DV Journal

Senate candidate Dave McCormick called for a ban on access to social media for kids under 16.

“A study from the Centers for Disease Control last year found that 20 percent, one-fifth of 12 17-year-old kids have at least one major depressive episode,” McCormick said.  “Researchers such as Jonathan Haidt have documented how addictive using social media is. It’s a major driver of mental health crises.”

McCormick spoke at an America’s Future Tour event in Springfield hosted by Delaware County GOP Chair Frank Agovino. Fox News journalist Mary Katharine Ham, interviewed McCormick.

McCormick supports a federal school choice bill, the Educational Choice for Children Act. This would create a federal tax credit for businesses and citizens that provide money for scholarships for children in failing schools to move to better schools.

“Sen. Casey won’t support this legislation. He’s against giving kids in failing schools the ability to move to the school of their choice. And that’s because Sen. Casey is beholden to the same teachers’ unions that kept our kids out of the classroom for years during COVID,” said McCormick.

Dave McCormick

“Here’s what really made me angry. Sen. Casey went to parochial school. Yet he opposes giving his constituents in failing public schools the same opportunity. Pennsylvania deserves a senator who supports school choice because choosing where your child goes to school should not be a privilege that’s only reserved for the wealthy and well-connected parents.”

“We need to shake things up in a big way,” he said.  The tax money should go with the child. “The beauty of that is it will increase competition…It’s going to be disruptive as hell, and it needs to be.”

In a wide-ranging policy talk, McCormick spoke about helping families at all stages of people’s lives, from subsidies for faith-based childcare, better access to healthcare for mothers and senior citizens, and more mental health care for veterans.

“Only 33 percent of Black children and 55 percent of Hispanic children grow up in two-parent families,” he said. “Kids in a single-parent home are five times more likely to live in poverty, more likely to have behavior issues, more likely to drop out of school.”

This is “leaving the American Dream out of reach for more and more families,” he said.  “Children who are born to parents in the bottom fifth of family incomes have a 46 percent chance of remaining in the bottom fifth their whole lives and only a 3 percent chance of getting to the top fifth.”

“And Americans are even having fewer babies despite surveys showing that women wish they could have more. America cannot be strong if our families are weak.  And if our families are in decline, America will decline.  And we can’t let that happen.”

“For far too long, career politicians in Washington have made it harder, not easier, for working families in Pennsylvania,” he said. “Inflation is driving up grocery bills, the cost of housing, and other essentials. Childcare. It’s gotten so expensive it’s out of reach for many families.”

Mary Katharine Ham

“Under the watch of President Biden and Pennsylvania’s liberal Sen. Bob Casey, these problems are getting worse, not better. After 18 years in Washinton, Sen. Casey has not been a proactive leader. He’s been a rubber stamp liberal who votes with President Biden 98 percent of the time.”

McCormick wants to make it easier for couples to start families.

He said the average cost of having a child is $19,000, including $3,000 out of pocket.  The average middle-class family spends $13,000 in a child’s first year.

“We need to make contraceptives more accessible and affordable for women so they can have children when they’re ready,” said McCormick. “I’ll always support access to in vitro fertilization to enable parents across our country to welcome children.”

When he was the CEO of Bridgewater, the company helped pay for fertility services for employees.  “As your senator, I will oppose any effort to restrict IVF. Period,” said McCormick.

“Every family should get a $15,000 tax credit for fertility expenses, like IVF,” McCormick said.  He would also promote adoption services, making the adoption tax credit created by the Trump tax plan fully refundable.

“It’s unacceptable that the United States has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world among wealthy nations,” he said. “The U.S. birth rate is also at a historic low. 1.6 children per woman. Far below the 2.1 average needed to keep our population in the U.S. from declining.”

“In Pennsylvania, at least five counties have no hospitals,” said McCormick, so women there lack easy access to maternity care.

Far too many Americans with severe mental health crises are not able to get the care they need,” he said. “Fourteen million Americans, approximately, have serious mental illnesses. More than half of them have their needs unmet, veterans in particular, something near and dear to my heart, as a veteran,” said McCormick. Some “22 vets a day take their own lives…Half of the veterans who commit suicide had no mental health treatment. We must expand mental health care for those with serious mental illness by getting rid of Medicaid rules that constrain access to psychiatric (help).”

“We need to support our seniors in retirement,” he said. “Let me be perfectly clear: our government needs to keep its promises to protect Social Security and Medicare.”

“I’ll always put problem-solving over ideology,” he said.

Asked about the additional doctors needed to expand healthcare, McCormick told DVJournal that more doctors and nurses are necessary.

“The nurse shortage, in particular, is really problematic,” he said. “So, it’s part of a skilled worker program to allow people to access healthcare education and encourage them to do it.

“And it’s unbelievable when you look at how long it takes to become a doctor and how hard it is to make ends meet. And they have hundreds of thousands of dollars of loans. So, we’re going to have to support people if they want to become medical professionals and support their education,” said McCormick.

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There was a bit of a bromance between former President Donald Trump and Senate candidate Dave McCormick at Trump’s rally in Philadelphia on Saturday.

Trump endorsed McCormick as “a warrior, a great military person, an incredible guy. And we have to elect him as the U.S. senator from your state. And just so you know, Dave McCormick is a seventh-generation Pennsylvanian who grew up in Bloomsburg, went to West Point, did great there and earned a Bronze Star for his service.”

“Dave went on to an outstanding career in business and now is fighting for the people of this commonwealth. He loves this commonwealth. He really is a high-quality person. I actually said, ‘Dave, are you too high quality for this job?’”

