Vice President Kamala Harris has been the official Democratic nominee for president for less than a week, but her presence is already changing the dynamic in critical races down the ballot.
On July 26, Pennsylvania’s Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, Dave McCormick, visited a fracking rig in Warren County. One reason for his trip? To link Harris with his opponent in the race, Democratic Sen. Bob Casey.
“The fracking industry is a huge driver of economic growth. It could be a lot more,” McCormick says in a video shot at the site, gesturing at the equipment behind him. “Kamala Harris and Bob Casey want to ban fracking in Pennsylvania.”
While Harris said she was in favor of a ban on fracking during the 2020 Democratic primary, she has since reversed course, and Casey has never supported a fracking ban, despite years of research showing the process can be harmful to public health, the climate and the environment.
McCormick’s ad signals a shift in strategy in one of the most competitive and expensive Senate races in the country. It’s also suggestive of the important role that energy, environmental and climate issues could play in Pennsylvania this fall, not only in that race but in the presidential contest as well.
Since Harris’ announcement, McCormick has talked to Fox News about Casey’s support for regulations on the oil and gas industry, tweeted old news clips of Harris criticizing fracking and accused Casey of being “too weak to fight to unleash our commonwealth’s natural resources.”
In some ways, McCormick’s renewed emphasis on fracking highlights the difficulty of his current position. He is running against a well-financed and well-liked three-term incumbent, and Pennsylvania’s political landscape means that he needs to appeal to the right-wing Republican base without losing more moderate independents.
