“A super PAC supporting Republican David McCormick’s Senate run in Pennsylvania is launching a $4 million TV ad buy today, its first in one of the most-watched contests of the 2024 campaign,” Axios reports.

“Sen Bob Casey’s campaign announced on Thursday he intends to participate in three debates with GOP opponent David McCormick this fall, one in Philadelphia, one in Pittsburgh, and one in Harrisburg, ahead of the Nov. 5 general election,” the Pennsylvania Capital Star reports.

“The Capital-Star reached out to the McCormick campaign for comment shortly following the announcement from Casey’s campaign. The McCormick campaign responded with a link to a post on social media from McCormick that read, ‘Glad to hear it. See you there.'”

New York Times: “Interviews in Mr. McCormick’s hometown, as well as a review of public records, news coverage from his childhood and his own words, suggest that he has given a misleading impression about key aspects of his background.”

“He has explicitly said and strongly implied that he grew up on a farm, claimed in 2022 that he had ‘started with nothing’ and that he ‘didn’t have anything,’ and he and his campaign have recently described his parents as schoolteachers.”

“In fact, Mr. McCormick is the son of a well-regarded college president who later became chancellor of higher education systems in Pennsylvania and Minnesota. He largely grew up in the president’s sprawling hilltop residence, which students called the president’s mansion, at what is now Bloomsburg University.”

“Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick’s billionaire-backed super PAC keeps banking money at a speedy clip. But incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey’s campaign is raising steadily and will likely see more outside help as the race heats up,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

“By far the largest pot of money currently available in Pennsylvania’s marquee U.S. Senate race, one of the most hotly contested in the nation, is controlled by Keystone Renewal, a SuperPAC that last fall came out of the gate with $18 million in contributions from large-dollar donors. Those contributions were not subject to laws that limit what donors can give directly to political campaigns.”

“Based on filings made to the Federal Election Commission in the first quarter of this year, Keystone Renewal’s take is now up to $21 million. That money comes from just 41 donors, only two of whom live in Pennsylvania.”

“Dave McCormick (R) put more than $14 million of his own money into his failed 2022 Senate campaign,” the Daily Beast reports.

“But as he mounts a 2024 comeback, new disclosures this week reveal that, despite his enormous personal investment, his 2022 campaign still overspent money that his donors had contributed—in violation of federal law.”

Donald Trump “backed former hedge fund CEO Dave McCormick on Saturday in Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate race, after excoriating him two years earlier,” the Washington Post reports.

During the 2022 race, Trump blasted McCormick, calling him “the candidate of special interests and globalists and the Washington establishment.”

Associated Press: “McCormick — who splits his time in Connecticut, where he has a home — did not attend the rally.”

“U.S. Senate candidate David McCormick (R) led Bridgewater Associates as the hedge fund steered millions of dollars of investments into Chinese companies that produce fighter jets, bombers, planes equipped to jam enemy radars, and the country’s first domestically built aircraft carrier,” Bloomberg Government reports.

David McCormick (R) “is launching one of the first general election Senate ads of 2024, with a biographical spot that focuses on the glory and grit of high school wrestling in Pennsylvania,” Axios reports.

“McCormick — who was pilloried by his 2022 GOP primary opponent for having been CEO of Connecticut-based Bridgewater Associates, one of the world’s largest hedge funds — is spending early to tell his Pennsylvania story on his terms.”

“As Dave McCormick launched his 67-county campaign bus tour on a Saturday afternoon in Lititz, he told supporters gathered that he was going to ‘live on the bus,’ through November,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

“He flew back to Connecticut later that evening.”

“It’s the sort of dichotomy that Democrats have hammered McCormick over as they try to portray the Republican candidate as a wealthy outsider posing as a Pennsylvania resident in his quest to oust Democratic Sen. Bob Casey. Similar criticism was levied against longtime New Jerseyean Mehmet Oz in the Pennsylvania 2022 Senate race.”

“David McCormick (R) — his party’s runner-up in the 2022 Pennsylvania Senate primary — raised $5.4 million in his first quarter as a 2024 candidate, according to the campaign,” Axios reports.

“The early influx of cash into McCormick’s campaign and joint fundraising committee is the latest sign that Pennsylvania’s Senate race will be among the nation’s most competitive contests in November, with control of the U.S. Senate potentially hanging in the balance.”

“David McCormick, the Republican running for Pennsylvania’s Senate seat in 2024, called for University of Pennsylvania President Elizabeth Magill to be fired after her widely condemned testimony to the House on Tuesday,” Jewish Insider reports.

“McCormick’s comments came amid a day of pressure on the Penn president from leaders in Pennsylvania, although McCormick went further than any of the state’s top leaders in directly calling for Magill’s ouster.”

“I think I can take a bear… If I could get a bear right pre-hibernation or post-hiberation and I hadn’t eaten much and he hadn’t eaten much or he had eaten much, I’m long on McCormick.”

— Pennsylvania Senate candidate David McCormick (R), talking to the Ruthless Podcast about the biggest animal that he could fight.

A new Quinnipiac poll in Pennsylvania finds Sen. Bob Casey (D) leading challenger David McCormick (R) in the U.S. Senate race, 50% to 44%.

Politico: “Control of the Senate could depend on McCormick’s ability to cast himself as a homegrown Army veteran. It’s an authenticity attack that he also faced in his 2022 run and that Democrats successfully weaponized against the ultimate Republican nominee, Mehmet Oz. Now it’s beginning anew as questions swirl about how much time McCormick spends on Connecticut’s Gold Coast as a wealthy financier.”

“Left largely unmentioned in his 15-minute announcement speech: His decades-long career on Wall Street, where he eventually served as CEO of one of the world’s most successful hedge funds. Still, McCormick’s personal wealth is not without upsides. National Republicans viewed their ability to convince McCormick to run as a coup, in part because resources alone will ensure that Democrats have to spend in the state to protect incumbent Sen. Bob Casey.”

“Through the marvel that is modern air travel, a candidate for public office is no longer confined to living in the state they hope to serve in,” Vanity Fair reports.

“This relatively new phenomenon appears to be a godsend for David McCormick, a Republican who reportedly now lives in a Connecticut mansion but is poised to run for US Senate in Pennsylvania, where he appears to have chartered a number of private planes to promote his political bid.”

“David McCormick, a former hedge fund executive who lost the Republican primary for Pennsylvania’s open Senate seat last year, will announce on Thursday that he is running again for Senate — this time against three-time incumbent Democratic Senator Bob Casey Jr.,” Reuters reports.

“When David McCormick ran for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania last year, he faced a half-dozen Republican primary opponents and withering criticism from former President Donald Trump. He lost before he could get to a general election,” the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.

“But as the former hedge fund CEO prepares to try again, more Republicans are on his side. When he launches his 2024 Senate campaign on Thursday, he’ll start as the only GOP candidate in the race.”