“But I’d rather have that than the other. And honestly, the other senator has been here forever…I don’t think I ever met him in my years in Washington. He doesn’t do anything,” Trump said. “Dave will vote to secure your borders, stand up to China, and unleash incredible amounts of Pennsylvania energy. And he wants to stop Biden inflation.”

Philadelphia fans welcome former President Donald Trump.

Trump also bashed McCormick’s opponent, Democratic incumbent Sen. Bob Casey Jr.

Trump added, “Bob Casey votes with Sleepy Joe 98 percent (of the time). Bob Casey could have voted to stop Joe Biden’s invasion; instead, he voted in favor of sanctuary cities. He voted to give illegal aliens taxpayer-funded benefits. He voted against the border wall… Pennsylvania, you need to defeat open borders Bob Casey.”

On the stump in the swing state that many political observers believe could determine the outcome of the presidential race, Trump hit two issues hard: illegal immigration and the economy.

Trump recounted recent news stories of attacks by illegal immigrants, like a 13-year-old girl allegedly raped in New York City, a 12-year-old Texas girl allegedly assaulted and murdered by two illegal immigrants, and a Maryland mother of five who was allegedly raped and murdered. In every case, the alleged assailants had previously been released into the U.S. by the Biden administration.

“Joe Biden wants to be president for illegal aliens, but I will be president for law-abiding Americans,” Trump said, while promising to “tear up”  the mass amnesty executive order that Biden recently announced. Countries are opening up prisons and mental hospitals and sending inmates to America, he said.

“In Venezuela, crime is down 72 percent,” he said.

Trump also blamed Biden for inflation and said he would bring back prosperity.

“When I left office, inflation was practically nothing. During my term we had gasoline down to $1.87 a gallon. And the 30-year mortgage rate was 2.7 percent. And then Joe Biden blew it to shreds. Biden’s inflation price hikes on energy infrastructure cost the average American family an astounding $28,000.”

“You know, inflation is a disaster,” he said. “It’s a total country buster. And when you look at the prices of eggs and bacon, it’s gone up 100 percent.”

“The monthly cost of a mortgage has gone up under Crooked Joe Biden,” he said. “With me, it was around 2 percent. Now it’s 10 percent, and you can’t get the money.”

“On day one of my administration, we will throw out Bidenomics and replace it with MAGA-nomics,” he said to cheers and applause.

Former President Donald Trump with Senate candidate Dave McCormick

Trump also talked at length about the troubles plaguing Philadelphia, using them to make a pitch for support among Black voters. He specifically called out progressive District Attorney Larry Krasner, saying he has “the blood of countless men and women and children on his hands” for his soft-on-crime policies.

The Trump campaign is making inroads with Black and Hispanic voters, according to recent polling. The rally in a predominantly Black area of Philadelphia, along with endorsements from rap artists and others, is a clear attempt to attract voters who previously voted Democratic.

“The people of our country are looking for hope, whether they are White, Brown, Black or anything else. They’re looking for hope,” Trump told the crowd. “We will also work to lift up Black and Hispanic and other communities in Philadelphia and all across the United States…They’re smart. They want jobs. They want safety. They don’t want to lose their homes.”

Kristina Bowie, a Black Philadelphia resident, attended to support Trump.

“I like his policies,” she said. “I like all he’s trying to do to make America great again.” When Trump was president, “It was just better then.”

But state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D-Philadelphia) said his constituents won’t back the former president.

“I represent the community in Philly where Trump is currently ranting and raving. I can authoritatively say my neighbors aren’t in that arena listening to his lies.”

Doylestown residents Peder Cox and Ellen Bowman Cox. Bowman Cox is leader of the Doylestown Republican Club.

When McCormick took the stage, he also focused his comments on the economy and the need for change.

“As a native of Pennsylvania, it breaks my heart that 60 percent of Pennsylvanians are living paycheck to paycheck. Prices are on the rise 20 percent,” said McCormick. “As a combat veteran, it breaks my heart that we can’t make our recruiting numbers, that our military is in decline and that 22 veterans a day kill themselves. We need new leadership.”

Trump’s appearance drew supporters from across the state.

Phoenixville resident Brooke Spinelli said, “I support Trump (for) a number of reasons. School choice. I want the economy to be where it was.” She brought her father, a gun collector who is concerned about his Second Amendment rights, to the rally.

“I think our country was in better shape when Donald Trump was running it,” said Stephanie McCoy from New Holland, in Lancaster County. “He actually cared about the American people and didn’t have our borders opened up for anyone to come in.”

And while Trump’s message in the past on early voting and mail in ballots was less than clear, he urged the Keystone State crowd to get out and vote, whether early, by mail or in person, and to volunteer “to secure our elections.”

“We don’t want them dumping ballots,” he said. “If we win Pennsylvania, we win the presidency.”

About 100 people packed the Bucks County Republican headquarters in Doylestown on Tuesday as Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst made her pitch for GOP candidate Dave McCormick.

Her message? “I want to talk about how we can take on Washington and get the big hand of government out of the way for hardworking folks across this great country,” Ernst said.

McCormick’s race against three-term incumbent Sen. Bob Casey, Jr. (D-Pa.) is one of the most-watched in the nation. Republicans are expected to flip West Virginia, which would create a 50-50 tie in the Senate. A win in Montana, Ohio, or Pennsylvania would give the GOP a majority.

The Iowa Republican, who grew up on a hog farm and is known for sometimes using colorful language about politics, recently made headlines following a hot-mic moment. After a press conference calling out what she says are false statements from President Joe Biden regarding his new border policy, Ernst was heard saying on her way off stage, “Bottom line: Never trust a man whose uncle was eaten by cannibals.”

