A Pittsburgher’s Plan to Get America Back on Track

Editor’s note: Over the past 15 years, when Pittsburghers including Dan Onorato and John Fetterman have run for statewide or national office, Pittsburgh Quarterly has given them the opportunity to share their views. In this issue, U.S. Senate candidate and Pittsburgher David McCormick writes about why he’s running.

I’ve always been proud to call Pittsburgh home. I was born in Washington County, just south of the city. Pittsburgh is where I got my start as a young professional after the Army, first for two years as a consultant and then as an executive at a cutting-edge software company called FreeMarkets — a tech dynamo that created hundreds of jobs in the city. Working with my remarkable colleagues at FreeMarkets, we built something special and directly contributed to Pittsburgh’s 1990s renaissance.

Pittsburgh is the special place where three of my daughters were born. We rented a home in Squirrel Hill on Murray Hill Avenue, whose cobblestones made it the bumpiest street in the city. Bringing the girls to the Blue Slide Playground at Frick Park, jogging through Schenley Park and the Carnegie Mellon campus, and going to Steelers’ games — these are the memories that shaped me as a new father.

Pittsburgh is also where I got my first taste of politics as a volunteer for Jim Roddey’s Allegheny County Executive campaign. It was Jim who encouraged me and inspired me to consider public service; he was someone whose passion for the brilliance of Pittsburgh left a lasting impact on me to this day.

Pittsburgh has always been defined by its people and their indomitable spirit. As the “Gateway to the West,” its generations of hardworking men and women powered the industrial heart of America and pushed the next wave of technological innovations.

But today, Pittsburgh is at a crossroads. Our city is working to increase job growth but Downtown is deeply troubled and has yet to fully rebound from the pandemic. Homelessness and crime remain major issues.

Pittsburgh is not alone in facing these challenges. The city suffers from the same problems our nation faces: decline — economically, spiritually, and culturally.

But this decline isn’t inevitable; it’s a choice. And Pittsburgh, like America, has faced such challenges and crises of confidence in the past.

Each time, it has taken leaders who were willing to step up to get things back on track.

Remember 1979? President Jimmy Carter had lost the nation’s confidence and 80 percent of America thought the nation was on the wrong track.

I was 14 at the time. Stagflation, price controls, long lines at gas stations — the economy was in freefall. Abroad, the Soviet Union was resurging, and Iran had taken 53 American hostages. In short, it felt like America’s status as a global superpower was over.

Fast forward to a few short years later when I was a first-year cadet at West Point and it was “Morning in America.” President Ronald Reagan launched an unprecedented economic recovery, rebuilt our armed forces, and took a hard line against the USSR, which brought a peaceful end to the Cold War six years later, without firing a shot.

Now we find ourselves at a similar crossroads, with nearly 80 percent of Americans again believing the country is on the wrong track. As my wife Dina and I reflect on all that America has given each of us — a kid from rural Pennsylvania and an immigrant from Egypt who came to America at almost age 5 — and contemplate what the future holds for our six daughters, we are asking ourselves what we can do to preserve America’s greatness.

I served as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne, where we had a saying: “Paratroopers lead the way.” Leadership — that’s what is needed in this moment of crisis and what I intend to do as your next senator.

Part of being a good leader is having a vision. At a time when a snarky soundbite is more valuable than substance or nuance, that might sound silly. But it’s important that every Pennsylvanian understand the bold ideas that are needed to turn things around.

Here’s my road map of what I believe we must do to renew Pennsylvania and America, which I’ve outlined in a series of policy speeches in the last few months.

First, if elected, I will fight to build an economy that works for all Pennsylvanians and bring some common sense back to Washington, D.C. Look at our budget: $34 trillion in debt and $1 trillion in interest payments on that debt. Over 60 percent of Americans and Pennsylvanians live paycheck to paycheck. Prices have increased more than 20 percent, while wages for many are lagging far behind. This is breaking working families.

Mainstream economists across parties agree that out-of-control federal spending, combined with dramatic policy missteps by the Biden administration to reduce fossil fuel consumption, ignited sky-high inflation. The only solution is a responsible budget and returning to fiscal sanity.

Instead of wasting taxpayer dollars on electric vehicle mandates and student loan forgiveness, we must focus on policies that create opportunity and support working families. That means reforming our broken education system, boosting access to skills training or technical degrees, expanding the Child Tax Credit, and cutting unnecessary red tape for the small businesses that are the engine of our economy.

The other obvious way to get our economy back on track is by unleashing Pennsylvania’s natural resources. Our commonwealth is blessed with the fourth-largest natural gas reserves in the world. Developing these resources enhances our national security by allowing us to support critical allies, provides an affordable and reliable energy supply, and creates great-paying jobs for our commonwealth — all while protecting the environment. As a committed conservationist, I understand that the best way to reduce global carbon emissions is to export Pennsylvania’s clean natural gas around the world to replace coal-fired power plants in India and China.

