GOP Star’s Big-Money Secret Smells a Lot Like Dr. Oz
The last time Republicans hoped to win a Senate seat in Pennsylvania, they suffered a devastating loss with the TV doctor Mehmet Öz, whom Democrats painted as an out-of-state mega-millionaire from New Jersey. This time around, the GOP is hoping for a better outcome with Dave McCormick, a Gulf War veteran turned hedge fund CEO.
There’s only one problem: McCormick also faces attacks for being an out-of-state mega-millionaire.
For months, Democrats have hit McCormick over reports that he actually lives in an oceanside mansion in Westport, Connecticut.
Now, an updated version of McCormick’s financial disclosure, filed in May with the Senate Ethics Committee, raises new questions about his ties to the New England region.
The byzantine document details all McCormick’s assets and income as well as property belonging to his wife, former Deputy National Security Adviser Dina Powell.
McCormick submitted a version of the form in January, then quietly amended it. The report is complex but The Daily Beast’s analysis shows that one of the biggest changes includes the recording of more than a dozen Connecticut-based investments.
This late disclosure—as well as the fact McCormick appears to have purchased several Pennsylvania bonds since his last bid—could suggest he saw “carpetbagger” attacks as potentially damaging, and may have attempted to obscure Connecticut ties.
At issue are several government securities held in a “Fidelity David H. McCormick Revocable Trust Fixed Income Account.” In April 2022, more than a year before the Associated Press reported that he was living in Connecticut, and as McCormick ran in that year’s GOP Senate primary, he disclosed these bonds as “Connecticut State & Local General Obligation & Revenue Bonds” and “New York State & Local General Obligation & Revenue Bonds,” line items that appear to have served as umbrellas for individual investments.
McCormick lost that primary to Öz. In the general election, one of Democrats’ strongest attack lines centered on whether Öz lived in New Jersey, where he owned a mansion that appeared in campaign content.
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Many Republicans felt McCormick would have been the stronger candidate. But in August 2023, doubts began to appear over the strength of his own ties to Pennsylvania. The AP story pointed to documents and interview footage suggesting McCormick lived in a $16 million Connecticut waterfront mansion. Flight records bolstered the theory.
McCormick announced his second bid but dawdled in filing his financial disclosure, requesting an extension before submitting it on Jan. 21 of this year. The document had many similarities to the one he filed in 2022, listing nearly 200 assets. The only one tied to Connecticut appeared to be a single bond, recently relinquished.
On May 6, McCormick filed an amended disclosure. The new document breaks out several items from the earlier version into individual investments. In total, the update revealed that McCormick and Powell’s assets amount to $129.6 million at minimum—$7 million more than was described in January.
The more interesting point is where those newly revealed assets are based.
In the first filing, McCormick’s listed assets include one item, worth $1 million to $5 million, described as “state and local general obligation and revenue municipal bonds.” Where those bonds were issued is not specified.
The second version of the disclosure lists investments individually. Of 17 municipal bonds, 13 were issued in Connecticut, amounting to almost $1.7 million in Connecticut-based assets. None of the bonds newly detailed in May are based in Pennsylvania.
A spokesperson for McCormick did not respond to a request for comment about why the securities were not listed individually in the first filing.
Danielle Caputo, Legal Counsel for Ethics at the Campaign Legal Center, told The Daily Beast: “By not including, initially, the name of the bond or where it came from, that was not in line with the disclosure rules.”
Pointing to Senate ethics instructions that ask candidates to disclose the specific government entity, bond type, coupon, and maturity date for each investment, Caputo said: “I assume that is at least partially why he amended it.”
The newly disclosed Connecticut bonds are not the only sign McCormick may have foreseen scrutiny of his investments. Since his 2022 primary loss, he and his wife appear to have acquired new assets in Pennsylvania, which McCormick listed on both his original and his amended financial disclosures.
McCormick’s Pennsylvania bonds, held within his trust, are worth between $450,000 and $1 million and appear to be associated with health care and senior living service networks. These investments weren’t listed individually on McCormick’s 2022 disclosure. Nor does it appear they were held in some larger fund. The municipal securities McCormick disclosed then were explicitly linked to other states, suggesting he bought the Pennsylvania bonds after his last bid for Congress went south—and prior to his 2024 reboot.
Powell appears to have picked up more than 50 Pennsylvania-based bonds since 2022. In the January 2024 disclosure, these are all covered by one item worth more than $1 million that combines state and local bonds.
The amended disclosure lists the bonds individually, revealing they are worth $4.7 million at minimum and are largely based in Pennsylvania and New York. The disclosure from McCormick’s last Senate bid listed only one item for municipal securities owned by Powell, a group of “New York state and local issuer” bonds.
Powell did not respond to a request for comment.
McCormick’s “liability in the campaign so far seems to be that he's looked at as this guy who lives in Connecticut, not Pennsylvania,” Jordan Libowitz, vice president for communications at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told The Daily Beast.
“There may be a political aspect to this. When he is viewed as potentially having a liability of being more attached to Connecticut than Pennsylvania, it may have been he decided to go buy Pennsylvania bonds to even it out.”
The Pennsylvania GOP did not respond to a request for comment on McCormick’s amended disclosure. Democrats sensed new ammunition.
“Connecticut mega-millionaire David McCormick has lied to Pennsylvanians about everything from where he lives and where he grew up to his support for banning abortion,” Pennsylvania Democratic Party spokesperson TaNisha Cameron said.
“Now he’s been caught trying to hide his investments, making it clear once again that Pennsylvanians can’t trust him.”
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