Likely PA Senate candidate Dave McCormick is still registering his cars in Connecticut

Wealthy Connecticut hedge fund executive Dave McCormick claimed to have moved to Pennsylvania in 2022 prior to running for the Republican Senate nomination. Now, as he reportedly prepares to launch a 2024 Senate campaign in the Keystone State, tax documents reveal he has continued to register two of his vehicles and pay taxes on them in Connecticut.

After months of heavy recruitment efforts by national Republicans, McCormick has begun raising money through a super PAC and hiring staff for a challenge to incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey Jr., according to an Aug. 21 Washington Examiner report.

Tax records reviewed by the American Independent Foundation show that McCormick owns a 2019 Honda CR-V and a 2019 Toyota Land Cruiser, both registered to his Westport, Connecticut, mansion. He paid town motor vehicle tax bills on the vehicles that were due July 1, 2023, indicating that the vehicles were still registered in Connecticut as of October 2022.

The Associated Press reported on Aug. 14 that property records and other tax filings suggest that McCormick still lives in Connecticut and that the likely candidate had done recent interviews from his $16 million Westport residence.

In January 2022, McCormick announced that he would seek the GOP nomination to replace retiring Republican Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey. McCormick resigned from his position as CEO of the Westport-based investment firm Bridgewater Associates and changed his voter registration to Pennsylvania, claiming residency in Pittsburgh.

“Many Pennsylvanians have told Dave it’s time for the Keystone State to be a leader again to restore the promise of the American Dream,” his campaign claimed. “Many Pennsylvanians believe Dave McCormick is the battle-tested, Pennsylvania true, fighter we need to get the job done.”

In the 2022 race, Democrats attacked both McCormick and New Jersey-based television personality Mehmet Oz as carpetbaggers from out of state. Oz narrowly beat McCormick in the primary, but lost to Democratic nominee John Fetterman in the general election.

In a March 2023 interview first flagged by the progressive super PAC American Bridge 21st Century, McCormick told the right-wing American Enterprise Institute that Oz’s lack of Pennsylvania bona fides was a factor in his defeat.

“He didn’t have enough anything like that,” McCormick said, referring to roots in Pennsylvania. “That explains a lot, I think, because people want to know that the person that they’re voting for kind of gets it, and part of getting it is understanding that you just didn’t come in yesterday.” (Disclosure: The American Independent Foundation is a partner organization of American Bridge.)

A Pennsylvania Democratic Party video posted on YouTube Aug. 15 shows clips of McCormick claiming in a June 2022 campaign speech that Pennsylvania was his home, and of him saying in a March 2023 podcast, “I mean, I live in Pennsylvania.”

A McCormick spokesperson did not immediately respond to an inquiry for this story. His spokesperson Elizabeth Gregory told the AP: “While he maintains a residence in Connecticut as his daughters finish high school, Dave’s home is in Pittsburgh and for the last 10 years he has owned a working farm in his hometown of Bloomsburg, which has been in the family for decades.” Gregory did not address questions about what percentage of his time McCormick spends at his Connecticut residence.

“The real David McCormick is a mega-millionaire Connecticut hedge fund executive who is lying about living in Pennsylvania because he doesn’t want us to know he’s out for himself and his rich friends, not working families,” Pennsylvania Democratic Party spokesperson Maddy McDaniel told the American Independent Foundation. “Pennsylvanians won’t be fooled by another carpetbagger who is lying to them to enrich himself.”

McCormick is not the only rich man being urged by national Republicans to run for Senate in a state to which he may have only recently moved. The National Republican Senatorial Committee has reportedly worked to recruit wealthy candidates from out of state to run in Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin.

Updated 9-14-23 to remove a sentence that was incorrectly attributed to McCormick.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.