In the U.S. Senate, I’ll work to remove constraints on new oil and gas projects on federal lands, reverse the liquified natural gas export pause, and enact permitting reform to enable America to become an energy exporter to the world. Prioritizing the construction of new energy infrastructure — particularly for projects that will help get natural gas from Pennsylvania to the world — is good for our commonwealth’s economy, consumers, and the environment.

This is the type of pro-growth economic agenda that will put our country back on the path to economic prosperity and ensure the American Dream is alive and well for the next generation.

When it comes to our spiritual decline, just look at the state of our college campuses. Antisemitic encampments terrorize Jewish students. Young people march in the streets not knowing the difference between good and evil. Administrators and public officials lack basic moral clarity and twist themselves in pretzels trying to defend indefensible inaction.

You can count on me to always be a voice for moral clarity in the Senate. I’m not afraid to say that anyone inciting violence must be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. I believe any foreign students caught harassing their Jewish peers should have their visas canceled. And if we can’t restore order at our universities, I’d push to cut their federal benefits. There is no reason that institutions that allow violence and intimidation against Jewish Americans should enjoy tax exemptions or receive billions in federal research dollars.

That lack of leadership isn’t just hurting us spiritually. It’s making us less safe.

As I recently saw firsthand in Yuma, Arizona, while meeting with the border patrol, the wide-open southern border has created a multipronged drug and human trafficking, violent crime, and national security crisis that was entirely preventable. Fentanyl, which is manufactured in Mexico by the cartels with ingredients from China, is a scourge that killed roughly 4,000 Pennsylvanians last year alone. Nationally, it’s even worse. We lost roughly 100,000 Americans to fentanyl — almost double the number of soldiers killed in fighting over eight years in Vietnam.

But drugs aren’t the only thing flowing across the border into our communities. Last year alone, more than 160 individuals on the terrorist watch list were apprehended while trying to enter the country. We’re seeing an uptick in horrific rapes, murders and assaults by violent illegal immigrants who have no business being in America in the first place. I think we should all fear the terrorist threat likely embedded in our communities and the long-term consequences of the 10 million illegal immigrants who have entered the country since President Joe Biden took office.

The cartels are taking advantage of weak federal policies at the border, and they need to be stopped. I’ll push to finish construction of a border wall, invest in our border patrol so they have the resources they need to keep us safe, and designate the cartels as the terrorist threat they are. Using targeted drones and special operations, we can destroy the cartels’ infrastructure.

Meanwhile, on the world stage, our enemies view us as weak and vulnerable. It started with Biden’s disastrous botched withdrawal from Afghanistan. Now, in the Middle East, we see an emboldened Iran funding Hamas and other terrorist proxies in an all-out assault against our ally Israel and the West. Russia’s horrific war in Ukraine has reached a bloody stalemate, while China continues its saber-rattling toward Taiwan.

The only way to counter this aggression and achieve a more stable world is by doubling down on America’s strength. As a combat veteran, I understand what it will take to return us to the mantra of “peace through strength.” It’s time to invest in the defense capabilities we need to equip a next-generation armed forces, expand our defense industrial base to include dramatic ship-building capacity in places like Philadelphia, and reestablish deterrence against adversaries far and wide.

These are the major challenges we face as a commonwealth and country. But if there’s one thing that my time at West Point taught me, it’s that in periods of chaos, when hope seems to fade, it’s time for leaders to step forward and rally us together.

I was reminded of that when I took my parents back to West Point this past fall. It had been decades since they had visited me there as a cadet. While walking around the grounds, we passed the famous Gen. Douglas MacArthur statue. Etched into the statue’s granite is part of a famous speech he gave not long before he died. In it, he said:

“Duty, honor, country. Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you
ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying point, to
build courage when courage seems to fail, to regain faith when there seems little
cause for faith, to create hope when hope becomes forlorn.”-Gen. Douglas MacArthur

We’re at a moment when you don’t see a lot of courage in public life. A moment when Pennsylvanians and Americans are losing faith — not just in our leaders, but in the promise of America. They’re losing hope that the America they love isn’t going to be the same and the American Dream is slipping away.

Yet MacArthur’s sacred words remind us of the need to find a rallying point — that place to reset, reconstitute ourselves, and to get back on track to achieve the mission. I’m running to represent Pennsylvania because I believe this election is a rallying point. This is our moment to get our commonwealth and our country back on track.

Seven generations of McCormicks have called Western Pennsylvania home. I will never give up on Pennsylvania or America, and I will do all in my power as your senator to ensure that our exceptional nation remains a beacon of hope for generations to come.