Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who unsuccessfully challenged her former boss Donald Trump in the GOP presidential primary earlier this year, was back in Pennsylvania promoting another Republican: U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick.
“What I am excited about is Pennsylvania actually has a candidate who’s a fighter,” said Haley, a former South Carolina governor. “He’s a combat veteran. He knows what it means to sacrifice for our country. He’s a business guy. He knows what it means to balance a budget and save dollars. He’s a dad, not of one daughter, but of six daughters. But more than that, he’s a servant. He wants to serve. He wants to do this for our country.”
And while she and Trump may not be on the best of terms, Haley urged Delaware Valley voters to give the Republican another four years in the White House.
Nikki Haley stumping for Dave McCormick in Pennsburg.
“We have to do more than elect Dave McCormick. We have to elect Donald Trump. Because if Donald Trump wins Pennsylvania, Dave McCormick wins Pennsylvania.”
Haley also had harsh words for McCormick’s opponent, three-term incumbent U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr.
“Bob Casey has been in this position for 18 years. What has he done for 18 years?”
Someone called out, “Nothing.”
“That’s the problem. We need normal people. Dave McCormick has already signed a term limits pledge. We need everybody to sign a term limits pledge,” said Haley.
Haley is popular among suburban Republicans in places like Chester, Delaware and Bucks Counties, where she significantly outperformed her statewide average in the April presidential primary. She received more than 150,000 votes in the primary, despite having dropped out of the race in early March, and she received nearly a quarter of the vote in the Philadelphia suburbs, compared to 17 percent statewide.
Haley brought up the traditionally-GOP issue of federal spending and the national debt.
“Casey voted with Kamala Harris on the American Rescue Plan. It didn’t rescue anybody,” Haley said.
“They took all of our taxpayer dollars, flushed it into the sink of wasted projects costing $2 trillion. Then they go and pass the CHIPS Act. They were saying they were going to build and manufacture [silicon] chips in America. All in the name of national security. You know what they did? They gave all of our tax dollars to these companies and didn’t even require the companies to stop manufacturing in China. What a waste.
“Do you know over 70 percent of government employees are still working remotely? Seventy-five percent of our federal buildings are sitting empty. And we are paying for that. Bob Casey did that to you,” Haley added.
She also dinged Casey over his record on illegal immigration and the flow of deadly fentanyl over the southern border and increased inflation, saying it causes the average household to spend $29,000 a year.
“The one thing that can really bring that down is to become energy dominant. Bob Casey voted against expanding fracking six times. I think he forgot the state he lives in. Who does that?”
Haley also praised McCormick’s support for making America “energy dominate again, which is good for our national security.”
“And [Casey is] willing to support a candidate for president who has said she’s willing to pack the courts and get rid of the [Senate] filibuster. That’s who Bob Casey is.”
McCormick said that while it’s routine to say every election is the most important in our lifetimes, this one really is.
“This is for our children. This is for our children’s children, and right now we’re in trouble.”
After he lost the primary in 2022 to Dr. Mehmet Oz, McCormick said he planned to leave politics but kept “getting pulled back” because he believes in America, “the greatest country in the world for individual freedom, for religious freedom, a force for good in the world,” he said. “It’s my belief America is exceptional.”
“I’m going to be a voice for getting our country back on track, a leader for getting our country back on track,” said McCormick. “Kamala Harris is the most extreme liberal nominee in modern political history. Just look at her own words, ban fracking. Transition energy workers. Legalize illegal immigration. Mandatory buybacks of your guns. Eliminate private health insurance. Defund the police. These are what she said in her own words. That’s the choice, right?
“Don’t underestimate how important this is. Pennsylvania needs someone who is willing to fight and lead in the United States Senate.”
McCormick plans to draw on his experience as a college athlete for the final spring of the campaign.
“I wrestled in college. If I got into the third period within a point or two, I always knew I’d win because the third period in wrestling is not about wrestling. It’s about mental toughness. It’s about heart. It’s about staying on offense every single second. That’s what I’m going to do in the next six days,” McCormick said.
