opinion polls in Pennsylvania suggest a close contest between Biden and Trump for the state\u2019s 19 electoral votes.<\/p>\n
The president returns to the state where he was born on Tuesday, for three days of events in Pennsylvania, where his political advisers say Biden aims to spotlight his plans to raise taxes for the wealthiest Americans and corporations as he paints contrasts with Trump on economic issues.<\/p>\n
Biden kicks off the three-day swing with a speech in Scranton, where he spent part of his childhood. The president has repeatedly returned to the working-class city in northeastern Pennsylvania as he\u2019s made populist pitches to Americans.<\/p>\n
The president will head to Pittsburgh on Wednesday, followed by a campaign event Thursday in Philadelphia. Biden\u2019s swing through Pennsylvania will come as Trump makes history as the first current or former president in the nation\u2019s history to go on trial.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s hush-money trial will get underway Monday in a New York City courtroom.<\/p>\n
The former president \u2013 who is being tried on 34 state felony charges \u2013 is accused of falsifying business records in relation to hush-money payments during the 2016 election he made to Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about his alleged affair with the adult film actress.<\/p>\n
Trump has repeatedly denied falsifying business records as well as the alleged sexual encounter with Daniels.<\/p>\n\n
Former President Donald Trump is backing Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick in Pennsylvania \u2013 after throwing his support to a different candidate during McCormick\u2019s first run for the Senate two years ago. \u2018I am officially giving my endorsement to David McCormick tonight. He\u2019s a good a man. He wants to run a good ship. He\u2019s <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":17980,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17979","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}