Hoping for Trump’s Support, Former Hedge Fund CEO Dave McCormick Claims For Pennsylvania’s US Senate Seat – CBS Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Dave McCormick, an entrepreneur who recently moved to Pittsburgh from Connecticut, announced his candidacy for retired US Senator Pat Toomey on Thursday.

In an interview that appears only on KDKA, political editor Jon Delano asked McCormick about his Pennsylvania roots, which some of his opponents have questioned.

“I am announcing today that I am running for the United States Senate, and I am running as a candidate that has been tested and true to the realities of Pennsylvania,” McCormick told KDKA on Thursday.

McCormick – who was born in Washington, Pennsylvania, grew up in Bloomsburg, southwest of Wilkes-Barre and worked for a time in Pittsburgh – said he has always been Pennsylvanian even though he has lived out of state since 2005.

Residency has become an issue because Republican candidates Jeff Bartos and Kathy Barnette accuse McCormick, along with Mehmet Oz of New Jersey and Carla Sands of California, of being security guards, of returning to the state. This is for election purposes only.

Delano: “Are you going back to Pittsburgh just to run for the US Senate?”

McCormick: “Well, you know, I think that makes me laugh in a few ways.”

“I got a great Pennsylvania credit. I am a seventh generation Pennsylvanian. My mom and dad still live there. I’ve lived more than half my life in Pennsylvania,” McCormick said.

McCormick, who recently bought a home in Squirrel Hill, seems to have deeper roots in the state than Oz or Sands, and he claims to have always been a Pennsylvanian.

“I never left Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is always in my heart, and I’m sure I’m in Connecticut, I’ve led a great investment firm there, and I’ve lived the American dream, succeeded. So I’m going back to Pennsylvania to serve,” he said.

SEE: KDKA’s Jon Delano Report

On January 3, McCormick stepped down as CEO of the world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, with headquarters in Connecticut.

McCormick, a West Point graduate and Iraq veteran, was asked why a successful businessman would want to enter politics.

“I think the country is going in the wrong direction, Jon. I really do,” he said. “And it really crystallized for me as I watched the decline in Afghanistan, the humiliation of that, the incompetence attached to that. But it really does provide a broader theme, which is I think there’s a march of awakening and weakness that is really taking over our country. “

McCormick said, if elected, he will promote former President Trump’s America First policies.

READ MORE: Hedge Fund CEO David McCormick resigns ahead of scheduled US Senate run in Pennsylvania

Trump endorsed Sean Parnell before Parnell dropped out, and so far, Trump has yet to pick a new favorite. McCormick, who runs the world’s largest hedge fund in Connecticut, says he fits Trump’s policies.

“I am someone who used to be a job creator. I understand economics because I’ve run businesses and I’m someone who can argue very thoughtfully about a set of policies that will support growth, an agenda for growth, that is very relevant to the needs of the world. What he said: “President Trump’s America First agenda is”.

Winning Trump’s approval means it’s not at odds with him as he claims to have won re-election and the state of Pennsylvania in 2020, a state in which President Biden won 80,000 votes in 2020, nearly double the amount Trump won in the state in 2016.

“The majority of Republicans in this state don’t believe it was a free and fair election,” McCormick said.

Delano: “Do you believe it was a free and fair election?”

McCormick: “Jon, I will do it. Let me say it all. Voting integrity is something that really matters and we don’t trust our electoral process and that should be our focus going forward.

“And about the 2020 election, listen, Joe Biden is the president. We need to look ahead. I wish he wasn’t president for all the reasons I said, but we need to look ahead in terms of 2022 and 2024.”

Looking ahead also means McCormick will need to defend himself against attacks from Republicans, including a SuperPAC supporting Oz that alleges McCormick outsourced work to Pittsburgh when he was still a teenager. was the CEO of a company in Pittsburgh called Freemarkets.

“It’s not true. It’s completely inaccurate,” McCormick said.

McCormick says he’s eliminated 40 to 50 jobs in Pittsburgh, but it’s unrelated to their growth abroad.

“It’s also true, we have a global company that is building and growing in other parts of the world. The jobs eliminated in Pittsburgh have nothing to do with jobs in India,” said the Republican.

Delano: “Are you saying that there was no work outsourced from Pittsburgh that you did while you were at Freemarkets?”

McCormick: “That’s right.”

McCormick noted that Republicans attacking each other with distortions and lies have become all too common in politics today, and he said he hopes to “focus on an active militant campaign.” great, fun”.