Posted on 02/16/2024 2:02:41 PM PST by T Ruth
Republican David McCormick is on the verge of clinching the GOP nomination for one of the most competitive Senate races in the 2024 cycle, with a Tuesday filing deadline in Pennsylvania and no challengers in sight.
Why it matters: McCormick's challenge to Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) is expected to be one of the most expensive and competitive races this year — in a swing state that could determine control of the Senate and the presidency.
• McCormick, a former hedge fund CEO, was the runner-up in 2022's Senate GOP primary in Pennsylvania, losing to Trump-backed celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz.
• The brutal primary left Oz bloodied for the general election. He lost to now-Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), who faced questions about his fitness for office after suffering a stroke.
Driving the news: Pennsylvania's candidate filing deadline closes at 5pm ET on Tuesday. With no serious challengers jumping in, McCormick will avoid a potentially nasty primary.
• Brandi Tomasetti launched a last minute effort to challenge, but it is unclear if she will have the needed signatures.
• The early deadline launches Casey and McCormick into an early head-to-head matchup, while GOP challengers fight it out in primaries in other target states such as Arizona, Montana and Ohio.
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(Excerpt) Read more at axios.com ...
PA should change their primary election laws to have runoff elections in the case that no candidate gets a majority. Oz got the nomination in 2022 with just about 30% of the primary vote in a large field. He wouldn’t have survived a runoff, and Republicans had a good chance of winning in the general election.
But then again, at the time, many Freepers said McCormick was a RINO, so there’s that.
Is he a RINO? I know nothing about him,just that some on Free Republic were happy Oz won that primary over a RINO.
Guess they haven’t gotten the word about Montana.
There’s no serious GOP primary going on in that Senate race at all now that Rosendale has been bought off (or threatened, or whatever).
> McCormick’s challenge to Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) is expected to be one of the most expensive and competitive races this year <
Competitive? I hope so, but I kind of doubt it. Bob Casey is a slug. He puts in brief appearances during election years, then he goes back to sleep. But the Casey name is magic among older Pennsylvanians, like the Kennedy name is in Massachusetts.
If McCormick prevails, it will because Trump voters pulled him across the finish line.
McCormick claims to be pro-life and pro-gun.
He is highly unlikely to be an aggressive conservative voice in the Senate (not that we’ll probably ever get to find out), but he’s not Larry Hogan either.
He’s more a go-along-to-get-along type who will vote the right way a majority of the time yet still be an establishment stooge whenever Mitch jerks the puppet strings.
The criticism with McCormick is that he’s too cozy with communist China. A lot of his business dealing involve the PCP.
Is he preferable to the mentally retarded Casey? A resounding yes. But McCormick will still need to be watched.
Regardless of his being MAGA or not, his win could serve to put the republicans in control of the Senate. Why is this important?
A Republican controlled Senate would be able to confirm more of President Trump's judicial nominees, including any upcoming theoretical Supreme Court pick. Even without the House, they could approve judges for district courts, circuit courts, and the high court with a simple Senate majority. And that’s not the only benefit: Keeping this majority would also mean that republicans could set their own floor agenda and reject bills approved by a (God forbid) Democrat-led House. Republicans would have more leverage on must-pass bills like government funding and debt ceiling limits. Plus, Senate Republicans could ensure that hearings and committee time could be used on investigations of criminal actors and institutions in the Biden regime.
Oz in my view was one of Trump’s big mistakes.
Nope. Georgia does this crap and had it not been implemented in 2018, we’d have to republicans in the senate. Run offs suck.
That’s a runoff in the general election. What I’m talking about is runoffs in the primary election. They weed out week candidates.
No, it was 2020. Why were there 2 senate seats up that year? It was because Isakson ran for reelection in 2016 when he should have retired due to health concerns. He ended up resigning his seat in 2019 and Loeffler was appointed to fill the seat til a special election was held to fill the last 2 years of the term. Loeffler’s campaign was dreadful. She had tone deaf political advisors who ran ads that caused the WNBA to force her out of ownership of the WNBA team she part owned. There never should have been 2 senate seats up in 2020. Also, Trump pulled down both those seats. Both the senate candidates still outpolled Trump on election night. Trump hand picked his friend, Hershel Walker, to run in 2022 for the full term that Loeffler lost in 2020. He was an awful candidate too and lost.
*Oz in my view was one of Trump’s big mistakes.*
Hindsight is always 20-20. 2022 was a better opportunity-no incumbent.
Can McCormick win?
“Hindsight is always 20-20.”
No. Not hindsight. I thought that at the time. To me the only thing ever Oz had going for him was an association with Trump.
Everyone knew who he was. Celebrity has it’s limits. Didn’t pay his dues like Reagan did over time.
Herschel-a big dumb ballplayer. Steve Garvey-too little too late. Shouda kept it zipped.
There are others.
“... McCormick, a former hedge fund CEO, ...”
The perfect candidate for a State suffering from de-industrialization / s
Former Bridgewater CEO with a history of outsourcing to India, as well as calling for Social Seecurity and Medicare cuts in a State with a high average age.
https://nypost.com/2021/11/22/pa-senate-gop-primary-fight-over-candidates-business-record/
GOPe strikes again !
What matters is Ukraine. I figure McCormick to be another Mitch Man on that.
McCormick needs my vote since I live here in Pennsylvania.
I am so fed up with sending more money to Ukraine I will take no excuses. If a few Republicans give Biden what he wants in Ukraine in any House vote, McCormick can kiss my vote for him in the US Senate race here in PA goodbye.
Are you listening Dave?
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