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Bridgewater’s Ex-CEO McCormick Opens Pennsylvania GOP Senate Bid

Bridgewater’s Ex-CEO McCormick Opens Pennsylvania GOP Senate Bid

David McCormick, who stepped aside last week as chief executive officer at hedge fund giant Bridgewater Associates, kicked off his bid for a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania by registering Wednesday to enter the race as a Republican.

A formal announcement is widely expected to quickly follow his filing with the U.S. Federal Election Commission. 

The GOP primary race to succeed the retiring Republican Pat Toomey pits McCormick against celebrity physician  Mehmet Oz, among others, in a battleground state that was won by Donald Trump in 2016 and then flipped in 2020 to help propel Joe Biden to the White House.

Bridgewater’s Ex-CEO McCormick Opens Pennsylvania GOP Senate Bid

 McCormick, 56, was raised in Pennsylvania, but has long operated in the rarefied worlds of Washington and Wall Street. He’s half of a finance power couple along with Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s Dina Powell McCormick, his second wife. The race will test whether his background resonates with an increasingly populist Republican base. 

Dina Powell McCormick was a deputy national security adviser to Trump from March 2017 to January 2018.

McCormick, a West Point graduate and Gulf War veteran, has been living in Connecticut, where Bridgewater is based, but recently bought a house outside Pittsburgh. He’s betting that the same political currents that lifted Republican Glenn Youngkin, former co-CEO of the Carlyle Group Inc., to an upset win in November’s Virginia gubernatorial election, will bolster his prospects in Pennsylvania. 

Youngkin provided Republicans with what could be a winning strategy as he embraced Trump just enough to win the nomination, but ignored the former president during the general election. 

Former Trump administration officials are also working on his campaign. Hope Hicks, Stephen Miller and Cliff Sims, all of whom worked in the White House, will be official advisers.

Another Trump deputy national security advisor, Matt Pottinger, former adviser Kellyanne Conway, former White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, herself a candidate for governor of Arkansas, and former Treasury Department spokesman Tony Sayegh are all supporters of McCormick’s campaign, but unofficial advisors, according to people familiar with the matter.

Trump initially endorsed Sean Parnell, who suspended his run for the seat in November after a judge sided with his wife in a custody case that included abuse allegations. The former president hasn’t yet issued a fresh endorsement. 

McCormick’s Wall Street career opens him to criticism on China. Bridgewater, the world’s largest hedge fund, invests in the country and its founder, Ray Dalio, has spoken positively about the Chinese government -- comments that McCormick will now have to grapple with on the campaign trail.

Animosity toward China has galvanized voters and politicians of both parties on issues ranging from the origins of the coronavirus to human rights. Investing has been a particular flash point, and the U.S. government is now looking to kick as many as 200 Chinese public companies out of American markets for not following auditing rules.

Looking to do some damage control even before he got into the race, McCormick addressed some of Dalio’s controversial public statements comparing China’s human rights record to that of a “strict parent” on a company call in December. 

McCormick told staff he’s had lots of arguments about China over the years with Dalio and that he disagrees with the billionaire’s views, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Bridgewater, which McCormick joined in 2009, has an unusual culture -- another issue that he will likely be asked to explain during the campaign. Dalio demands “radical transparency,” meaning that employees rate one another on attributes such as “Assertive & Open-Minded” or “Dealing With Ambiguity.” Almost all meetings are recorded. The staff are given weekly homework studying Dalio’s 200 or so “Principles,” rules for living and managing a business. 

McCormick had contemplated leaving for public office at least once before during his 12 years at Bridgewater -- to serve as deputy defense secretary under Trump. 

He spent four years in the administration of President George W. Bush, rising to become undersecretary for international affairs in the Treasury Department.

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.