HOMESTEAD, Pennsylvania — Debbie Phillippi and her friends loved businessman David McCormick when he was running for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania this past spring. When he lost, all of them, she said, were very disappointed.
When she found out this week that he was supporting Dr. Mehmet Oz, who beat McCormick by less than 900 votes, she laughed a little, paused, then thought: “Well, if he can support Oz after that contentious race, then so can she.”
“What am I going to do?” she asked. “Not show up? Vote for Fetterman?”
Phillippi, who until recently was a registered Democrat, said her core group of girlfriends who shared her support for McCormick and her doubts about Oz are on the same page.
McCormick gets the joke. In an interview with the Washington Examiner, he said he gets that voters may not like the image of him spending months on end beating up his opponent — along with millions of dollars — to then turn around and not only support Oz but raise money for him and get on the trail as well.
“In all seriousness, we need a strong Republican senator to replace Pat Toomey,” said McCormick. “John Fetterman will take our country and Pennsylvania in a horrible, horrible direction, and we need to pull the party together. That is what conservatives do, which is why I’m here supporting Mehmet Oz.”
McCormick will do his first event with Oz on Sept. 7 in Pittsburgh at a national security event.
Phillippi said she and her friends are already planning to go to support Oz and to thank McCormick. “I plan on encouraging him to run for Senate in 2024 if I get to talk to him,” she said. “That is the best of both worlds, having both men in the U.S. Senate representing Pennsylvania.”
In the days following his loss in that bruising primary, McCormick offered Oz his help and, in the meantime, embarked on a thank you tour of the state, including events in Bloomsburg, Clark Summit, Homestead, and Delaware County in suburban Philadelphia. This was something former state GOP Chairman Rob Gleason said he’s never seen in his long career.
McCormick said his decision to reach out to voters was based on wanting to give back to the state and to the people who had supported him in the primary. “I want them to know that I appreciate their support and to let them know I am not going anywhere,” said McCormick, who calls the Shadyside neighborhood of Pittsburgh home.
McCormick said it isn’t just Oz he is backing but also down-ballot candidates across the state. John Fetterman, the state’s sitting lieutenant governor and Democratic Senate nominee, has been leading Oz in the polls. Fetterman, who has not held an interactive event in public since his stroke and subsequent heart surgery days before the May primary, has spent his time smack-talking Oz on Twitter.
Oz, for his part, has gone dark on the air. He has spent his time on the road, zig-zagging across the state, meeting with voters, attending county fairs and parish festivals, and sitting in on business roundtables. He has randomly showed up at popular diners, barber shops, and manufacturing plants across the state.
Reporters and “very online” commentators have glamorized Fetterman for his tweeting but ignored Oz’s real-life activities.
Jackie Kulback, chairwoman of the Cambria County Republican Party, says those personal interactions are more important than you think. She stressed that they may not have shown up in the polls yet, but people think this election and the consequences of who wins are too important not to vote Republican, even if the Republican isn’t their preferred candidate.
“There are a lot of Republicans who aren’t thrilled their guy or gal didn’t win — which, by the way, is pretty normal,” she said. “But they are not going to sit on their hands, nor are they going to vote for Fetterman. We have people who literally are just counting the day until they can vote.”
Huntington County Republican Party Chairman Arnie McClure, a staunch and vocal supporter of McCormick during the primary, said he will do what it takes to help Oz win. “Like McCormick, I am 100% behind him, and people in this county will be out there supporting him as well,” said McClure.
McCormick said he has already maxed out financially to Oz. “I had a lot of big donors, and I’ve called them and told them, ‘Listen, it was a tough, tough primary, and we went at each other hard, but we need to win this seat and need to beat Fetterman,’” he said.
As for his future, McCormick isn’t saying, except that it does involve staying in Pittsburgh and getting Republicans elected this cycle and in the future.
Does that include himself? “Stay tuned,” he said.
