The Sentinel Action Fund made its first endorsement of the election cycle on Thursday in favor of Republican Senate nominee Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania, Breitbart News has learned exclusively.
Jessica Anderson, president of the Sentinel Action Fund, told Breitbart News in an interview that the Super PAC will be endorsing McCormick’s bid to oust Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA).
Anderson explained that the road to the Senate Republican majority goes through Pennsylvania. She said that although there is a lot of focus on the potential ousters of Sens. Jon Tester (D- MT) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH), she described the Keystone State’s ability to remove Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) this November as a potential linchpin for Republicans’ ability to take back the Senate.
“The road to a Republican majority in the Senate goes through Pennsylvania, and Republican voters in the state have already made a great first step by nominating a compelling and principled candidate for Senate. Dave McCormick is a proven leader and will be a legislator for the people — a needed change from career politician Bob Casey,” Anderson said in a statement Breitbart News viewed ahead of its release.
Anderson also described Pennsylvania as a “crosscurrent” for Republicans to retain the House majority and for former President Donald Trump to take back the White House. She said that McCormick already has a lot of experience running an “efficient and effective campaign,” this being the second time he is running for the Senate.
Anderson also explained that McCormick has the “policy acumen” to be a “strong senator for the Keystone State,” especially focusing on energy production, jobs, and the economy.
The leader of the Sentinel Action Fund also cheered McCormick’s proposal to move the Department of Energy (DOE) to Pittsburgh as an “innovative” idea. Pennsylvania is second only to Texas in natural gas production in recent years; 20 percent of the nation’s natural gas comes from Pennsylvania.
McCormick hopes to defeat Casey, a three-term senator who comes from a well-known political dynasty. His father, Bob Casey Sr., was governor of the state from 1987 to 1995. In Sen. Casey’s last election — the 2018 midterms — he defeated then-Rep. Lou Barletta (R-PA) by 13 points.
However, an Emerson College poll released recently found that Casey is beating McCormick by four points, which is nearly within the survey’s three percent margin of error.
Anderson said that the gap in the polls has closed between Casey and McCormick because, since his last election, Casey has done nothing to “separate him from just how extreme Biden has taken the Democrat Party.”
“He’s fully embraced all parts of the radical agenda of the Democrat Party, and that is not what Pennsylvania voters want, certainly not what Pennsylvania independents or swing voters in the state want to see either,” she added.
The latest bipartisanship index from Georgetown University’s Lugar Center appears to back up this claim.
The index found Casey to be the 53rd most bipartisan senator — which is a 16-point drop from last Congress — and he is now the least bipartisan of all swing state Senate Democrats running for reelection.
“I think what the people of Pennsylvania expect and deserve is someone who’s going to be independent, truly independent,” Casey said in 2006.
In March, Indivisible Pennsylvania, a group that backs defunding law enforcement, endorsed Casey’s reelection bid.
Local law enforcement called this anti-police organization’s endorsement of Casey “alarming and extremely dangerous.”
WATCH — PA Deputy Police Chief: Sen. Bob Casey’s Backing of Defund the Police Activists “Alarming and Extremely Dangerous”
As part of its initiative to boost Keystone State voting, the Sentinel Action Fund, the Republican State Leadership Committee PAC (RSLC), and the Keystone Renewal PAC launched the largest ever Pennsylvania vote by mail program in March to ensure Republican victories across the state. Pennsylvania voters can go to skipthelinepa.vote to learn about voting by mail.
In April Anderson told the Federalist that the Super PAC’s get-out-the-vote campaign had brought in 40,000 low-propensity Republican voters who have joined the absentee voter list. The group also emphasized in a memo obtained by Breitbart News that it is the only conservative Super PAC with a year-round ground game committed to turning out absentee, early vote, and “day of” voters.
An April memo from the RSLC PAC, Keystone Renewal, and Sentinel Action Fund noted that Pennsylvania had an 18-percent increase in vote-by-mail requests. They noted that while this may not exceed the Democrat voters’ vote-by-mail requests, it serves as a way to “chip away at their advantage and narrow the gap.”
PA Post Primary Memo 2024 (2) by Breitbart News on Scribd
“The primary election showed us that we have the right formula for success, and that Republicans are becoming more receptive to the idea of mail-in voting in general,” the memo concluded. “Our work also gave us a tremendous head start on the next few months, and it is now our mission to deliver that continued success during the most important election of our lifetime this November.”
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.