Politics

EXCLUSIVE: Dave McCormick Unveiling Plan To Move Key Federal Agency Far Away From DC Beltway

(Photo via Dave McCormick's campaign)

A Republican candidate for Senate will unveil a plan Tuesday to move the headquarters of a major federal agency away from Washington, D.C.

David McCormick, a businessman running for Senate in Pennsylvania against incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, will detail his planned push to move the Department of Energy (DOE) headquarters out of the nation’s capital during a Tuesday afternoon sit-down discussion with Republican Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a source familiar with the matter told the Daily Caller News Foundation. McCormick’s idea is to move the DOE to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to place federal officials in closer proximity to an energy-producing part of the country.

“I learned over more than 20 years in the private sector as a business leader that driving fundamental change requires taking on root causes, in this case three sources of the current stagnation in Washington: changing the culture in the capital, taking on an entrenched bureaucracy that resists change, and fixing misguided incentives,” McCormick will say in remarks at the event, which were obtained exclusively by the DCNF.

Pennsylvania Democratic Senator Bob Casey is running for reelection https://t.co/jXpXGwKziU

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) April 10, 2023

McCormick will also discuss other ideas, including how he would like to change the nation’s capital if elected in November, a source familiar told the DCNF. The DOE employs about 14,000 federal workers at its Washington headquarters and across its 83 field locations, according to Perfromance.gov.

Pennsylvania is one of the country’s leading states in terms of energy production, sourcing about 20% of the country’s total natural gas production in 2022, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The state also figures to be of critical importance for the 2024 elections, as it could dictate the outcome of the presidential election and the the Senate race is one of several that could determine which party controls the chamber until 2026.

McCormick and Casey are locked in a competitive race, with two recent New York Times-Siena polls projecting that Casey holds a lead between two and five percentage points. The Cook Political Report currently rates the Pennsylvania race as leaning Democrat.

The Biden administration’s climate agenda, and especially its January decision to pause approvals for new liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals, could alienate blue-collar voters who work in the energy industry but may have previously leaned toward Democrats, state and national pundits previously told the DCNF. Casey has stated that he is opposed to the LNG ban if it costs Pennsylvanians their jobs.

The DOE did not respond immediately to a request for comment.