Dave McCormick’s PAC Led by GOP Official Involved in 2020 Election Scheme

Sam DeMarco, the chair of the Allegheny County GOP, was involved in the fake elector scandal trying to overturn Pennsylvania’s 2020 election results and now he’s running Dave McCormick’s PAC for as McCormick gets ready to launch his campaign for US Senate.

A Pennsylvania Republican involved in former president Donald Trump’s scheme to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss is now in charge of Republican Senate hopeful Dave McCormick’s political action committee (PAC). 

Allegheny County Republican Chairman Sam DeMarco III, one of the 20 “fake electors” involved in Trump’s plot to override the will of Pennsylvania voters, is now the chairperson of McCormick’s Pennsylvania Rising PAC. 

As reported by the Penn-Capital Star, DeMarco will join McCormick for a fundraiser in Allegheny County on Thursday evening. 

McCormick, a multi-millionaire former hedge fund executive who spent most of the past 15 years living in Connecticut, is expected to announce any day now that he is challenging US Sen. Bob Casey in next year’s election.

McCormick previously ran and lost to Dr. Mehmet Oz in last year’s Republican Senate primary. Ahead of an official campaign launch, McCormick’s PAC has secured a $1 million donation from Pennsylvania’s richest billionaire and GOP mega donor, Jeffrey Yass. Yass supported McCormick in his primary against Oz last year as well. 

McCormick’s relationship with DeMarco may not harm him in a potential Republican primary, but that may play differently in the general election against Casey. 

“Generally I think the majority of Pennsylvania voters frown on trying to overthrow the government so I think it is likely a liability in the general election,” Joe Corrigan from Edge Hill Strategies told the Capital-Star.

Pennsylvania’s 20 fake electors are not likely to face any accountability for their actions in December 2020, when they  signed a certificate stating that they had cast electoral college votes for Trump, even though Joe Biden had been declared the winner of the popular vote in Pennsylvania and nationwide.

Spotlight PA recently highlighted the roles DeMarco and other fake electors played in changing the language of the documents they submitted to the National Library of Congress. 

Unlike the other states, Pennsylvania’s fake electors added language that shielded them from any legal wrongdoing or potential prosecution that’s been seen in other states. According to the story, the certificate the fake electors submitted said they were casting votes if a court overturned the election results and found that they were the “duly elected and qualified Electors.”

According to Lancaster Newspaper, then-Attorney General Josh Shapiro issued a statement as to why Pennsylvania’s fake electors weren’t going to face legal accountability. 

“These ‘fake ballots’ included a conditional clause that they were only to be used if a court overturned the results in Pennsylvania, which did not happen.” Shapiro said in a statement. “Though their rhetoric and policy were intentionally misleading and purposefully damaging to our democracy, based on our initial review, our office does not believe this meets the legal standards for forgery.”