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Dave McCormick starts 2024 by having fundraiser with Jan. 6th attendee

By Sean Kitchen

January 9, 2024

We’re a little over a week into the new year, and US Senate candidate Dave McCormick is having a fundraiser with someone who was in Washington DC for Jan. 6, 2021.  

Dave McCormick, a US Senate candidate in Pennsylvania and former Connecticut hedge fund manager, can’t seem to shake his connections with those who tried overturning the 2020 election.

McCormick is starting the new year by traveling to Johnstown on Wednesday for a fundraiser hosted by someone who was in Washington DC on Jan. 6, 2021, while a second host for Wednesday’s fundraiser was quoted in a local newspaper following the 2020 election stating that they would like to vandalize the home of Biden supporters. 

Ross Stewart, a Pennsylvania Republican State Committee member and an advisor for the GT Commonwealth Fund, which is associated with Congressman GT Thompson (R-Pennsylvania), posted selfies of himself outside the US Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021 on Facebook. 

“Scenes from today in D.C. (took some time off, and the violence is unacceptable),” Stewart’s caption read. 

Dave McCormick starts 2024 by having fundraiser with Jan. 6th attendee

At one point, Stewart agreed with a friend that the violence witnessed on that day looked like something from a third world country.

It’s unclear if Stewart made it onto the capitol grounds but the photos taken that day placed him on the west side of the building. 

The other host in question for Wednesday’s fundraiser is Jim Vasilko, a business owner who operates Johnstown Construction Services. 

“I’m flabbergasted,” Vasilko told The Tribune Democrat days after the 2020 election. “The whole time I thought President Trump would win 41 states. I just never saw this even being close.”

Vasilko then went on to tell the local newspaper that he would like to throw rocks at the homes of Biden supporters because he felt a Biden presidency would hurt his business. 

“When I see a Biden sign, like I just want to like throw a rock through their window because the way I look at it is that person is trying to crush my business,” Vasilko said.

In his previous bid for the US Senate against TV doctor Mehmet Oz, McCormick insulated his campaign with five Republicans involved in the fake elector plan in an attempt to disrupt the certification of the electoral college according to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star. 

The fake electors include Allegheny County Republican Chair Sam DeMcaro III, who is in charge of McCormick’s political action committee, Pennsylvania Rising, and Mike Roman, who has been criminally charged for his role in trying to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results. 

McCormick’s campaign refused to answer questions from the Pennsylvania Capital-Star when confronted with this information.  

 

Author

  • Sean Kitchen

    Sean Kitchen is the Keystone’s political correspondent, based in Harrisburg. Sean is originally from Philadelphia and spent five years working as a writer and researcher for Pennsylvania Spotlight.

CATEGORIES: NATIONAL POLITICS

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