It was a reference to Biden’s bizarre claim during a Pennsylvania appearance in April that an uncle who served as a pilot in World War II and crashed in New Guinea was eaten by the locals.

Ernst’s decision to campaign for McCormick in the Keystone State may be related to the fact she’s been mentioned as a potential Trump running mate, an idea she’s open to.

“I think there are a lot of really wonderful people who are being considered,” Ernst told Breitbart News. “And I think that anyone who is offered [the] position, whether it would be me or someone else, I think that it would be such an extreme honor to have that opportunity laid out. I certainly would consider that.”

On Wednesday, Ernst focused her comments on the need for deregulating the economy, an issue she deals with on the Senate Small Business Committee.

“The clamps of Washington, D.C., are really tightening around the necks of our small business owners (due to) over-regulation by the Biden administration.”

In the last three and a half years, “regulatory guidance is pushing on small businesses to the tune of $400 billion. That is $400 billion that small businesses have had to invest under Joe Biden” to comply with federal regulations.

“I don’t want to see this administration telling me what I have to drive,” said Ernst, about Biden’s promotion of electric vehicles. “In rural Iowa, I’m sorry, I’m not going to get to Des Moines from where I live and be able to return home on a battery charge.”

Ernst argued it is essential to elect McCormick and prevent Democratic extremists who will damage the fundamental workings of American democracy. If Democrats take the House, Senate and White House, they plan to remove the filibuster in the Senate and pack the U.S. Supreme Court “with liberal justices that will serve a lifetime,” she said.

She called McCormick “a true patriot.”

McCormick told the Bucks County crowd he struggled with the idea of running again.

“I lost a race last time by 900 votes of 1.5 million cast,” he said.  His six daughters were “100 percent against it” and he had other things to do.

“But If you believe that America is the greatest country in the world. If you believe that you’ve been blessed by what America has to offer. If believe America is in deep, deep trouble, which I do. And you believe you can actually do something about it…And if you believe those things you’ve got to do it.”

McCormick dismissed the incumbent Casey as a politician, not a leader.

“He’s been in office for 30 years. He’s been in the Senate for 18 years. He has not had a single significant piece of legislation, but he’s voted 99 percent of the time with Joe Biden,” McCormick said.

“This guy no longer represents who we are, what we need. I’m running as an outsider. Someone who doesn’t owe anybody anything except the people of Pennsylvania.”

Ernst noted she and McCormick are both veterans and she sits on the Armed Services Committee. McCormick, who grew up in Bloomsburg, went to West Point and served in the 82nd Airborne Division. She also said defense spending in real dollars fell under the Biden administration. There is also the problem of too few recruits and those serving in the military no longer have the “latest and greatest technology.”

“We have an administration and a bunch of Democrats in the Senate think domestic priorities like wildflower projects, and whatever, these green climate ideologies should outpace protecting our nation. So, it is a big problem,” said Ernst.

McCormick said, “There’s a money problem but also a cultural ethos problem. The Biden administration is focused on DEI [Diversity, Equity, Inclusion] in the military at the expense of warfighting.”

“The Army rolled out the climate fighting strategy under Biden. This is a real thing. So there’s an ethos we have to fix. And it pains me to say this as an Army man, but we really need to invest in our Navy.”

“I just wrote an article on this,” he added. “It wasn’t in my favorite, Delaware Valley Journal. And I talked about the need for the Ships Act. We need to refurbish our domestic shipbuilding industry. We need to have a Navy that can compete with China. We need to have domestic tankers that can take our natural gas around the world. And, just as an idea. I’m just spit-balling here. We may need to do that in Philadelphia and bring back our shipbuilding.”

Taking questions with members of the Bucks County audience, Ted Harrison of New Hope told McCormick abortion remains a key issue for Democrats. If Republicans want to win, they should give it up, he suggested.

McCormick called it “very polarizing.”

“It’s a state’s right,” he said. “We should embrace three exceptions: rape, incest and the life of the mother. And we should make widely available contraception.”

Another man asked about illegal immigration.

McCormick said the country should return to former President Donald Trump’s policies.

“I think this fentanyl thing is out of control,” he added. “Four thousand people in Pennsylvania last year, almost 100,000 across our country (died from fentanyl overdoses),” he said. “I would identify the cartels and name them to be terrorist organizations. I would send in our military to take out those fentanyl manufacturing facilities and destroy the cartels,” he said.

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A University of Pittsburgh student who is a volunteer for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick was attacked at an anti-Israel encampment at his university.

According to the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, Reuben Rochkind visited the encampment with friends. He was wearing his McCormick hat and brought an American flag. He was standing near a fence that the protesters had put up around their tent encampment when one of grabbed him from behind, causing him to fall to the ground.

The new anti-Israel demonstration encampment was set up on Sunday outside the Cathedral of Learning on Pitt’s campus in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood. KDKA-TV reported at least one person was arrested and charged with aggravated assault, resisting arrest, and obstruction.

McCormick told DVJournal he is both angry and concerned about the incident involving his volunteer.

“We’re so thankful Reuben is okay. Let’s be clear about what’s happening here. These efforts by pro-Hamas agitators to take over campuses and go after Jewish students are blatantly antisemitic and un-American,” McCormick said.

And he noted what he says is a key difference between himself and his opponent, three-term Senate Democrat Bob Casey Jr.

“Bob Casey has never visited one of these encampments and only called for the one at UPenn to be disbanded after the fact. Is he going to remain silent on this, too?”

