David Weigel, Semafor: “New McCormick Ad About Frustrated Ex-Democrats Features Some Who Have Been Rs for Years Already”
David Weigel, Semafor: “One Says She Voted for Casey in 2018; by 2022 She Was Campaigning for Doug Mastriano”
PENNSYLVANIA — David McCormick was caught lying in a new ad touting support from ex-Democrats, who in reality are long-time Republicans, including a former Dr. Oz staffer last cycle and a supporter of far-right extremist Doug Mastriano.
ICYMI: David Weigel, Semafor:
- New McCormick ad in #PASen about frustrated ex-Democrats features some who have been Rs for years already. One says she voted for Casey in 2018; by 2022 she was campaigning for Doug Mastriano
- Sheila Armstrong says in the ad that she came from “a family of Democrats,” and had been a Dem; true, but she was a Dr. Oz staffer last cycle. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/10/dr-mehmet-oz-staged-encounter-with-a-victim-of-gun-violence.html
Armstrong was the organizer of a disastrous McCormick campaign stop, deceiving a local business by telling them their planned campaign event was an autism awareness event.
Daily Beast: Philly Restaurant Bans GOP Candidate After He Claimed Campaign Stop Was Autism Event
- Sfida told the Inquirer it was a local Republican operative, Sheila Armstrong, who contacted him to schedule the event, which she did on behalf of her nonprofit organization, Cooking4Autism, without mentioning McCormick’s campaign.
- Armstrong is a member of the anti-LGBT group Moms for Liberty, which campaigns against school curricula that discusses LGBT rights or race and which the civil rights group Southern Poverty Law Center has classified as a far-right extremist group.
- She was a paid staffer for the failed campaign of Republican Mehmet Oz — who lost to U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) in 2022— but appears to have no official affiliation role on McCormick’s team, the Inquirer reported. She told the newspaper she offered to be a liaison for the GOP candidate in Philadelphia.
###