Pennsylvania Republicans want ex-Senate candidate David McCormick to run against Democrat Bob Casey Jr. in 2024: report

• Pennsylvania Republicans want David McCormick to launch a 2024 Senate run, per Politico.
• Last week, McCormick conceded to Dr. Oz amid the then-ongoing recount of the May GOP Senate primary.

Last week, David McCormick conceded the Pennsylvania Republican primary for US Senate to Dr. Mehmet Oz in a hotly-contested race that became a proxy on the enduring power of former President Donald Trump in one of the nation's premier swing states.

McCormick — a Pennsylvania native and former hedge fund chief executive who moved back to the state from Connecticut to launch his Senate bid — impressed many GOP officials early-on with his business experience and alignment with conservative policies championed by party voters.

Now, many of those same Republicans are already asking McCormick to pursue a second Senate bid in 2024 against three-term Democratic Sen. Bob Casey Jr., the scion of a former conservative Democratic governor, according to Politico.

Despite McCormick coming up short in the May primary to Oz — the cardiothoracic surgeon and former talk show host — the initial vote tally was close enough that a recount was triggered by Pennsylvania law, as the margin of victory fell below 0.5 percent.

After the recount, Oz was deemed the official winner with 419,999 votes, while McCormick earned 419,048 votes — a difference of only 951 votes. Oz will now face Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman, the Democratic Senate nominee.

But McCormick's supporters are already eyeing what will likely be another high-octane race in a year that could potentially feature a proxy rematch between President Joe Biden and Trump.

And McCormick himself is exploring the possibility of a 2024 Senate run, per Politico.

Casey has been a fixture in Pennsylvania politics for decades — serving as both the state's auditor and treasurer before defeating Republican Sen. Rick Santorum in a 2006 landslide — and has won all of his Senate races by comfortable margins.

Most recently, Casey was re-elected to a third term in 2018, beating then-Rep. Lou Barletta by 13 percentage points.

However, according to Politico, some Republicans feel that Casey — who has long enjoyed a reputation as a political moderate — has veered more to the left in recent years. They also sense that Biden's middling poll numbers will hurt the Democratic brand in the state.

And many Republicans feel that McCormick — a West Point graduate who served in the Gulf War — can appeal to a wide range of voters, from conservative-leaning blue-collar residents in western Pennsylvania to independents in suburban communities outside Philadelphia.

While Trump threw his support behind Oz in the primary and blasted McCormick as a "liberal Wall Street Republican" who didn't represent the Make America Great Again movement, GOP primary voters nearly selected him as their nominee anyway.

Rob Gleason, a former chairman of the Pennsylvania Republican Party, told Politico he would support McCormick jumping into the 2024 race.

"I would absolutely encourage Dave to run," he told the publication, noting that "he's got 100 percent name ID" and is "going to have the finances" to help run another campaign.

Gleason added: "He would clear the field. There'd be no primary."

Former associate White House counsel Jim Schultz, who served under Trump and was also McCormick's campaign chairman, told Politico that the 2022 campaign was "just the beginning" for the former executive.

"Dave is immensely popular and will be a force in GOP politics for years to come," he said. "For now, I know he is focused on bringing the party together to beat Fetterman in November."

McCormick will soon travel across the state to meet with Republican leaders, according to Politico.

In another move that keeps a future campaign in play, McCormick and his wife are looking to stay in Pennsylvania after years of living in Connecticut, per the report.

However, Casey spokesperson Natalie Adams in a statement to Politico dismissed the GOP speculation.

"Senator Casey is focused on improving the lives of Pennsylvanians and helping Democrats up and down the ballot win in 2022," she said. "While Republicans wring their hands about an election 2.5 years away, Senator Casey is going to keep building on his long record of delivering for Pennsylvania's working families in Washington."