Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick and GOP candidates for a state row office kicked off the general election in Erie County Wednesday morning as part of a six-city, two-day bus tour.
Treasurer Stacy Garritty and Auditor Tim DeFoor, incumbents, joined Dave McCormick and others at a post-primary campaign event at Voodoo Brewing Co., 101 Boston Store Place, to tell supporters how critical the Nov. 5 election will be for the future of the state and country, and encourage them to get hesitant friends, family members and neighbors off the sidelines to vote — even if it means casting a mail-in ballot, which the party has widely shunned since the 2020 presidential election.
“If we don’t take back America this go around, I’m not sure what will be left four years from now,” said state Sen. Dan Laughlin, R-49th Dist., who was among several Republicans to make statements to the audience ahead of McCormick.
Laughlin noted that his Senate seat is a top target of Democrats as they attempt to hold onto their slim majority in the state House and take control of the upper chamber. McCormick’s bid to unseat three-term incumbent Democrat Sen. Bob Casey Jr., he added, could allow the GOP to retake the U.S. Senate.