McCormick, who made a high-profile visit to the encampment at Penn when antisemitic rhetoric was at its peak, also posted on X about the Pitt incident. “One of my great volunteers was attacked by pro-Hamas supporters on Pitt’s campus. He’s a Jewish student who was wearing a McCormick hat and proudly waving the American flag. This antisemitism is disgusting. Bob Casey needs to stand up and defend his Jewish constituents.”

Anti-Israel protest encampments have spread to colleges and universities nationwide, including some in the Philadelphia area, notably the University of Pennsylvania and Swarthmore College, although those have been disbanded.

Eyal Yakoby, who graduated from Penn last month, wrote an op-ed in the Washington Free Beacon about his experiences with antisemitism on campus and the administration’s lack of leadership.

“The modifications may appear small, and maybe we should shrug them off. But they marred the spirit of what should have been purely celebratory events. These are not just formalities but collective experiences that connect the present to the past, and the university leadership’s unwillingness to enforce rules and regulations deprived the law-abiding members of the class of 2024 of the opportunity to participate in shared Penn traditions,” Yakoby wrote.

Yakoby also sued the university for a refund of his tuition over his experience with antisemitism on campus.

According to Politico, the pro-Palestinian protestors who have disrupted campuses around the country are funded by some of the most prominent Democratic donors: Soros, Pritzker, and Rockefeller. The demonstrators also make similar demands, telling the universities to divest from Israel.

During a recent “fireside chat” with the Northhampton County chapter of Moms for Liberty, GOP U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick spoke as a dad about public policy issues like protecting girls-only sports and spaces in public schools.

“As the father of six daughters, this resonates with me so much. The very idea of allowing  biological males to compete with biological females is fundamentally unfair.

“It guts women’s sports,” McCormick went on. While Title IX protects girls and women’s sports and education, adding biological males “is part of a broader ideological shift.”

McCormick added that, as a parent, he’s concerned about content on topics like sex and gender being introduced to children too young to process it.

“Our schools are introducing transgender ideology to young children before they are old enough to form their own views as adults. And so I think it’s deeply troubling. It’s something that I would be completely opposed to as a senator…We need to get commonsense back.”

The Republican candidate also slammed his opponent, three-term Democrat Sen. Bob Casey Jr., for a letter Casey wrote last year claiming concerns about transgender athletes competing in college and high school sports are “overgeneralized.”

Also at the event was Betsy DeVos, who served as President Donald Trump’s secretary of education.

“This is an issue very timely because the rule the Biden administration has put forward that would extend the definition of gender to include gender identity, the downstream ramifications of that you can’t begin to really articulate all the different ways in which it would negatively impact everything in our culture which already has lots of challenges,” DeVos said.

She called the change, which is set to take effect in August, “fundamentally unfair” and urged people to contact their members of Congress to oppose this rule.

“Bob Casey had a chance to do the right thing and to vote against this,” said DeVos. “And to dismiss it and say it’s not a real problem is absolutely false.”

McCormick said decried the nation’s academic achievement gap compared to other advanced nations.

“We have lost progress and that’s while spending a trillion dollars over the last 50 years on the Department of Education,” he said.

Meanwhile, America is losing a generation to “woke” ideology.

“Just turn on the television and see those kids marching on campuses. They don’t know the difference between right and wrong, between good and evil. It’s not just antisemitism. It’s anti-Americanism. Only about a third of (college students) believe America is exceptional.”

“And my recollection of the history that I was taught is that by any measure, analytically, America has been an extraordinary success…liberating the world from the Nazis, winning the Cold War,” said McCormick. “And it’s had some dark chapters, dark chapters that we’ve overcome and we’re still overcoming. It’s imperfect. But it’s a great source of liberty and wealth for the world. That’s the history that’s unfortunately not being taught. It shows up in our recruiting numbers. It shows up on our campuses. And it’s because of, among other things, this ideology.”

McCormick, who grew up in Bloomsburg, noted that both his parents were teachers, that he went to public schools and that teachers and coaches were the most important influences on his life. A high school wrestler, he went to West Point, became an 82nd Airborne paratrooper, was a successful Pittsburgh businessman and a hedge fund CEO, before entering politics.

“If you have a generation that doesn’t really believe in American exceptionalism, who don’t understand our history, who don’t have the skills, the capabilities to take on this generation of challenges,” McCormick said.  “We are in a complicated world.  The rest of the world is not standing idle.  They’re moving forward.”

One “blessing” of COVID was that parents saw what their schools were teaching their kids and got more involved, he said. McCormick supports school choice.

“That opportunity will create better educational outcomes, that competition will create better opportunity, that competition will create more honesty.  That competition is the pathway to creating equal opportunity for all,” he said.

For DeVos, the big-picture problem is the power of government schools and teachers unions. “The system to which most kids are subjected to today is essentially a monopoly. Unless you have the resources to do something different, your children are headed by a monopolistic structure, and we see from the very top of it, which is the teachers’ union, the AFT and, the NEA, and all the allied organizations, have continued to influence down to the lowest level everything that has gone on in the system.”

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President Joe Biden’s threat to withhold some precision offensive weapons from Israel as it wages war on the terrorist army of Hamas has been met with an angry backlash from both political parties. And that divide among Democrats is on display in Pennsylvania, where U.S. Sen. John Fetterman has decried Biden’s “disappointing” decision, while local U.S. Reps. Madeleine Dean and Chrissy Houlahan have endorsed it.

On Sunday, Biden’s Secretary of State Anthony Blinken repeated the administration’s threat, and said even more restrictions may follow if Israel pushes into the Gazan city of Rafah to wipe out what’s left of Hamas.

