Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick promised to support Israel and fight against rising antisemitism during a town hall with a Jewish group on Sunday, drawing contrasts with incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey Jr.
And he called out Vice President Kamala Harris for a failure of courage in passing over Gov. Josh Shapiro for her running mate, calling it a “tragedy” the Democratic presidential nominee would cave to anti-Israel sentiment in her party.
McCormick made his remarks during a Philadelphia event hosted by Matthew Brooks, CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition, before about 300 Jewish residents last Sunday.
McCormick said the mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue on 2018 and the Hamas terror attack on Israel last year impacted him personally.
“I live in Squirrel Hill in Pittsburgh, literally right around the corner from Tree of Life. So, I’m part of that community. Every weekend on Sundays, there’s a vigil in Squirrel Hill for the hostages, a weekly reminder so we can’t lose sight of what happened on Oct. 7, and the fact that we still don’t have the Israel hostages, the American hostages, they’re still not home.”
McCormick called Oct. 7 “a huge wake-up call.”
Quoting writer Dan Senor, he said, “When a flare goes up, beware. You can see who are the friends, [and] who are the foes. And Oct. 7 was a flare. It forced people to say who they are, either in their word or their deed.”
McCormick and his wife, Dina, travelled to Israel in January to see “first-hand” what happened during the Hamas terror attack. They visited Kfar Aza, a community of 700 people. The terrorists killed 100 that day, he said.
“Families. Parents killed in front of their kids. Kids killed in front of their parents. Babies burned,” said McCormick. “People decapitated. It’s beyond imagination.”
McCormick and his wife also met with the hostage parents and a “young woman who was wounded at the music festival.” She survived because her friends who were shot dead fell on top of her.
“I came back with a profound sense of the need to stand with Israel in its existential crisis,” said McCormick. “This isn’t a skirmish. The future of Israel is at stake. It’s been attacked from all sides.”
And while President Joe Biden has been reluctant to praise Israel’s recent military actions against Hezbollah and has called for a ceasefire that would benefit the terrorist organization, McCormick — a West Point graduate who served in the 82nd Airborne in Iraq during the Gulf War and was awarded a Bronze Star — had nothing but praise.
“What’s happened in the last couple of weeks has been a brilliant military operation. Make no mistake: What’s happening with Israel is an array of forces underwritten by Iran that is a fight for the very future of Israel’s existence.”
McCormick said as someone who isn’t Jewish, he realized there was antisemitism, but “I was shocked, and I suspect many of you were, by the degree that exists on our nation’s campuses.”
The leadership of universities “unwillingness to stand up for right and wrong, and the hypocrisy of many of our leaders. The willingness to say you’re pro-Israel, pro-Jewish and then capitulate because of the extreme forces in the Democratic Party,” he said. “So this is a battle at home for the heart and soul of our country.”
“For Jews in general, what happens in this election is of the greatest consequence of many we’ve had in modern times,” McCormick added. “You get to decide, now that the flare is up, who you’re for. And this transcends party, right?”
The group applauded.
Brooks asked him about Harris’ not choosing Pennsylvania’s Gov. Josh Shapiro as her running mate.
“The reality is Josh Shapiro is too Jewish and too pro-Israel to be on today’s Democratic ticket,” said Brooks. “I know you’ve been very critical of your congresswoman, Summer Lee, and the tone-deafness of some, both in the Jewish community and the Democratic Party.”
McCormick said, “I don’t think there’s any doubt that Josh Shapiro is a very formidable person and would have been a very capable pick to be VP. It’s hard to imagine, if you’re in the zone of complete honesty and candor, the fact that him being Jewish would have alienated a certain part of the extreme part of the Democratic Party. It’s hard to imagine, which is such a tragedy for our country, that that kind of calculus would be factored into that choice.
“And such a tragedy that Kamala Harris wouldn’t have the courage to make a selection that would have transcended those considerations.”
McCormick contrasted the actions of Democrat U.S. Sen. John Fetterman and his opponent, Sen. Bob Casey. While Fetterman has been an outspoken defender of Israel and critic of antisemitic campus protests, Casey failed to call for the ouster of former University Penn President Liz Magill after her equivocation on antisemitism during congressional testimony.
Casey has also endorsed U.S. Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.). “She is an avowed antisemite,” McCormick said. “And Bob Casey kept his endorsement,” he said.
Casey also supported the 2015 Iran deal that gave “the sponsor of terror throughout the Middle East $100 billion of sanction money,” said McCormick.
After the town hall, Gerri Richmond of Elkins Park said McCormick’s military service and business acumen impressed her. “When I heard him speak, I was inspired that he is the hope for our future in Pennsylvania,” said Richmond.
Retired cantor Elliott Tessler called McCormick a “down-the-line conservative and a likable fellow.”
“He came out as positively as I could have hoped for Israel,” said Tessler.
And Lower Merion resident Jeff Bartos, who ran for governor in 2018 and Senate in 2022, said, “Over the past year, Dave McCormick has led with strength and moral clarity. Sen. Casey, on the other hand, has all too often been silent and has failed to meet the moment. Sen. Casey’s weakness, coupled with his disastrously poor judgment in voting for the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, is disqualifying.”
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