Big Shot to Campaign Trail: The Tale of David McCormick

Hey, folks, let’s talk about David McCormick. You might remember him from Wall Street’s high-flyin’ days. But before he was running for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, he was more of a finance wiz, making moves that could rival Gordon Gekko.

Wall Street Whiz

McCormick was the big cheese at Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund. Yeah, he was the CEO, jet-setting around the globe, getting invitations for keynotes, and snagging board positions like picking apples in fall. Quite the charmed life, right?

With pockets deeper than the East River, Republicans thought, here’s a guy who can fundraise and maybe even bankroll his campaign a bit. Sounds like a dream candidate, but hold the phone.

The China Conundrum

McCormick’s Wall Street history became a hot target. His GOP rivals in the 2022 primary used it to whack him over the head, and now Democrats are doing the same in his contest against third-term Sen. Bob Casey.

Casey isn’t pulling punches. In speeches and ads, he takes aim at investments Bridgewater made in Chinese companies when McCormick was at the helm. We’re talking outfits linked to Beijing’s military and surveillance game.

"While I was fighting for union rights and working families in Pennsylvania, he was making a lot of money investing in China," Casey proclaimed to a union crowd at a Teamsters hall in the ‘burbs of Harrisburg. "He not only invested in Chinese companies, he invested in companies that built the Chinese military."

McCormick? He dodged an interview request. Smart move or evasive? You decide.

Timing is Everything

Now, these accusations about profiting off America’s geopolitical rival come as Washington’s relations with Beijing hit a cold spell. Being Bridgewater’s CEO from 2009 onwards, McCormick saw U.S. investment in Chinese companies spike. Hedge funds, institutional investors, and fund managers were diving in headfirst.

This isn’t just about Wall Street. Farmers, tech firms, and semiconductor companies all have ties to China. Derek Scissors, a China specialist at the American Enterprise Institute, noted that despite Washington’s frostiness since 2016, the U.S. financial sector “plowed right through that.”

Bridging Worlds: From Bridgewater to Politics

McCormick’s tenure at Bridgewater saw the hedge fund become a major player in China. According to regulatory disclosures, they’ve got at least $1.4 billion, maybe more, sunk in Chinese assets. However, McCormick frames China’s investments as minimal—just 2% of the company’s assets—and says that investing in China was “unavoidable” given market expectations and robust growth.

Yet in his campaign, he’s switched gears, calling China an “existential” threat and urging the U.S. to outstrip them economically and tech-wise. You see the contrast? McCormick’s now tough-talking, wanting to cut U.S. investments in Chinese tech tied to national security or the military.

From Finance to Senate Runs

When Bridgewater hired McCormick in 2009, its founder Ray Dalio was already bullish on China. At that time, U.S. financial entities were pumping money into China, which had a fast-growing economy. Greg Brown from the University of North Carolina says, “The Chinese economy was doing well for a long time and there was money to be made there.”

Transition to Politics

Come early 2022, McCormick left Bridgewater to chase a Senate seat in Pennsylvania, navigating a crowded seven-way Republican primary. The China connection trailed him: at one point, an ad by GOP rival Mehmet Oz showed “finance bros” joking about picking up lines and investing in China.

Even former President Donald Trump got in on the action at a rally, knocking McCormick for having been with a firm that “managed money for communist China.”

McCormick narrowly lost to Oz in the 2022 primary. Fast forward to this summer, Casey runs ads across Pennsylvania markets, hammering McCormick for Bridgewater’s ties to Chinese military-linked firms.

“Dave McCormick sold us out to make a fortune,” declare hard-hatted speakers in one of Casey’s ads. “That’s the real Dave McCormick.”

The Candidate’s Resume

Look, McCormick isn’t one-trick Wall Street pony. He barely mentions his hedge fund past while stumping. Instead, he highlights other parts of his resume. Football, wrestling in high school, West Point grad, Bronze Star during the first Gulf War—he’s got plenty to brag about.

He even has a Ph.D. from Princeton, and during the tech boom, he ran FreeMarkets Inc. It’s all part of the package deal he’s selling as he aims for that Senate seat.

Fundraising Juggernaut

Despite sidestepping his Wall Street history on the campaign trail, his old finance buddies haven’t forgotten him. In his two Senate runs, the super PACs backing him have pulled in tens of millions from the finance sector. Go figure.

While Scissors argues McCormick’s “changed his tune because he’s a political type,” it’s clear McCormick is adapting his pitch for a different crowd. The Senate race is shaping up to be quite the showdown.

So, keep an eye on it, folks. This one’s going to be a barnburner.

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Photo Caption: President-elect Donald Trump shakes hands with David McCormick at Trump International Golf Club, November 20, 2016, in Bedminster Township, New Jersey. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

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