“If Israel launches this major military operation into Rafah, then there are certain systems that we are not going to be supporting and supplying for that operation,” Blinken told CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

The backlash from supporters of Israel began on Wednesday when Biden said he had told the Israelis that going into Rafah would result in a loss of U.S. support.

“I’ve made it clear to Bibi [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] and the war cabinet: They’re not going to get our support if they go [into] these population centers,” Biden told CNN.

Pennsylvania’s Fetterman responded via social media. “Hard disagree and deeply disappointing,” he tweeted.

“I strongly disagree with this decision and it should be immediately reversed. If there are any restrictions, it should be on Hamas, its enablers, and benefactors,” he added.

Montgomery County Democratic Congresswoman Madeline Dean, on the other hand, has been calling for Biden to restrict weapons to Israel for weeks. While her spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment, Dean signed a letter urging Biden to withhold “certain offensive weaponry or other military support that can be used for an assault on Rafah, including offensive weaponry already signed into law.”

Dave Winkler, the Republican running against Dean, called her letter “despicable.”

“Withholding aid from Israel would be an unconscionable betrayal that would embolden the forces of terror and extremism hellbent on delegitimizing and annihilating the Jewish state. As a stalwart ally, the U.S. has a moral obligation to steadfastly support Israel’s ability to defend itself against the existential threats of Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Hezbollah’s missile arsenals, and the indiscriminate rocket attacks on civilians by the terrorist thugs of Hamas.

Dean’s fellow Democrat, Rep. Chrissy Houlahan issued a lengthy statement saying she also agrees with Biden’s decision to withhold arms from the longtime U.S. ally.

“Recently, President Biden decided to temporarily withhold specific U.S. weapons to Israel until such time as he receives further assurances about Israel’s military operations and humanitarian considerations, specifically in Rafah. I don’t agree with every decision the president makes, but I agree with him here,” Houlahan said.

Houlahan’s GOP challenger Neil Young disagrees. “President Biden withholding arms from Israel is not only completely reckless, but it undermines American credibility on the world stage. Israel is our most trusted ally and they should not be left to stand alone. This shouldn’t be a partisan issue. Many Democrats, like our senator John Fetterman, have stood against Biden’s betrayal of Israel. Chrissy Houlahan’s support for this reckless policy prioritizes party allegiance over national interest. Her loyalty lies with her party, not with the American people or our allies.”

Both Houlahan and Dean are on the far-left Working Families Party list of congressional members who have demanded a ceasefire.

Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) declined to respond to a request for comment from DVJournal on the topic, but he told reporters late last week he disagrees with Biden’s decision to withhold weapons. However, he’s rarely mentioned the issue while Fetterman has spoken forcefully on behalf of Israel and its right to use force.

Casey’s Republican opponent Dave McCormick has praised Fetterman’s “moral clarity” regarding the Jewish state.

Nationally, both the Republican Jewish Coalition and Democratic Majority for Israel have issued statements opposing Biden’s treatment of the Jewish state.

“Joe Biden has cemented his legacy as the worst president for the Jewish community and the State of Israel ever,” said the RJC.

“We are deeply concerned about the administration’s decision to withhold weapons now and potentially impose further restrictions,” said the Democratic Majority for Israel’s Mark Mellman.

“A strong U.S.-Israel alliance like the one President Biden has created, plays a central role in preventing more war and making the path to eventual peace possible,” he added. “Calling the strength of that alliance into question is dangerous.”

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As the clock ticks down to the 2024 election, a new Muhlenberg College poll has former President Donald Trump with a narrow three-point edge over President Joe Biden, 44 to 41 percent. But the poll found that if independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is on the ballot, he takes 18 percent of the vote, leaving Trump and Biden tied at 35 percent.

The same poll of 417 registered voters conducted between April 15 and 25 shows three-term incumbent Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa.) at 45 percent to Republican challenger Dave McCormick’s 41 percent.

The poll is the second within the past month to show McCormick is closing the gap against Casey, after Emerson College’s April survey found Casey’s lead had narrowed to just four points.

Political observers say both Biden and Trump are well-known to the public and it’s unlikely that many voters will shift their views in the remaining six months until November.

“I imagine we will see little ebbs and flows between Biden and Trump’s poll numbers over the next six months, but I would be surprised by any major shifts given how cemented the candidates are in most voters’ minds. Just like 2016 and 2020, the race in Pennsylvania is likely to be very close,” said Muhlenberg political science Professor Christopher Borick, director of the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion.

Quantum Communications CEO Charlie Gerow said, “This poll confirms that Donald Trump leads in Pennsylvania by an increasingly significant margin. That’s not surprising. The Biden economy is hurting ordinary Pennsylvanians, and they are going to vote against him in November.”

“Biden’s approval ratings continue to sink as Americans and Pennsylvanians in particular see someone who simply doesn’t have the capacity to lead,’ Gerow added.

The poll also found that Biden’s 2024 campaign to win Pennsylvania, a key swing state, is being undermined by poor job approval ratings (35 percent). And, only 33 percent of voters believe that Biden deserves a second term.

However, Biden and Trump both must contend with high unfavorable ratings among Pennsylvania voters. Some 57 percent disapprove of Biden and 55 percent hold similar negative views of Trump.

“The Presidential race will have an impact on the Senate race in terms of keeping the Senate votes fairly close to the presidential results, but by no means determine the winner. There is room for both Casey and McCormick to build enough separation from their presidential candidates that they can find a path to victory even if their party loses the presidential race,” Borick said. “A significant portion of voters either haven’t heard of McCormick, or have no opinion about him, so both his and Casey’s campaign will be active in defining him for that audience.”

