WASHINGTON — Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Sen. Ted Cruz and Mike Pompeo all came out early for Dave McCormick.
Then, Mehmet Oz answered with support from Sean Hannity and Ted Nugent.
After McCormick rolled out backing from Mike Huckabee on a recent Friday, Oz responded with Rick Perry the following Monday and Ryan Zinke on Tuesday.
The day after that, McCormick announced he had in his corner Rep. Elise Stefanik, the No. 3 ranking GOP member in the House.
The rolling deluge of endorsements from national figures may seem more suited for a presidential race. But in this case, these outsiders are piling into the Republican primary in one of the most consequential U.S. Senate races in the country in Pennsylvania.
It’s a strikingly different approach than that of the leading Democratic contenders, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman and Rep. Conor Lamb, who are largely steering clear of national associations in favor of shining light on support from Pennsylvanians at the local level.
The divergent strategies in this battleground state are also reflective of the current national political environment. Feeling a cresting wave at their backs, Republicans are eager to make the election a referendum on the powers that be in Democratic-controlled Washington, whereas Democrats are striving for separation from what some voters see as an ineffective swamp.
“The Republican Party has people in the national sphere related to Trump that are popular to the Republican base. For the Democrats, who would you tie to yourself nationally that would be helpful?,” asked Jason Fitzgerald, the president of a Harrisburg-based economic development company who works with politicians from both parties. “The Democrats are going to want this to be a Pennsylvania-based race. They’re not going to want this to be about national issues. If this is about national issues, they’ll lose.”
Just this week, as McCormick’s campaign provided the Trump-aligned Breitbart News a first look at an endorsement from former Trump trade adviser Robert Lighthizer, Fetterman’s team touted support from the Pennsylvania Postal Workers Union, which represents 10,800 workers across the commonwealth.
Lamb, the congressman who represents the Pittsburgh suburbs, has anchored his campaign around support from local plumber, iron worker and building trades unions, as well as dozens of county executives, township commissioners and state representatives.
Neither Lamb nor Fetterman have heralded an endorsement from a Democratic senator or member of Congress from outside Pennsylvania. Fetterman loudly championed the blessing of Bernie Sanders during his 2018 campaign for lieutenant governor. But with less than six weeks to go before the primary, the democratic socialist from Vermont is nowhere to be found.
A source close to Fetterman confirmed the campaign did not seek Sanders’ formal support.
“Lamb and Fetterman are probably looking at the environment in the fall and making some calculation that even in the primary they don’t want to nationalize the race,” said Mark Nicastre, a Democratic consultant who served as Gov. Tom Wolf’s communications director.
The state of the two party primaries are also likely driving the need for national validators.
In the Democratic race, polls have shown Fetterman sitting on a double-digit lead, lending him little incentive to rock the boat with anyone who could be wielded against him as a distraction. There’s also lingering memories from the 2016 primary, when the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee endorsed Katie McGinty over Joe Sestak, even though many local Democrats viewed Sestak as the stronger general election candidate. McGinty lost to GOP Sen. Pat Toomey that November by 1.5%
“The national people are staying out,” said Greg Stewart, chairman of the Centre County Democrats. “It is so important, they don’t want to divide anyone.”
The Republican primary, however, remains fiercely competitive between McCormick and Oz. Neither have been deeply rooted in state politics prior to this campaign, so drawing any positive attention to themselves amid a crowded primary field counts as a win. McCormick moved from Connecticut and Oz is a transplant from New Jersey. Known national validators can help build their biographies – to an extent.
Over the weekend, former Major League Baseball player Johnny Damon announced his support of Oz in a video. During his 17-year career, Damon played for seven different teams, including the Kansas City Royals, Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees but never the Philadelphia Phillies or the Pittsburgh Pirates. He currently lives in Florida.
“The Republican primary is not even about Pennsylvania, which is deeply ironic because neither of them are from here,” said J.J. Abbott, a Democratic consultant who runs a communications firm. “They are basically trying to buff up their MAGA credentials which seems at the expense of their Pennsylvania brand.”
Oz is capitalizing on relationships he made over his 12-year career as a successful television talk show host. McCormick is leveraging his connections from the Trump administration, in which his wife, Dina Powell, served as a deputy national security adviser.
Jess Szymanski, a spokeswoman for McCormick, said that taken together the endorsements are meant to present McCormick to voters as an “America First conservative Republican.”
“A lot of voters look at, when you go to Washington, who’s someone you’d ideologically closely align with? Pompeo shows Dave will be tough on China and stand up to our adversaries. Cruz shows Dave’s a conservative, principled Republican, very much pro-American energy. It does matter and it is important for voters,” Szymanski said.
But there’s also speculation that McCormick and Oz are fashioning these endorsements for an audience of one — Trump himself — in hopes of moving him into their respective corner in the closing weeks. McCormick was spotted by The Washington Post having lunch at Mar-a-Lago Wednesday, ahead of a meeting with Trump. Oz reportedly had dined with the former president a few weeks ago.
Trump is still weighing endorsing in the primary since his first choice, Sean Parnell, was forced to drop out of the race after losing custody of his children.
It remains to be seen whether McCormick or Oz will continue their warm embrace of out-of-state conservative stars with strong ties to Trump if either of them wins the nomination in May.
Whether Trump or President Joe Biden is more likely to drop into Pennsylvania this fall is a bit of a parlor game at the moment. Biden carried the state in 2020, but only by 81,000 votes. And as he looks to 2024, Trump will inevitably want to touch down in the states he still argues, without an iota of merit, were stolen.
“Independents likely care less about Trump as a negative,” said Nicastre. “Democrats are less energized by the Trump association without him on the ballot, and there’s a group of Republicans who have emerged over the last few cycles who will likely be more animated by Trump.”
