McCormick highlights Harris 2019 campaign positions in attack on Casey

Pennsylvania Senate candidate Dave McCormick (R) released an advertisement criticizing Vice President Harris using footage from her 2019 presidential campaign after his opponent, Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), endorsed her run for office.

“Bob Casey just endorsed the most liberal nominee in U.S. history,” McCormick posted with the video on the social platform X.

The video opens with Casey saying Harris is “inspiring and very capable.” The senator says Americans will be “particularly impressed” by her.

It then goes into clips from Harris’s past campaign and political career, including a 2019 GovTrack.us report in which she was named “the most liberal senator.”

The video shows the vice president saying she would not “treat people who are undocumented who cross the border as criminals” and that it’s time to think about starting from scratch on the country’s immigration systems, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

It criticizes Harris over her stances on police reform, dietary restrictions, universal health care, gun restrictions and voting rights for prisoners.

The video comes just days after President Biden announced he would no longer run for reelection and endorsed Harris.

Her campaign has generated excitement among Democrats but also raised concerns for vulnerable Senate Democrats, who now are being pressed about some of her controversial policy stances.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee circulated a memo to Senate Republican campaigns on Monday that highlighted Harris’s record, ranging from her stance on immigration to her opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline.

Casey, who is running comfortably ahead of McCormick, may be vulnerable because of Harris’s opposition to fracking.

The video shows Harris saying “there’s no question, I’m in favor of banning fracking” and her desire to pass the Green New Deal. The advertisement also included a clip of Harris saying she thinks the solution for the fossil fuel industry is to give “the workers an ability to transition.”

According to The Hill/Decision Desk HQ, Casey leads with 48.5 percent support compared to McCormick’s 40.6 percent in the Pennsylvania Senate race.

The Casey campaign criticized McCormick for avoiding his own ideologies by highlighting Harris’s. 

“David McCormick is desperately trying to avoid answering for his support for a dangerous abortion ban and his record of investing millions in China’s largest fentanyl producer while fentanyl trafficked from China kills thousands of Pennsylvanians,” said Maddy McDaniel, a spokesperson for Casey’s campaign, in a statement.

This story was updated at 11:25 a.m. EDT