Republican U.S. Senate nominee Dave McCormick spoke at the Saturday rally held in Wilkes-Barre by former President Donald Trump. McCormick relayed his experiences being raised in Pennsylvania and achieving successes within the commonwealth, before warning voters the “American Dream is slipping away unless we turn this country around.”
Revealing his Pennsylvania roots, McCormick briefly mentioned his childhood in Bloomsburg before parlaying his mother’s birthplace in Punxsutawney into a quip about the incumbent, Senator Bob Casey (D-PA).
“I like to say Punxsutawney Bob Casey only pops his head up once every six years,” said McCormick. “You never see him, you never hear him, all the sudden he’s showing up, ‘Hey remember me, it’s Bob Casey.'”
The former Trump administration official said his youth in “the greatest commonwealth in the country, the greatest country in the world,” prepared him for his time at the West Point U.S. military academy and service in Iraq.
“When I talk about the American Dream, I know what I’m talking about, because I have lived the American dream,” said McCormick.
He warned, “And guess what, it’s slipping away. That American Dream is not going to be here for our kids, it’s not going to be here for their kids.”
McCormick pointed to the policies of the Biden-Harris administration, as well as Casey, who he suggested enabled the White House by voting in 98 percent lockstep with the Biden-Harris agenda, before arguing the election in November will be the most consequential in American history.
“You can’t call me a politician, because right now I’m just a business guy trying to fix the country, right?” McCormick said, “every politician who for years told you this is the most important election, this is the one. Well this really is the one. This is the one.”
McCormick explained, “This is a race that’s a choice. It’s a choice between strength and weakness, it’s a choice between the success of the Trump administration and the dismal failure of the Biden-Harris-Casey administration.”
Trump and McCormick have regularly appeared together for campaign rallies in the commonwealth, with the Republicans uniting in April after the former president previously endorsed McCormick’s primary opponent, Dr. Mehmet Oz, during the 2022 Senate race.
McCormick confirmed he was only feet away from the former president after the July 13 assassination attempt, and an attendee at the rally told The Pennsylvania Daily Star that McCormick was in the line of fire when the would-be assassin pierced Trump’s ear, severely injured two rally attendees, and claimed the life of former fire chief Corey Comperatore.
Watch McCormick’s full appearance at the rally:
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Dave McCormick” by Dave McCormick.