David McCormick (R) “is expected to announce his second bid for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, taking on Democratic Sen. Bob Casey after narrowly losing an expensive and bruising GOP primary last year to a Donald Trump-endorsed rival,” the AP reports.

“McCormick, 58, has strong support from the party establishment. With his deep pockets as a former hedge fund CEO, Republicans believe he will mount a strong challenge to the three-term Casey in a state that is critical to control of the White House and the Senate.”

Associated Press: “Republicans, perhaps, have done just about everything they can think of to entice McCormick to join a 2024 ticket that might feature a rematch of Donald Trump and President Joe Biden in a premier battleground state that is critical both to control of the White House and the Senate.”

“If McCormick is circumspect, maybe it’s because the former hedge fund CEO spent a small fortune of his own money just to lose narrowly in a crowded and bruising primary election.”

Associated Press: “As Republicans aim to gain the one seat they need to retake the Senate in next year’s elections, McCormick is a top recruit. And before his anticipated campaign, he’s working to avoid Oz’s fate, frequently noting his upbringing in Pennsylvania, his ownership of a home in Pittsburgh and a family farm near Bloomsburg.”

“But the reality is more complex. While McCormick does own a home in Pittsburgh, a review of public records, real estate listings and footage from recent interviews indicates he still lives on Connecticut’s ‘Gold Coast,’ one of the densest concentrations of wealth in America. The former hedge fund CEO rents a $16 million mansion in Westport that features a 1,500-bottle wine cellar, an elevator and a ‘private waterfront resort’ overlooking Long Island Sound.”

“The trappings of a wealthy enclave, well outside Pennsylvania, offer a jarring contrast with the political identity McCormick has sought to cultivate, which emphasizes his upbringing buck hunting, his Army service and his desire to serve his home state.”

“David McCormick is not in a rush,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

“The former hedge fund manager who lost a bruising and close GOP Senate primary campaign last year is widely expected to run again, this time for the chance to take on Democrat Bob Casey.”

“But nearly six months since he started making plans, nothing’s been made official yet.”

“Several Republican sources who know McCormick say he’s eyeing a potential fall entrance but is being cautious about the decision, coming off the primary loss to Mehmet Oz last year. He’s wary of what’s expected to be a tough run against Casey, a well-known incumbent, sources said, as well as how the outcome of the presidential GOP primary could impact Pennsylvania’s Senate race.”

“So, that was a low point.”

— Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), quoted by The Messenger, remembering when the Philadelphia Inquirer compared him to oatmeal.

MAGA firebrand Doug Mastriano (R) said on Thursday that he is not running for Senate in Pennsylvania in 2024, Politico reports.

Pennsylvania State Sen. Doug Mastriano (R) plans to make an announcement next week about the decision he has made on whether he will run for U.S. Senate, in what he teased as “crazy good news,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

“MAGA firebrand Doug Mastriano is inducing panic among GOP officials as he inches closer toward a 2024 bid for the Senate after a disastrous showing in his Pennsylvania governor run in 2022,” Politico reports.

“Among the concerned is none other than Donald Trump.”

“The former president has privately told Republicans he fears that Mastriano, a far-right state lawmaker in a critical battleground, would hurt him in a general election if they were on the top of the ticket together next year, according to three people familiar with the conversations.”

A new Franklin & Marshall poll in Pennsylvania finds Sen. Bob Casey (D) leading potential challenger Dave McCormick (R), 42% to 35%.

In a match up against Doug Mastriano (R), Casey leads 47% to 31%.

Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) “will seek a fourth term in office, bringing the power of incumbency and unmatched name recognition in Pennsylvania politics to his party’s defense of a seat in a critical presidential battleground state,” the AP reports.

“Former hedge fund CEO and 2022 Pennsylvania GOP Senate candidate Dave McCormick continues to signal he’s seriously considering another Senate run in 2024, this time against three-term Democratic Sen. Bob Casey,” The Dispatch reports.

“McCormick has spent recent weeks glad-handing with influential Republicans in Washington, D.C., sitting for interviews to promote his new book, and launching a new political action committee aimed at helping the Pennsylvania GOP close Democrats’ mail-in voting gap and boosting Republican candidates for state office.”

Failed Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano (R) told Politico he’s considering challenging Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) in 2024.

Daily Beast: “The last election couldn’t have gone any worse for Pennsylvania Republicans: the top of their ticket—Senate candidate Mehmet Oz and gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano—wiped out spectacularly, casting this swing state in a definitively blue hue.”

“After months of soul-searching over their disappointing outcomes, Keystone State Republicans are convinced they simply had the wrong candidates—and believe they can get revenge if they just put forward the right one.”

“When it comes to the crucial race for Senate in 2024, many Republicans in Pennsylvania and Washington believe the search is already over. They are already homing in on David McCormick, the immensely wealthy hedge fund baron who ran in 2022, as their silver bullet.”

Philadelphia Inquirer: “David McCormick is certainly making the moves for a potential run. After falling just short against celebrity surgeon Mehmet Oz in last year’s GOP Senate primary, McCormick was a visible presence at December’s Pennsylvania Society gathering of political insiders in New York. He walked through the agricultural extravaganza at the Pennsylvania Farm Show last week, and he has a book coming out in March, Superpower in Peril, featuring the kind of themes that presage a campaign.”

Sale

Superpower in Peril: A Battle Plan to Renew America

• Amazon Kindle Edition

Check Price on Amazon

“Donald Trump’s attacks on fellow Republican David McCormick contributed to the former hedge fund manager’s loss in Pennsylvania’s Senate primary. Now, as McCormick considers running again for the Senate, Trump’s derision may not be such a liability,” the AP reports.

“While McCormick, 57, has not said whether he will challenge three-term Democratic Sen. Bob Casey in 2024, he is taking steps signaling a campaign may be in the works, including attending recent receptions with influential GOP strategists and donors. McCormick also plans to publish a book in March — Superpower in Peril: A Battle Plan to Renew America — that could raise his profile.”

New York Times: “An alternative explanation for why John Fetterman did so much better than Mr. Biden in red counties, besides winning some former Trump supporters, is that a different spectrum of voters turned out in 2022 than during the presidential race two years ago. Mr. Fetterman, who campaigned aggressively for more than a year in the rural counties before his stroke under the banner ‘every county, every vote,’ may have inspired inconsistent voters who still leaned Democratic to turn out for him.”

Washington Post: “It was a rare and very public failure for a man whose life has been marked by success in many arenas. Oz had left a lucrative television career, renowned medical practice and his North Jersey manse, and invested $27 million of his own wealth in the campaign, only to be relentlessly mocked online as an interloper with a dubious recipe for crudites — and, in Pennsylvania, for using that word.”