McCormick calls for suspension of negative ads in Senate campaign. Casey campaign says they’ve already stopped advertising

Referencing President Joe Biden’s calls for unity and civility following the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, Pennsylvania Senate candidate Dave McCormick called on his opponent, incumbent Sen. Bob Casey, to suspend negative advertising.

But Casey had already announced plans to temporarily suspend all advertising following the Butler County shooting Saturday.

The call to stop airing attack ads comes as both Senate campaigns strike to distance themselves from harmful rhetoric and political violence even as they continue to talk past one another.

McCormick posted the request on social media Monday.

”This is a time to come together as Americans to recognize that what makes our country and its people exceptional transcends party,” McCormick posted. “Let’s take some time to put aside the negativity.”

McCormick’s campaign has not yet pulled its negative advertisements. In a text message, a spokesperson for McCormick said the campaign would only remove its negative ads if Casey’s campaign did the same. As recently as Monday, stations in the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh region had aired advertisements from the Casey campaign.

The Casey campaign announced Saturday they would work with stations to temporarily suspending all campaign advertisements, including the negative ads. The campaign does not have control over which previously scheduled ads air.

“The campaign will work to resume communication with voters in the days ahead to educate Pennsylvanians on Senator Casey’s record, his opponent’s record, and the stakes of this Senate race,” Casey campaign spokeswoman Maddy McDaniel said in a statement.

The campaign did not specify when it planned to resume ads but as of Monday, AdImpact, a political advertising tracker, showed Casey ad bookings restart in September.

According to reports on Critical Mention, an advertising monitoring software, Casey advertisements ran in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh on Monday morning despite requests from the campaign to halt advertising.

The hotly contested Senate race has included attack ads on both sides. Recently, McCormick’s team released an ad criticizing Biden and Casey’s position on border control. Meanwhile, Casey’s team cut an advertisement hitting McCormick for investments in China when he was CEO of Bridgewater Associates.

Even if the campaigns suspended advertising, political action committees spending on their behalf would not be impacted — including the Keystone Renewal PAC, which announced earlier this year it would spend $30 million on McCormick’s behalf and has devoted some of those funds towards attack ads.

Elizabeth Gregory, a spokeswoman for McCormick, said the campaign did not control PACs in response to a question about whether they were also calling on PACs to suspend negative advertising in the race.