Gerow said, “The poll also shows that Dave McCormick has an excellent shot at defeating Bob Casey. Casey’s lackluster record will be contrasted by McCormick’s service in the military,  as a job creator and as someone who has accomplished a great deal.”

“Bob Casey has spent his entire adult life in politics pushing the Democrat party line while his family got rich off his Senate office—that’s why he’s in the race of his life against Dave McCormick. Pennsylvanians need a senator who will put them first, not a career politician like Bob Casey,” said National Republican Senate Committee Spokesman Philip Letsou.

An election survey of Pennsylvania voters ages 50 and older conducted by Fabrizio Ward & Impact Research on behalf of AARP was also released this week. Not surprisingly, those voters are concerned about Social Security, Medicare and the cost of prescription medications.

In the 2020 elections, older voters accounted for 55 percent of all Pennsylvania voters and in the 2022 mid-terms, they comprised 62 percent of the state’s voters. Eighty-five percent of voters ages 50 and older say they are “extremely motivated” to vote in this election.

Among these older voters, Trump leads Biden by 52 percent to 42 percent. Casey leads McCormick 48 percent to 44 percent.

Elizabeth Gregory, a spokeswoman for McCormick, said, “Pennsylvanians from across the commonwealth are joining Dave’s movement to send a 7th-generation Pennsylvanian, combat veteran, and PA job creator to the Senate to deliver new leadership and fresh ideas. From day one of this campaign, Dave has been laser-focused on uniting the party and training our fire on career politician Bob Casey, who has voted for Joe Biden’s failing agenda 98 percent of the time, fueling a border crisis that has killed over 4,000 Pennsylvanians from fentanyl, violent crime, record inflation and regulations that are killing the commonwealth’s energy sector. On November 5, Pennsylvania will retire empty suit Bob Casey and send Dave McCormick to the Senate.”

The Casey campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

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As a pro-Palestinian encampment and protest at the University of Pennsylvania continues, Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick is calling on the university to put an end to the illegal demonstration.

More than 3,200 students, faculty, and staff signed a petition telling the university to disband the encampment. School administrators have ordered the it closed. Protesters defied those orders.

McCormick, who visited the Penn campus last week, told DVJournal in a podcast interview, “What we’re seeing on these campuses is the explicit antisemitism, explicit anti-Americanism, an environment that’s intimidating to other students.”

“It’s standing in the way of the fundamental purpose of the universities, which is to create an environment where people can learn,” said McCormick. “It’s the threat of violence and violence has occurred in a number of places. So, I’m a strong proponent of free speech and the First Amendment. I’m a soldier. I went to war to make sure that American values would prevail. But what’s happening on those campuses goes far beyond that. It’s created an environment of hatred and bigotry that’s unacceptable.

“And these encampments are in direct violation of university policy,” said McCormick. “And so you walk through this, and it’s heartbreaking.”

“Many of the people are not students, they’re from outside,” he added. “Agitators, Antifa and others. But you do see kids on these campuses. They don’t know the difference between right and wrong. They don’t know the difference between good and evil. And you say, ‘My, God. How could that happen?’ on the campuses of some of our greatest universities and then you see that congressional testimony of those three college presidents, and you say, ‘That’s how it happened.’”

Asked about the double standard of how some people accept protesters’ antisemitism when they would not accept bigotry toward other minority groups, McCormick said, “If you had taken that congressional testimony and put African American or LGBTQ or anything instead of Jewish students, those university presidents could have never even conceived of giving the testimony they gave.

“And I think it almost emanates from a basic Marxist ideology that’s defining the world as the oppressed and the oppressors. We see this across university campuses,” he said.

McCormick noted the campus “jihad” is “not just against Israel and Jewish students. It’s directed at all of us. And so this is a big fight. It’s a big fight of ideas. It’s the big fight of hatred. And we have to embrace the fight. We have to get in the fight with leaders who are not going to mince words. And are going to be clear on the moral imperative and have the courage to speak out truthfully on it.”

“You can’t have it both ways,” McCormick said. “You can’t say you’re against antisemitism and endorse an antisemite like [U.S. Rep.] Summer Lee (D-Pa.),” he said. “You have to show leadership, and sadly, [Sen.] Bob Casey and so many others have failed.”

Casey’s silence is in stark contrast with his fellow Pennsylvania Democrat Sen. John Fetterman, who’s been an outspoken advocate for Israel’s right to self defense and an unapologetic critic of the protesters.

Fetterman said the protests were “working against peace in the Middle East” and reiterated his backing for the U.S. sending aid to the country.

“If you’re going to protest on these campuses, or now what, they’re going all across America as well, too. I really want to, can’t forget, that the situation right now could end right now, if Hamas just surrendered,” Fetterman said.

Penn senior Eyal Yakoby showed McCormick around campus and also helped to deliver the petition demanding an end to the encampment to university administrators. Yakoby also spoke at Congress prior to the college presidents’ ill-fated testimony.

“The community of Penn stands with the law and with Jameson’s words last Friday to clear the encampment. We do not stand with hate or bigotry of any kind,” he said Friday.

Far-left Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner visited the Penn pro-Palestinian encampment Wednesday and said, “The First Amendment comes from here. This is Philadelphia, we don’t have to do stupid like they did at Columbia,” Krasner told Penn’s student newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian. “What we should be doing here is upholding our tradition of being a welcoming, inviting city, where people say things, even if other people don’t like them.”

