We can say this with confidence about David McCormick: The man is rich.
In advertising and campaign appearances, McCormick, who is in the Republican primary for a Pennsylvania Senate seat, emphasizes his roots in Bloomsburg, a small town along the state’s Susquehanna River.
But his personal financial disclosure statement, which is required by all candidates for federal office, paints the picture of a consummate New York and Washington insider.
Last year alone, McCormick earned more than $22 million in salary from Bridgewater Associates, the Connecticut hedge fund where he served as CEO until his retirement in January. He sold options in Bechtel, a politically connected global construction company where he was a board member, for an additional $2.2 million. For serving on the board of In-Q-Tel, a nonprofit venture capital firm close to the US intelligence community, he earned $70,000 more. (McCormick is also a member of the Defense Policy Board and holds a security clearance.)
And that’s just income. Because federal disclosure forms require candidates to list assets only within a wide range, it is not possible to calculate McCormick’s net worth with any precision. But that much is clear: If McCormick won the Senate seat, which is being vacated by the outgoing Pat Toomey, he would be one of the wealthiest members of Congress.
The same would be true for his biggest rival, Mehmet Oz.
Winning Oz, Carla Sands and Jeff Bartos in next month’s primaries will not be an easy task. Oz, the famed doctor, won Donald Trump’s endorsement last week, despite McCormick’s diligent efforts to court the former president. An average of public polls shows that McCormick is holding onto a lead of about 4 percentage points, although it’s worth noting that polls from races across the state are famously unreliable.
Breaking down McCormick’s wealth
McCormick is married to Dina Powell McCormick, a former Trump administration official who now works for Goldman Sachs. The pair listed assets worth between $116 million and $290 million, and possibly more.
They own a Pennsylvania Christmas tree farm that once belonged to his parents; an investment property on a Colorado ranch; and rental properties in several other cities. McCormick often mentions the farm, which he bought 10 years ago, in his campaign ads and appearances. He has expanded it to grow soy and other crops, the campaign says, but at $1 million to $5 million, it represents only a fraction of his wealth.
The couple has split tens of millions across various funds — most notably, they have at least $50 million worth of stock in Bridgewater, his former employer. McCormick has been faced with questions about the company’s investments in China, as well as how it handles teacher pensions in Pennsylvania.
McCormick is also an investor in ArcelorMittal, a multinational steel company that competes with Pittsburgh-based US Steel — through a revocable trust, a type of trust that can be changed during life and often used to manage assets and settle estates upon death. prevent .
The pair also owns corporate bonds from Delta Air Lines, Ford, General Electric, General Motors, Hilton, Oracle and UPS. For the record, they own a few million dollars worth of US Treasury bonds.
Rare company
The McCormicks’ obligations similarly show their extraordinary wealth and connections.
They listed between $20 million and $93.5 million in liabilities, including for two mortgages and a line of credit of up to $25 million. Their other commitments relate to various “capital commitments,” meaning potential private equity investments, including as much as half a million dollars in Revolution’s “Rise of the Rest” seed fund.
The fund, run by AOL founder Steve Case, invests in start-up companies outside of the usual Silicon Valley and East Coast haunts. The fund’s investors include Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon; Governor Glenn Youngkin of Virginia; Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google; James Murdoch, son of Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch; Tory Burch, the fashion designer; and David Rubenstein, a founder of the Carlyle Group.
An interesting coincidence here: JD Vance, who was once a managing partner at Revolution, is now a Senate candidate in neighboring Ohio. Vance’s personal rags-to-riches story, as detailed in his book “Hillbilly Elegy,” was integral to the fund’s sales pitch.
Although Vance is nearly 20 years younger, the two men have led remarkably parallel lives. Like McCormick, Vance served in the United States Army and attended Ivy League training before embarking on a career in finance. Both reinvented themselves as MAGA warriors when they decided to run for Midwestern Senate seats.
But Vance got Trump’s support while McCormick didn’t.
In Pennsylvania, McCormick has fought bitterly with Oz and has made accusations that man has closer ties to China, which is a more committed conservative, and who is the more authentic representative of the state. Each has plowed millions of his own money into the Senate battle — with McCormick donating nearly $7 million to his campaign and Oz contributing more than $11 million to his efforts.
McCormick has benefited from his ties to Wall Street. According to an analysis by Bloomberg, more than 60 executives at Goldman Sachs contributed the maximum amount allowed to its campaign.
A super PAC in support of McCormick, Honor Pennsylvania, has raised $15.3 million. Nearly a third of that money comes from Ken Griffin, a billionaire hedge fund manager who supports Republican candidates. Another donor to the super PAC is Harry Sloan, a former MGM executive who backed Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential bid.
Intriguingly, Arjun Gupta, the founder and chief believer of TeleSoft Partners, also brought in $100,000. He mostly donates to Democrats. McCormick’s disclosure statement indicates that he is a limited partner in a TeleSoft investment fund. Until McCormick decided to run, both men were trustees of the Aspen Institute, a think tank that aims to “solve the greatest challenges of our time.”
Alyce McFadden contributed to research.
What to read?
A day after a federal judge abolished federal mask mandates on planes, buses and trains, President Biden said Americans should decide for themselves whether to wear masks on public transportation, Katie Rogers reports.
Jonathan Weisman examines a phenomenon that frustrates Democratic Party leaders: their grassroots tendency to throw millions of dollars at candidates with no hope of winning.
The Federal Department of Education is retroactively crediting millions of borrowers with additional loan forgiveness payments, Stacy Cowley reports. Student debt has become a major political cause of the left, mounting pressure on President Biden to relieve borrowers through executive measures.
how they run
After allegations of assault, an ad with… pig jokes
Two new TV ads in Nebraska indicate how allegations of sexual assault against the Republican frontrunner for governor will develop in the final weeks of the campaign.
Neither the ad from the frontrunner, Charles Herbster, nor that of his main Republican rival, Jim Pillen, mentions the allegations. Not directly, at least.
Herbster, who was accused of groping several women, including a Republican senator, has denied the charges in a radio interview and on Twitter†
“Just as the establishment has attacked President Trump, they are now lying about me,” Herbster said in the ad he released, which quickly moved on to other issues. Herbster, a rancher and wealthy businessman, has Trump’s backing in his bid to replace Governor Pete Ricketts, who is serving a limited term.
In the advertisement of Pillen, who is also a farmer and wealthy businessman, his young grandchildren ask him political questions. He responds with short pig-inspired answers. Do you want to lower property taxes? “Whole pig.” Do politicians spend too much? “Like pigs at a trough.” Ban homework? “When pigs fly.” The scene seems to be meant to convey that Pillen is not only a conservative, but also a man you can trust in your family.
As Jonathan Weisman reported, Republican candidates in several states face allegations of sexual assault and domestic violence — yet few of their main rivals, even in competitive races, want to talk about it.
On Tuesday, Trump announced that he would hold a rally in Nebraska at the end of April. A guest speaker: Herbster.
— Blake & Lea
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