Dave McCormick, the Republican challenger for Pennsylvania's coveted U.S. Senate seat, completed a 67-county tour of the Keystone State on Friday.
It’s not quite the "full Grassley" of presidential politics, when candidates visit all 99 counties ahead of the Iowa caucuses, but with President Biden and former President Trump in a dead-heat for Pennsylvania and the Senate majority in the balance, every point and all 67 counties count.
After 42,000 miles. McCormick celebrated the last of his 345 stops at an Italian restaurant in Matamoras. In an event on the Friday afternoon before Memorial Day Weekend, he delivered a stump speech to about 30 supporters over pizza and soda.
"I was so excited to be able to plant the flag today because it's just the demonstrated commitment to being across our great Commonwealth and seeing people in all these communities," McCormick told Fox News in an exclusive interview after his Pike County stop on Friday. "I think you campaign the way you're going to be a senator, and I'm going to be a senator that represents all of Pennsylvania, not just the urban areas."
McCormick's opponent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey has a two-point edge in the race, according to polling conducted April 28 to May 9 by The New York Times, Siena College and The Philadelphia Inquirer.
McCormick’s campaign milestone comes as a Broad + Liberty report accused Casey of lying about visiting all 67 counties each year. The report used X posts as a metric to tally Casey’s campaign stops across the commonwealth, concluding that Casey only visited 39 counties since January 2023. Based on internal documents obtained by Fox News, Casey visited all 67 counties in 2022, but fell short at 63 counties in 2023.
A spokesperson for Casey emphasized the importance of quality visits over the quantity of visits and said not all of these campaign stops are posted online. His Senate office tracks the first and last visit to each county every year. For instance, in 2023, Casey visited Lehigh County for the first time on Jan. 6, 2023, and his last visit was on Dec. 21, 2023. And that’s not to say he didn’t visit Lehigh County several times in between. McCormick isn’t convinced.
"He said that he visits every county every year," McCormick told Fox News on Friday. "So, you know, he can show you the evidence. We don't see any evidence that he visits every county every year."
To McCormick, the county controversy goes beyond hearsay. He says it’s about showing up for Pennsylvanians all across the commonwealth.
"It's a number of cases where Bob Casey says one thing and does another," McCormick told Fox News on Friday. "He stands up and says his and Biden's policies are going to reduce inflation. And then in a room, he gets caught on tape saying, hey, listen, there's nothing we can do to lower prices. Or he says he's for policies that ensure that we source from American industries, and then he votes and waives exceptions on them because he and Biden's policies on EVs aren't adequately supported by U.S. industry. So time and again, Bob Casey says one thing and does another, and so I don't think he's been forthright with the people of Pennsylvania."
McCormick, endorsed by former President Donald Trump, consistently ties Casey to President Biden. A day after accepting the Republican nomination, McCormick released an ad slamming Casey for voting with Biden "98 percent" of the time.
"Bob Casey's lack of visiting these counties, his lie on this is also representative of why he's out of step with most Pennsylvanians, and that's why most Pennsylvanians can't name a single thing that Bob Casey's accomplished," McCormick continued last Friday. "They can't believe that he's voted 98% of the time with Joe Biden. So the connection I'm making is the lie on the county visits with his positions being increasingly liberal, increasingly bowing to the progressive left and increasingly out of step with Pennsylvania. That's the connection."
REPUBLICAN SENATE CANDIDATE IN CRUCIAL RACE IN KEY BATTLEGROUND STATE REPORTS $6.2 MILLION HAUL
Just ahead of the Pennsylvania primary, McCormick was the Senate candidate dodging accusations of lying. A New York Times report found that McCormick embellished details about his upbringing, particularly about growing up on a Pennsylvania farm. McCormick has denied these allegations, his background emblematic of his Senate campaign and a fixture of that stump speech.
"My folks had a family farm," McCormick told the group in Pike County Friday. "They lived in town in Bloomsburg. My dad worked at the college, but I baled hay. I trimmed Christmas trees. I was a busboy at the hotel. I was a paperboy with two paper routes. I played football. I wrestled. I hunted."
Pennsylvania Democrats have seized every opportunity to call McCormick a liar, accusing McCormick of jet-setting into Pennsylvania to campaign and nicknaming him "Connecticut Dave" for renting a home in Westport, Connecticut.
"I don't think he's been truthful to people about living in Pennsylvania. He lives in Connecticut in a $16 million house," Casey told Fox News in an exclusive interview in April. "I think this is kind of a pattern of falsely representing something so basic about where you live and where you once lived. I don't know why he would make reference to his upbringing in a way that wasn't fully truthful. He has a lot to be proud of. He's achieved a lot in his life, and he should talk about what he's achieved instead of trying to create this image that I guess at one point he made reference to being a farmer, which makes no sense at all. I just think you should be truthful and honest with the people that you're seeking to represent."
When pressed by Fox News why Pennsylvania voters should trust McCormick’s word over Casey’s, McCormick said he’s not one to shy away from criticism. He’s urging Casey to do the same.
"I'm a Pennsylvanian, a seventh generation Pennsylvanian," McCormick said. "I grew up here. I left here to go to the military, to go to West Point, and then to serve in combat. I came back and created jobs, and that's the background and experience of leadership I'm going to run on. Bob Casey should answer this question. He was clearly caught in a lie. I'm happy to answer any question. And, you know, politics is a contact sport, but I'll answer any question forthrightly about my background and why I think I’ll serve the people of Pennsylvania well."
Meanwhile, Casey’s campaign is trying to flip the script on McCormick.
"Senator Casey is known for his integrity and what he’s delivered for the Commonwealth, meanwhile Connecticut mega-millionaire David McCormick has been lying about everything from where he lives, to the details of his upbringing, to his record of investing millions in Chinese military companies," Kate Smart, a spokesperson for Casey for Senate, shared with Fox News on Friday.
With five months until the general election, there’s no sign of the mudslinging (or the campaign bus) slowing down for these Pennsylvania candidates.
