Republican David McCormick flips pivotal Pennsylvania Senate seat, ousts Bob Casey

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Republican David McCormick has won Pennsylvania’s pivotal U.S. Senate seat, as the former CEO of the world’s largest hedge fund beat three-term Democratic Sen. Bob Casey in Tuesday’s election after accusing the incumbent of supporting policies that led to inflation, domestic turmoil and war.

The victory pads Republicans' majority in the Senate, which they wrested from Democratic control this week, and clocked in as the nation’s second-most expensive race while playing out alongside the presidential contest won by Republican Donald Trump in the nation's premier battleground state.

McCormick, 59, recaptured a GOP seat in Pennsylvania after Republicans lost one in 2022, paying off a bet that party brass made when they urged McCormick to run and consolidated support behind him.

In an interview on Fox News shortly after The Associated Press called the race Thursday, the Trump-endorsed McCormick said “people want change.”

“They're deeply distressed by the skyrocketing prices, the wide-open border, the crime in our cities, the war on fossil fuels, and they want change and common-sense leadership and that's why I think they elected President Trump and I think that's why they have elected me,” McCormick said.

Republican strategists largely credited McCormick's win to Trump's strong performance in Pennsylvania, beating Vice President Kamala Harris by about 2% as Democrats navigated headwinds like voter dissatisfaction over inflation under President Joe Biden.

That was enough to pull McCormick to victory, they said.

Beating Casey is earth-shaking for Pennsylvania’s Democratic establishment. Casey is the namesake of a former two-term governor and Pennsylvania’s longest-serving Democrat ever in the Senate.

Until Tuesday, Casey, 64, had won six statewide general elections going back to 1996, but he had never been on the same ballot as Trump.

With votes still being counted, McCormick led Casey by about 31,000 votes, or half a percentage point.

Casey did not concede Thursday, and his campaign pointed to a statement from the state's top election official that at least 100,000 ballots still remained to be counted, including provisional ballots and military and overseas ballots.

In a statement, Casey said the vote-counting process must be allowed to play out and every vote counted.

“I have dedicated my life to making sure Pennsylvanians’ voices are heard, whether on the floor of the Senate or in a free and fair election," Casey said. He added, "That is what Pennsylvania deserves.”

McCormick drew on contacts from across the worlds of government, politics and finance to secure backing for his campaign after he was CEO of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund, and served at the highest levels of former President George W. Bush’s administration.

It was McCormick’s second time running, this time with a clear primary and Trump’s endorsement. He lost narrowly to the Trump-endorsed Dr. Mehmet Oz in 2022’s expensive seven-way primary.

His wealth — he'll be one of the wealthiest senators when he joins the chamber — and connections got him flagged by Republicans as someone who could both raise campaign cash and pay his own way for a Senate campaign.

McCormick drummed out the consistent message that Casey was a do-nothing and weak career politician who was a key ally of Biden and Harris. McCormick maintained that he would bring leadership to the job.

McCormick also benefited from tens of millions of dollars in campaign cash from allies from across the worlds of hedge funds and securities trading.

He ran an energetic campaign, often traveling by bus around the state, and appeared on stage at almost every Trump rally in Pennsylvania, Trump's most visited state.

McCormick was at ease in front of TV cameras, a skill he honed as a top Treasury Department official giving regular media briefings during the onset of the 2008-09 recession and a prominent figure on Wall Street who was sought after for speaking engagements.

He has a long resume that includes being decorated for his Army service in the Gulf War, earning a Ph.D from Princeton University, running online auction house FreeMarkets Inc. — which had its name on a skyscraper in Pittsburgh during the tech boom — and sitting on the boards of prominent institutions, including Trump’s Defense Advisory Board.

McCormick had baggage, too.

He repeatedly tried to soften his stance against abortion rights after celebrating the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn 1972’s landmark Roe v. Wade decision and end a half-century of federal protection of the right to an abortion. In the end, McCormick insisted that he would oppose a federal ban on abortion and leave in place Pennsylvania’s law that allows an abortion up to the 24th week of gestation.

He also worked to ease concerns over Republican control of the Senate, saying he wouldn't vote to end the filibuster, a Senate rule that effectively makes 60 the minimum number of votes needed to pass legislation as a means to provide a check on the majority.

McCormick had to absorb accusations — first in 2022’s GOP primary and then again by Casey — that he was a rich carpetbagger from Connecticut’s ritzy Gold Coast trying to buy a Senate seat. McCormick lived there until he ran for Senate in 2022 and, while he bought a house in Pittsburgh, he also maintained a massive home in Connecticut until a daughter graduated high school earlier this year.

