Pennsylvania Independent: “[McCormick] Received $22 Million in Annual Compensation as He Invested in China and Slashed American Jobs”

PENNSYLVANIA — A new report from the Pennsylvania Independent chronicles Connecticut hedge fund CEO and mega-millionaire David McCormick’s long record of putting profits over Pennsylvanians — from helping companies outsource to investing millions with China’s military.

ICYMI: Pennsylvania Independent: Dave McCormick’s business record: Putting profits over Pennsylvanians

• Media reporting throughout [McCormick’s] campaign has shown that his career as a hedge fund CEO has been more focused on his own profits than helping Pennsylvanians.

• Though he claimed during his 2022 race to have created “over 1,000 jobs” in Pittsburgh, his campaign later acknowledged that the actual number was just 600. Indeed in 2007, FreeMarkets had to return half of a $500,000 grant from Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development after it failed to create the 1,000 jobs McCormick had promised six years earlier.

• He and his company provided information to American businesses on how best to outsource jobs to other countries.

• In 2005, McCormick was appointed undersecretary for export administration at the U.S. Commerce Department in the George W. Bush administration. At the time, he gave an interview to the the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in which he said that his experience as CEO helping companies send jobs offshore would help him in his new post.

• Though he resigned from the firm prior to his 2022 U.S. Senate campaign, tax records show McCormick continued to live in a $16 million Westport, Connecticut, mansion while claiming residency in Pittsburgh. 

• According to a 2016 report by the Connecticut Mirror, Bridgewater accepted $52 million from the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development’s First Five Plus jobs initiative after promising to preserve 1,402 jobs and add 750 new employees over five years. Those promises weren’t met; under McCormick’s leadership, the firm laid off more than 400 people.

• […] On his watch Bridgewater invested billions of dollars [in China], including in businesses reportedly involved with the Chinese military, a fentanyl producer, and companies with ties to Iran. 

• According to a November 2023 report by the digital newsroom Heartland Signal, McCormick invested between $4.5 million and $92 million of his own funds in businesses that outsourced American jobs, including 2,600 jobs that had previously been located in Pennsylvania. 

• At a January 2024 campaign appearance at Penn State University, McCormick told students that he is fine with outsourcing American jobs, so long as they are not in industries he deems vital. 

• “There are certain industries that should be here at home or in the hands of our closest allies,” he said, noting that pharmaceuticals and steel were vital to national security. “I don’t really care if we’re not manufacturing T-shirts, or rugs, or a variety of other things that aren’t critical to our economy. I don’t really care if those jobs are elsewhere.”