CUMBERLAND COUNTY, Pa. — U.S. Senate Republican nominee Dave McCormick made his case to women voters at an event at the West Shore Country Club in East Pennsboro Township.
The businessman spoke at a fundraiser and campaign event hosted by the Cumberland County Council of Republican Women on Thursday.
"The lack of moral leadership, the lack of clarity, moral clarity, the lack of standing up and saying, 'This is right and this is wrong,'" McCormick said. "That is what we're lacking today in our public officials. It's what we're lacking in Bob Casey."
The message of the event centered around turning out women voters in Pennsylvania. McCormick says he strongly supports in vitro fertilization and would not vote for a national abortion ban while saying that Pennsylvanians' concerns on the major issues bridge the gender gap.
"Inflation's just put enormous pressure on working families, the cost of groceries, the cost of fuel, so they're getting squeezed," McCormick told reporters after his speech. "So that's the number one issue."
McCormick has found himself under fire this summer over his prior residency in Connecticut, as well as the investments his management firm, Bridgewater Associates, made in a Chinese producer of fentanyl while he was CEO.
He responded to claims that he is out of touch with Pennsylvania voters, and touted his rural upbringing in the Commonwealth.
"I grew up in rural Pennsylvania, Bloomsburg," McCormick said. "My folks had a farm. I worked on the farm. I've stayed connected to Pennsylvania. I live in Pittsburgh, so I'm very much in touch with the issues, and my same friends that I had from high school days are the friends I have now, and I think that they all see the need for leadership."