GOP Senate contenders aren’t shy about wanting Trump’s approval. But in Pennsylvania, it’s awkward
Donald Trump, who became the most powerful Republican politician in nearly a decade, has played a prominent role in U.S. Senate elections, using his huge public platform and loyal support base to influence which incumbents are running for re-election and what candidates get nominated.
In the Senate battlegrounds Arizona, Montana Michigan Nevada and Ohio, candidates are endorsing Trump, running for him, or seeking his approval.
In Pennsylvania, however, the awkward dance between the likely partners on the top of the ballot seems to be continuing until November.
David McCormick and Donald Trump appear to ignore each other. It’s a complex relationship, which Democrats claim is dangerous for McCormick. Pollsters also say that it makes the uphill battle against an incumbent incumbent even more difficult.
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Christopher Borick is the director of Muhlenberg College’s Institute of Public Opinion, located in Allentown. “They don’t have a natural match in terms of policy positions or rhetorical styles, and there’s a history, especially given Trump’s support for one of McCormick’s opponents in the year 2022. How do you navigate this question?
McCormick, a wealthy former hedge fund CEO and a former senior official in the Bush administration, has no primary opponent. He is popular among party officials and does not need Trump’s help with fundraising.
He is trying to unseat Democratic U.S. Senator Bob Casey. Bob Casey is the son of an ex-governor and Pennsylvania’s most famous political figure.
Pennsylvania is the only state that Democrats can win if they want to keep control of the Senate and ensure President Joe Biden’s continued stay in office. Biden is less popular than Trump, even in Pennsylvania where he was born and roots for Philadelphia teams. He also campaigns there a lot. The presidential race will be a heavy burden on McCormick, Casey and McCormick, who are Biden’s closest allies.
McCormick has to deal with Trump’s unpopularity among the moderate voters he wants to win. Not to mention Trump’s verbal abuse as he tried to defeat McCormick during the hotly contested Pennsylvania primary 2022 for U.S. Senate.
McCormick, like other candidates in the seven-way GOP race to replace retiring Republican Senator Pat Toomey, sought Trump’s support. McCormick told McCormick that Trump had told him during their meeting in Florida at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, McCormick needed to claim the 2020 election as stolen to win the GOP primary.
McCormick claimed he had refused. Trump then attacked McCormick for three days after he endorsed Dr. Mehmet OZ.
In a western Pennsylvania rally a few days before the primary in 2022, Trump said that McCormick was “not MAGA” (using the acronym of his Make America Great Again slogan).
He then slammed McCormick for having worked at a hedge fund that “managed money” for communist China, and described him as the “candidate of special interest and globalists as well as the Washington establishment”.
McCormick was defeated by Oz by only 950 votes, a defeat he acknowledged Trump contributed to. Oz then lost by 5 points to Democrat John Fetterman.
McCormick has no hard feelings according to McCormick’s allies. He has also not criticised Trump since that incident, or for anything else.
McCormick could be in trouble if Trump does not retract his comments.
Mike Mikus, a Democratic strategist based in Pittsburgh, said: “It is definitely a problem. “The question is how big?” Donald Trump is the wildcard in these relationships. Donald Trump only cares about Donald Trump. If he doesn’t feel it one day in Pennsylvania, McCormick may be the target.
McCormick refused to do an interview, and Trump campaign officials did not respond to messages. The rift between them is evident.
According to McCormick, the men have not spoken since 2022. The men didn’t speak when Trump visited the state to address National Rifle Association (NRA) members at the NRA Great American Outdoor Show. McCormick did not attend, and Trump didn’t mention McCormick in the 82 minute speech.
McCormick, in a recent interview given to conservative radio and television stations, acknowledged that it is likely the two men will be leading the GOP ticket in Pennsylvania. He described their relationship as a transaction.
McCormick told “The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show” that he thought President Trump would help him. He also said that he was hopeful that his candidacy and strength will help Trump.
McCormick tethered himself to Trump’s weaknesses with moderate voters in an area Trump lost by one point in 2020. McCormick said Trump could help him, because he gets a large part of the Republican Party out to vote. McCormick also suggested that McCormick could help Trump get more moderate voters.
McCormick said that he didn’t think he would need Trump’s support to win the 2022 election, so long as Trump did not attack him. He also acknowledged his need to convince moderate voters to support him. McCormick mentioned Trump on Thursday when he said that because he was wealthy, he could be an independent politician and not worry about losing his job.
McCormick stated, “I do not need to earn a living from this.” “I owe nobody anything. I don’t have anything to pay President Trump. I don’t have anything to do with (Senate Republican Leader) Mitch McConnell. “The only people to whom I would be owing anything are the Pennsylvanians who elected me.”
Borick and other surveyors don’t know if McCormick can still thread the needle, given Trump’s low popularity with moderates, and the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. This ended a 50-year federal protection for abortion rights.
McCormick opposes abortion. He has stated most recently that states should be allowed to ban abortions, with exceptions made for rape and incest, as well as to save the mother’s life. This position could limit McCormick’s appeal to moderates.
Pollsters claim that McCormick, compared with Casey, is virtually unknown.
Berwood Yost is a pollster and the director of the Center for Opinion Research, Franklin and Marshall College.
Yost, and other analysts, say it