Despite Krasner’s remarks, the Philadelphia police stand ready to help the University of Pennsylvania police if called.

“The Philadelphia Police Department remains committed to facilitating safe demonstrations while ensuring the safety and upholding the First Amendment rights of all who live, work or visit our city,” a spokesperson told DVJournal. “In line with this commitment, the Philadelphia Police Department maintains a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the University of Pennsylvania Police Department to ensure effective cooperation in situations requiring a police response. As per the MOU, the PPD will provide assistance to the UPPD as needed. However, for tactical purposes, we do not publicly discuss specific planning or engagement strategies related to ongoing situations.

Our response will be based on the specific circumstances of each situation.”

A Penn spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.

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A group of Republicans flocked to the Towne House in Media Thursday to kick off the general election campaign for the GOP’s statewide candidates.

In the two days since the primary, the GOP hopefuls have made appearances in Erie, Washington County, Altoona, Harrisburg, Wilkes-Barre, and Delaware County.

U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick called out the Biden administration on energy and foreign policy.

“I will be a senator for all of you, one who fights for an economy that works for working people,” said McCormick. “Who fights for Pennsylvania to make sure our economy can prosper by exporting natural gas and pipeline reform and drilling, having the opportunity for an offshore port that gets that natural gas out of the ground and creates great-paying jobs. Helps our security. Helps our environment. That’s the vision I have for Pennsylvania.”

President Joe Biden has ordered a “pause” on LNG exports, and on Thursday his administration announced draconian new carbon emissions rules for new natural-gas-fired power plants.

“We deserve better than the leadership we saw in Afghanistan,” he added. “We deserve better than the Chinese surveillance balloon. We deserve better than when American troops are being attacked 160 times last year in the Middle East with very little response.”

(From left) Delaware County Congressional candidate Alfeia Goodwin, Montgomery County Commissioner Tom DiBello, Treasurer Stacy Garrity, Dave McCormick, Sen. Tracy Pennycuick, DA Dave Sunday, Delco GOP Chair Frank Agovino, and Auditor General Tim DeFoor.

“When you look abroad, things may be even scarier,” said McCormick, who noted that he went to Israel with his wife, Dina, to assess the aftermath of the Hamas Oct. 7 terror attack that sparked the Gaza war. “We saw first-hand the brutality, the viciousness, the pure evil that essentially the genocide that took place on Oct. 7.”

“It’s not just Israel,” said McCormick. “It’s focused on the West. And the original sin is the $100 billion that was given to Iran by President Obama and President Biden, and the deciding vote in 2015, the deciding vote, was a guy named Bob Casey. We need to be stronger. We deserve better.”

McCormick brought in some local political firepower, too.

State Sen. Tracy Pennycuick (R-Montgomery) rebutted some of the attacks Democrats have made against the GOP nominee.

“For those who think Dave McCormick is not a Pennsylvanian: seven generations. Just let that sink in for a second. I’ve been here in Pennsylvania for 20 years…Not only did he bus tables, but he also worked those jobs delivering papers and trimming Christmas trees when he was a kid.”

Pennycuick, a former Army helicopter pilot, also touted McCormick’s military experience, noting he’s a West Point graduate who also served in the Army. “He served his country, not only in combat but at the Department of Treasury.”

When people criticize McCormick for working with China while CEO of a hedge fund, “I say, ‘Thank God. Because we need somebody who knows what our enemy looks like, talks like, and sounds like,’” Pennycuick added.

York County District Attorney Dave Sunday is running for attorney general. He talked about serving in the Navy and worked his way through college and law school. While in the Navy, he participated in operations to counter drug smugglers.

“I would never imagine in 30 years, I’d be fighting that battle at home, but the drugs would be even more deadly, fentanyl, coming into our community over an open border. It’s a battle we have to win.

“I view the world through the lens of a father and a husband, and I’m definitely afraid of the world my son has to grow up in.”

A prosecutor for 16 years, he touted crime reduction during his tenure as DA.

“Crime is down 41 percent, gang violence is down 80 percent from 2022 to 2023, homicides are down 75 percent, opioid overdose deaths are down 26 percent, whereas they’ve gone up 15 percent around the state. And the way we did that was working as a community, working with police, supporting police, working with the faith-based community, with schools, going after it, being aggressive,” Sunday said. “Doing what we can to attack the supply of illegal drugs coming into our community and also the demand.”

Incumbent Treasurer Stacy Garrity, also an Army veteran, said she is running on her record.

“Since 2021, my office has done a lot, returning record amounts of unclaimed property, $274,000; over 400 military medals to veterans and their families, including 10 purple hearts.” She expanded the college savings program, stood for our veterans all across the commonwealth, and stood “for our greatest ally in the Middle East, Israel.”

“Our great slate of candidates gets things done,” said Garrity. “That is why the Democrats are running all over the place, calling us extremists. ‘Imagine the nerve of those Republicans to let you keep your own money. And decide how to best raise your family. And fight to keep government spending under control!’”

Incumbent Auditor General Timothy DeFoor said his duty is to the taxpayers. He advocated for a financial literacy program in high schools that will take effect in the 2026-27 school year.

“I care about this commonwealth and the entities that we audit. More importantly, I care about the future of this commonwealth,” he said.

Lawrence Tabas praised the statewide candidates and said Republican voter registration is rising.

“Ten years ago, the Democrats out-registered us in Pennsylvania by 1.4 million voters,” said Tabas. “On April 6, 2024, the deficit was down to 396,000. This year alone, 28,000 Democrats and independents switched registration to Republican.”

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Pennsylvania’s primary election is over. What do the results say about the general election in November?