McCormick, in turn, stressed his seventh-generation roots in Pennsylvania, talked up his high school days wrestling in towns across northern Pennsylvania — a sport that took him to the U.S. military academy at West Point — and growing up the son of two educators. His father became the first chancellor of Pennsylvania’s state-owned university system — under Casey’s father.

Still, McCormick helped bring the carpetbagger caricature to life by mispronouncing the name of one of Pennsylvania’s best-known local beers.

McCormick also suffered through a legion of attacks on his hedge fund’s investments, including accusations that he got rich at America’s expense by buying shares in Chinese companies that the federal government later came to consider part of Beijing’s military and surveillance industrial complex.

McCormick, meanwhile, tried to capitalize on turmoil in the Middle East and at the U.S. southern border with Mexico.

McCormick blamed Casey for supporting Biden administration border policies that he said had enabled illegal immigration and for backing policies that he said had empowered Iran to destabilize the Middle East.

He made a bid for Jewish voters by traveling to the Israel-Gaza border, speaking to Jewish audiences across the state and arguing that Casey and the Biden administration have not fought antisemitism or backed Israel strongly enough in the Israel-Hamas war.

On the border, he backed Trump’s pledge to carry out a mass deportation of immigrants in the country without permission — prioritizing people with criminal records — and vowed to press for U.S. military action in Mexico to target fentanyl trafficking networks, a controversial idea that originated with Trump.

Follow Marc Levy at https://x.com/timelywriter.

Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., departs a polling place after voting, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Scranton, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., left, stops to speak to members of the media before voting, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Scranton, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

FILE - This combination of images shows from left, Republican Pennsylvania Senate candidate David McCormick, left, in Pittsburgh, on Sept. 21, 2023, and opponent, Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., in Chicago, on Aug. 22, 2024. (AP Photo Gene J. Puskar, left; and AP Photo Paul Sancya, File)

Republican Pennsylvania Senate candidate David McCormick arrives to speak during an election night watch party, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Republican Pennsylvania Senate candidate David McCormick, left, points to the crowd while on stage with his wife, Dina Powell, during an election night watch party, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Republican Pennsylvania Senate candidate David McCormick, left, arrives to speak with his wife, Dina Powell, during an election night watch party, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Republican Pennsylvania Senate candidate David McCormick speaks during an election night watch party, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president said Thursday she will ask President-elect Donald Trump to deport non-Mexican migrants directly to their home countries, rather than dumping them at the Mexican border.

President Claudia Sheinbaum said she hopes to reach an agreement with Trump so that “they send people who come from other countries to their countries of origin.”

Mexico, like any other country, is not obligated to accept non-Mexican migrants, but it has agreed to do so in the recent past, especially from countries like Cuba and Venezuela, which often refuse deportation flights from the United States, but may accept them from Mexico.

Mexican officials have said they are already making preparations if Trump follows through on his pledge to carry out large-scale deportations of migrants who lack the proper documents once he takes office on Jan. 20.

Mexico is obviously fearful of two things: large-scale deportations of Mexican citizens and large numbers of non-Mexicans being deported at border crossings that are ill-equipped to deal with them.

Experts estimate there are about 4 million Mexicans living in the U.S. without proper documentation. Mexico is already preparing its consular services in the U.S. with additional manpower to handle deportation cases involving its own citizens.

But third-country deported migrants pose a thornier challenge, and could include considerable numbers of Haitians, Cubans and Venezuelans.

Between 2022 and 2023, Mexico agreed to accept up to 30,000 migrants per month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, countries that are difficult for the U.S. to deport to for diplomatic or political reasons. That agreement is currently in place.

In late 2023, Venezuela said Mexico had repatriated about 300 Venezuelan migrants on two flights.

Such returns pose a monetary burden for the Mexican government. Mexico had offered some of the repatriated Venezuelans a stipend of about $110 per month for six months to help them re-establish themselves in their home countries.

However, the task of finding jobs, shelter and transportation for deported Mexicans would presents an even greater challenge for Mexico.

Migration has long been a sensitive issue between the two countries, and has become even more urgent following Trump's threat to impose 25% tariffs on Mexican goods unless the country does more to stem the flow of migrants and drugs.

In November, Trump claimed that Sheinbaum had “agreed to stop migration through Mexico” following a phone call between the two leaders. Sheinbaum, meanwhile, suggested Mexico was already doing its part and had no interest in closing its borders.

“We reiterate that Mexico’s position is not to close borders but to build bridges between governments and between peoples,” Sheinbaum said at the time.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

FILE - Newly-sworn in President Claudia Sheinbaum addresses supporters in the Zócalo, Mexico City's main square, on Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano, File)