McCormick pledges to serve only two terms if elected

Republican candidate Dave McCormick placed term limits on himself if he should win the U.S. Senate race against three-term Democratic incumbent Bob Casey, Jr., pledging to serve only two terms.

Speaking at an event in Lancaster, McCormick said, “we need to have term limits. So, if elected, I’ll limit myself to two terms. Somebody said to me, you’re just beginning to get seniority, then you can make a difference. If you have to go to Washington for twelve years to get seniority and make a difference, the system is screwed up.”

McCormick and Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt addressed a crowd of approximately 100 supporters in an event sponsored by Building America’s Future.

The Army West Point graduate opened by discussing the decision to run for the Senate again, after losing the 2022 GOP primary to Mehmet Oz by 900 votes.

“We talked to our six daughters and they’re not exactly for me running again and by that I mean they’re 100 percent against it,” McCormick joked.

“America is the greatest country in the history of the world and you think it’s given us all so much. You think you can actually do something. You got to go and do your part.”

McCormick spoke to a number of issues, including spending by Democrats, failed leadership from President Joe Biden, and the increase in crime around the country.

But he saved some of his sharpest criticisms for the manner that the Biden Administration has dealt with the influx of fentanyl into the country.

“The ingredients are coming from China, they’re being sent to Mexico, manufactured (there) and coming across the border” he said. “And it takes 48-72 hours for it to make its way to Pennsylvania. We have to stop it. This is a war.

“So one of the things I’ve said, which has been somewhat controversial, is that I would consider sending our military into Mexico to take out the cartels. We’ve got incredible capability right now. In the Middle East, these drones are precise. We’ve got precision guided missiles. We can destroy those cartels. And we should consider that. That would be one of the first things I will be pushing the president to do. Take a much more aggressive action against what is truly a war on America.”

McCormick also had some comments about strife on college campuses.

“You look at what’s happening on our campuses … These kids don’t know the difference between right and wrong, good and evil,” he said.

“And then you watch those three college presidents testify (Penn, Harvard and MIT) and you say, oh, it’s a lack of leadership, a lack of moral clarity. And Bob Casey has been at the scene of the crime every time. He’s failed to stand up and say anything about what happening on our campuses, really calling balls and strikes. This is a moment that requires absolute leadership.

“So I say to people on the campaign trail, if you want the status quo, if you want to keep going in the same direction, you should go to Bob Casey. I’m not your guy.

“But if you want change, if you want leadership, if you want someone who is going to fight, who doesn’t owe anybody anything, who’s going to fight for the future of Pennsylvania, then I’m your guy.”

McCormick also says he wants to change the culture of Washington, noting that “we need to be able to fire bureaucrats who are underperforming.” He briefly suggested moving failing agencies out of D.C., hinting that the Department of Energy should be in Pittsburgh.

The campaign followed the event with a press release, highlighting a Tuesday story from The Daily Caller stating that McCormick would announce his plans during the session with Stitt.

The Daily Caller story said that McCormick’s remarks “will detail his planned push to move the Department of Energy (DOE) headquarters out of the nation’s capital during a Tuesday afternoon sit-down discussion with Republican Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a source familiar with the matter told the Daily Caller News Foundation. McCormick’s idea is to move the DOE to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to place federal officials in closer proximity to an energy-producing part of the country.”

Stitt, 51, the two-term Oklahoma governor, expressed his support for McCormick and said that is was confident that Republicans can flip the Senate in 2024.

“I think it’s 80-20 that we can do it. We have to do it.”

McCormick was not made available for questions afterward.

“David McCormick’s support for an abortion ban with no exceptions for rape or incest is disqualifying – and as he campaigns in Lancaster today, he needs to answer for Trump’s suggestion that states should monitor women’s pregnancies,” said TaNisha Cameron, Pennsylvania Democratic Party spokesperson.

Steve Ulrich is the managing editor of PoliticsPA.

This article was originally published in PoliticsPA.