Primary turnout was low, perhaps because both parties have already picked their presidential nominees. And both U.S. Senate candidates, incumbent Democrat Sen. Bob Casey and Republican challenger Dave McCormick, ran unopposed.

Only 22.5 percent of registered Democrats and Republicans voted in Delaware County, 15.69 percent in Montgomery County, 31.6 percent in Bucks County, and 22.96 percent in Chester County. Pennsylvania primaries are closed, meaning only voters registered with a party can participate.

Despite having dropped out of the GOP presidential primary after Super Tuesday, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley still received 150,000 votes — about 16 percent of the total — on Tuesday. But she did far better in the Delaware Valley, winning 18 percent of the vote in Bucks County, 22.87 in Delaware County, 24.22 percent in Chester County and 24.7 percent in Montgomery County.

And while President Joe Biden received a higher percentage of the total (92 percent) than Trump (83 percent), campaign pro Jeff Jubelirer says the numbers “don’t portend well for either candidate.”

Trump has to bring in “those Haley voters, particularly in southeastern Pennsylvania,” said Jubelirer, vice president at Bellevue Communications Group. And while the vote for “uncommitted” and U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips “wasn’t as impressive,” the race in Pennsylvania is likely to be so close in November that Biden needs to get them back, too. It won’t be easy.

“They’re particularly upset about the situation in the Middle East,” Jubelirer said.

Commonwealth Foundation Senior Fellow Guy Ciarrocchi, who has run for office as a Republican, agreed the candidates have to focus on their base, rather than count on pulling in swing voters.

“These two candidates will spend some time trying to persuade the three undecided voters in Pennsylvania,” he quipped. It’s going to be a contest to turn out the party’s base, “particularly with two people that have 100 percent name ID and 99 percent of Americans have made up their minds.”

Polls show Pennsylvania’s presidential race remains too close to call, and Republican strategists didn’t see anything Tuesday to change that calculus.

“There’s a significant shift now to the general election, so we should be careful not to extrapolate too much from primary results,” said Charlie Gerow with Quantum Communications. “I continue to be very bullish on the Trump campaign in Pennsylvania. He will win this pivotal state and the question is how much ‘down ballot’ effect that will have.”

Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said, “Yesterday, President Trump continued his winning streak and delivered a resounding primary win in Pennsylvania. More importantly, President Trump continues to dominate Feeble Joe Biden in every battleground state poll including his home state. The Dishonest Biden campaign has spent millions in Pennsylvania gaslighting voters, but it is not enough to make everyone ignore Bidenflation and rising costs, Biden’s border bloodbath, and his war on American energy.”

And what about the other statewide elections? What do they say about the mood of the electorate?

Allegheny County resident Eugene DePasquale, the former auditor general, beat four candidates with ties to the Delaware Valley to become the Democratic Candidate for attorney general. He will face York County District Attorney Dave Sunday in November.

Jubelirer believes DePasquale benefited from his home county and that he had run statewide before.

“What did surprise me was Erin McClelland beating [Rep.] Ryan Bizzarro for treasurer,” he added. “Not a high-profile race, but Bizzarro had institutional support.”

Ciarrocchi credited geography and gender with McClelland’s surprise win.

“If I could go to central casting and run in a Pennsylvania primary, I would love Allegheny next to my name. So, that’s one and two, in a Democratic primary, if the race is between a man and a woman, put a nickel on the woman,” he said.

Bizzarro ran commercials against incumbent Treasurer Stacy Garrity, using abortion as an issue. Jubelirer believes Democrats will continue to use abortion as a cudgel against Republicans as long as it continues to work. Ciarrocchi agreed.

“I saw this almost two decades ago in Chester County around the issue of the Mariner Pipeline, in that when we started to see races for supervisor and school board where, when Chester County was a Republican county in the early 2000s, school board members would run for reelection, as Republicans. They would say, “I kept taxes down, and test scores are up,” said Ciarrocchi.

But, “environmental activists and some of the Democratic Party committee people that started to come forward as candidates and made the races about the pipelines and pipeline safety and clean water and clean air. And at first it seemed bizarre until it started to work.”

“The Democrats don’t have much else to run on,” Gerow said about abortion. They certainly can’t promote Biden. And their support on abortion is already baked in. Plus, there is going to be pushback against the radical ‘legal abortion for any reason, at any time, paid for by the taxpayers,’ which so many Democrats now support.”

Asked whether McCormick or Casey was happier with the primary results, Jubelirer said Casey while Ciarrocchi said McCormick.

McCormick might be harmed by the lack of enthusiasm of the Haley voters for Trump compared with the young, progressive Democrats for Biden, said Jubelirer.

“They’re not going to vote for Trump and McCormick, but they may not vote at all,” said Jubelirer.

McCormick “worked very hard since 2022 in losing by a hair… yeoman’s work of going to chicken dinners, listening to people and trying to be a leader and a healer. And all of that paid off last night, he ran unchallenged, which is very unique for such a major office,” said Ciarrocchi.

And Republicans are beginning to warm to using mail-in ballots, which will also help them, he said.

One potential bright spot for the Pennsylvania GOP, according to Gerow, is the left-wing politics of Democratic candidates like U.S. Rep. Summer Lee and the party’s nominee for auditor general, state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta.

“Except for Eugene DePasquale, who is much more moderate, the Democrats nominated far-left candidates. Additionally, they are not people with backgrounds or credentials for the office they’re seeking. For example, Kenyatta, who’s now their candidate for auditor general, has never audited anything bigger than his own checkbook. His entire background has been promoting far-leftist ideology, not much more.”

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