Battleground state Republican Dave McCormick used Vice President Kamala Harris’ abrupt ascension to presumptive Democratic presidential nominee to blister his rival Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.)
Emblematic of a broader recalibration in strategy by Republicans and the Trump campaign for Harris, 59, the ad dusted off a greatest hits of her far-left positions during the 2020 election cycle.
“Bob Casey just endorsed the most liberal nominee in U.S. history,” McCormick, 58, chided in an X post featuring the spot.
Of particular focus in the former CEO of Bridgewater Associates’ campaign ad was Harris’ past remarks about energy. The spot highlighted Harris touting her support for The Green New Deal and backing a ban on fracking.
Fracking and energy policy in particular has been a politically potent issue in Pennsylvania, which is home to well over 185,000 active conventional gas and oil wells, according to the FracTracker Alliance.
McCormick has repeatedly knocked Casey on energy policy during his time campaigning.
But now his team thinks Harris has given him fresh fodder to push swing voters in the Keystone State away from Casey, 64.
“Kamala Harris is inspiring,” Casey was heard saying in the spot, “and very capable.”
“The more people get to know her, they are going to be particularly impressed by her ability,” he added.
At the national level, former President Donald Trump’s allies and Republicans are broadly highlighting Harris as a far-left, out-of-touch candidate.
In down-ballot races in swing states and districts, candidates like McCormick are following suit now that President Biden has left the Democrats’ 2024 ticket.
They have pointed to a GovTrack analysis from 2019 that ranked Harris as the senator furthest to the ideological left at the time — even more liberal than Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)
In McCormick’s new ad, Harris was seen grinning in a clip from a CBS interview she did when asked about the ranking.
At the time, Harris backed leftist policies such as Medicare for all and the Green New Deal to bolster her progressive bona fides. However, she later walked back many of those positions.
GovTrack’s founder, Joshua Tauberer, explained to The Post that it has since discontinued its single-year report cards, like the 2019 one of Harris, because it concluded that “the limited data available in a single year was not sufficient to create a reliable portrait.”
Other far-left elements of Harris’ record highlighted in the ad include her call for decriminalizing illegal entry into the US, scrapping private health insurance (which she later reversed), backing mandatory gun buybacks – and even backing calls to reduce the amount of red meat people eat.
The spot then ends with Casey’s remarks about how the public will be “particularly impressed by her ability” – which was overlayed with Harris’ notorious cackling in the background.
His ad quickly set social media ablaze and rallied conservatives.
“I forgot just how crazy some of these positions were,” GOP communicator Matt Whitlock posted on X. “Restrict red meat consumption? Letting the Boston bomber vote? Abolishing ICE to “start over?” Ending the filibuster to pass the Green New Deal?”
“Even AOC and the squad had to be like ‘hey take it easy lady,’” he added.
“Kamala Harris wants to pass the Green New Deal, ban fracking, ban offshore drilling, decriminalize illegals crossing the border, abolish ICE, defund the police, eliminate private health insurance & give taxpayer funded healthcare to illegals. She is even more EXTREME than Biden!” Donald Trump Jr. wrote.
“A summary of the facts the media don’t want you to remember,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) wrote.
Casey is averaging a 6.2 percentage point lead over McCormick, according to the latest RealClearPolitics aggregate of polls. The three-term Senate Democrat’s father previously served as Pennsylvania’s governor
