On McCormick’s Claims to be a Farmer…Justin Hummel, Mayor of Bloomsburg: “I Don’t Know Them to be Farmers”
On McCormick’s Claim He Came from Nothing…Former McCormick Family Babysitter: McCormick “Had A Nice Upbringing There at the College”
New York Times: The McCormick Family “Raised Arabian Horses”
PENNSYLVANIA — A breaking report from the New York Times shows David McCormick has “given a misleading impression about key aspects of his background.” The report details how McCormick claimed that he “started with nothing” and “he didn’t have anything” when he actually grew up in a “sprawling hilltop residence.” The report also details how a farm that McCormick referenced in an ad as a tree farm was used for the family hobby of raising Arabian horses.
ICYMI: New York Times: This G.O.P. Senate Candidate Says He Grew Up on a Family Farm. Not Exactly.
- David McCormick’s origin story goes something like this: He grew up in rural Pennsylvania, southwest of Scranton. He baled hay, trimmed Christmas trees and otherwise worked on his family’s farm. And from those humble beginnings, he rose to achieve the American dream.
- But interviews in Mr. McCormick’s hometown, as well as a review of public records, news coverage from his childhood and his own words, suggest that he has given a misleading impression about key aspects of his background.
- He has explicitly said and strongly implied that he grew up on a farm, claimed in 2022 that he had “started with nothing” and that he “didn’t have anything,” and he and his campaign have recently described his parents as schoolteachers.
- In fact, Mr. McCormick is the son of a well-regarded college president who later became chancellor of higher education systems in Pennsylvania and Minnesota. He largely grew up in the president’s sprawling hilltop residence, which students called the president’s mansion, at what is now Bloomsburg University.
- The family did own a farm several miles from the school, which Mr. McCormick called the “McCormick Tree Farm” in a holiday-themed ad released before his 2022 Senate bid. But it was also often known locally as a place where his mother raised Arabian horses, something of a family hobby, according to local news reports from the 1970s and ’80s.
- Mr. McCormick, who has already faced scrutiny over whether he resides in Pennsylvania, appears to have massaged facts from his biography during the current contest and his unsuccessful Senate primary bid two years ago.
- As Linda Cromley, 76, walked into a performing arts center at Bloomsburg University on Sunday evening, she expressed irritation with the way Mr. McCormick had portrayed himself.
- “He had a very privileged childhood,” said Ms. Cromley, a retired nurse and a Democrat who stressed that she did not always vote the party line. “He didn’t grow up a poor kid. Which doesn’t mean that he has to — but don’t pretend that you were.”
- David McCormick “had a nice upbringing there at the college,” said Diane Bankus, 67, who said that she occasionally babysat for the McCormick children when she was a college student, and that his parents were beloved and accessible on campus.
- Certainly, Mr. McCormick has said on multiple occasions that he does not consider himself a farmer, though at a round-table discussion this year, he did refer to himself as a “farmer that’s got a big farm in Columbia County.”
- Still, he said of the McCormicks: “I don’t know them to be farmers. I know them to be academics.”
###