PHILADELPHIA — Former Bridgewater Associates CEO David McCormick and celebrity physician Mehmet Oz have already shattered spending records in their Republican primary battle for a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania that is pivotal to party efforts to retake control of Congress.
McCormick and Oz have flooded Keystone State airwaves with television and radio ads at a clip typically reserved for the closing stretch of an election, especially courting supporters of former President Donald Trump whose votes could spell the difference in the May 17 primary.
The two campaigns and the Super PACs supporting them have spent more than $30 million on ads so far, and total spending for five of the GOP’s candidates and their Super PACs is almost $34 million, according to AdImpact data. That exceeds the $20.1 million record set in the 2010 Democratic race for a Pennsylvania U.S. Senate primary, according to a Bloomberg analysis of data from the Federal Election Commission and OpenSecrets, which studies campaign finance and lobbying data.
The stakes in the race to replace retiring Sen. Pat Toomey, a Republican, are particularly high. In a favorable political environment for Republicans, Democrats consider the Pennsylvania seat one of their strongest pick-up opportunities.
The Republican primary field opened up after Sean Parnell, who had been endorsed by Trump, suspended his campaign last November when a judge sided with his estranged wife in a custody battle that included allegations that Parnell physically and verbally abused her and their children.
Trump hasn’t made a fresh endorsement. But the target audience for the advertising blitz is chiefly his supporters, including those in the western part of the commonwealth that once was heavily Democratic but became more Republican as steel mills closed and Trump rose to prominence. In television ads, Oz and the super political action committee supporting him have attacked McCormick on his ties to China as he led Bridgewater and its billion-dollar fund there, calling him “China’s friend, not ours.” Many Republican voters blame China for the offshoring of manufacturing jobs and the coronavirus pandemic.
McCormick and his allies accuse Oz of being a “Hollywood liberal,” even before he was photographed kissing a star in his honor on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Feb. 11.
“Right now, it’s up for grabs,” said Jill Cooper, a Pennsylvania Republican state committee member who’s hosting meet-and-greet events with the candidates in her Murrysville home. “A lot of people are looking for, ‘Who do I trust to do the same thing that Trump did for us?’ They just don’t want a weak Republican candidate who will just follow leadership or who won’t stick to their guns on our issues.”
Toomey was one of seven Senate Republicans who voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial after his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as Congress prepared to certify the Electoral College victory of Joe Biden.
Along western Pennsylvania’s rolling hills and aging business districts, Trump signs are displayed in front yards and on pick-up trucks. There’s still a “Trump House” outside of Latrobe, where a giant cutout of the former president stands in front of a home painted like the American flag.
Trump easily carried the region in 2020 and 2016, making it a key to win the 2022 Republican primary.
Oz, 61, and McCormick, 56, began their campaigns after Parnell dropped out. Other candidates in the race include real estate developer Jeff Bartos; Carla Sands, Trump’s former ambassador to Denmark; conservative political commentator Kathy Barnette and Philadelphia attorney George Bochetto, who hope to emerge with McCormick and Oz attacking each other. But McCormick’s and Oz’s deep pockets give them an advantage.
A Trafalgar Group poll of likely Republican voters conducted between Feb. 1 through Feb. 4 showed Oz leading McCormick 27.4% to 15.9%, followed by Sands at 14.8%, Barnette at 8.9%, Bartos at 6.6% with 21.6% undecided.
Oz has the most support among Trump voters in the poll, likely from his fame as well as support from Fox News host Sean Hannity, pollster Robert Cahaly said. He said McCormick’s rapid rise is probably driven by his aggressive ad campaign.
McCormick’s ads emphasize his military service and Pennsylvania roots since he moved back from Connecticut to start his campaign. He was born outside Pittsburgh and left in 2005 to serve in George W. Bush’s administration and later joined Bridgewater. He’s sought to portray himself as best suited to deal with China from his experience negotiating with the Chinese during his career.
Oz has attacked McCormick on China. But he’s also faced criticism for his own ties, having promoted products made there. He’s criticized the federal government’s response to COVID-19 and tried to brand himself as a “conservative outsider.”
McCormick, a West Point graduate and Gulf War veteran who was a U.S. Treasury undersecretary for international affairs under Bush, has surrounded himself with former Trump campaign and administration officials including his wife, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. partner Dina Powell McCormick, a former deputy national security adviser under Trump. Hope Hicks, Stephen Miller and Cliff Sims, all of whom worked in the White House, are advisers.
He has been endorsed by former White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and former Secretary of State Michael Pompeo. McCormick aired an ad during the Super Bowl using the “Let’s go Brandon” chant — a euphemism for an anti-Biden vulgarity — to criticize the president on inflation, illegal immigration and other issues.
McCormick’s claim that he’s best positioned to deal with China because of his experience with the Chinese doesn’t fly with voter Patrick McCallen, 67, of Latrobe, who’s worked in disaster restoration. McCallen likened that defense to Biden’s 2020 campaign argument that his long Washington career made him a better candidate than Trump.
Jack Moyher, 71, of nearby Mount Pleasant, a retired farm equipment dealer and a recent Democrat-turned-Republican, doesn’t hold that against McCormick.
“To me, that’s business,” Moyher said.
Oz was born in Cleveland to Turkish immigrants and raised in Delaware outside of Philadelphia. He obtained medical and business degrees from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the Wharton School. A heart surgeon, he became nationally known as a featured health expert on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” before beginning his own successful program, “The Dr. Oz Show,” in 2009. He says he moved to the Philadelphia area from New Jersey in late November 2020. He’s maintained dual citizenship with Turkey and served 60 days in the Turkish military, an issue that’s exposed him to criticism in a party that’s adopted Trump’s “America First” mantra.
He’s also defending against past comments he made supporting so-called red flag laws that allows for guns to be preemptively confiscated.
Tina Faltz of Greensburg, a 65 year-old retired consultant and volunteer for Trump’s campaigns, said she stopped taping Dr. Oz’s show two years ago because she thought he was taking positions against Trump and was really a Democrat who’s now trying to win as a Republican.
She asked Oz about it during a Jan. 26 town hall at Giannilli’s II Restaurant and Lounge in Greensburg, and he told her he sometimes disagreed with his guests but didn’t challenge them as the show’s host. Faltz said after the event that “the verdict’s still out” for her on Oz.
Oz is an entrepreneur and risk-taker like Trump who can be a problem-solver in Washington, and “the middle-class, working voters here want a fighter on their side,” said Melanie Patterson, 60, of Belle Vernon, who organized local rallies for Trump in 2020.
