GOP Senate nominee McCormick said to have told victims of sexual harassment to keep quiet

“The Fund,” a 2023 book about the Connecticut hedge fund that Pennsylvania Republican U.S. Senate nominee Dave McCormick once headed, contains allegations that he discouraged victims of workplace sexual harassment from speaking out, according to a USA Today Network report. McCormick is challenging incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, who has a long record of fighting to stop sexual harrassment and sexual assault.

McCormick touts his record at Bridgewater Associates, which he led from 2009 to 2022 as president and then CEO, and has claimed credit for the firm’s $160 billion investments in Chinese businesses.

According to USA Today, Rob Copeland, a finance reporter at the New York Times, said in his book “The Fund: Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates, and the Unraveling of a Wall Street Legend” that McCormick and Ray Dalio, the founder of the hedge fund, had warned a woman who had accused a Bridgewater executive of groping that she needed to stay quiet. “Maybe you’re remembering it wrong,” Dalio is said to have suggested. “Maybe the issue is that you aren’t being a supportive public presence for us,” McCormick allegedly added. 

The book also includes an account of a Bridgewater employee who accused her boss of improper conduct and departed the firm “with a severance and settlement that barred her from talking about her experience.” It alleges: “Shortly before leaving, she also received an unexpected in-person visit from Bridgewater co-CEO David McCormick. He told her that if she ever broke the agreement, she would be in litigation for the rest of her life.”

McCormick campaign spokesperson Elizabeth Gregory did not respond to a request for comment for this story. Gregory told USA Today Network that the allegations are a “retread from a year-old book” and that McCormick is proud of his tenure at Bridgewater.

During his time in the Senate, Casey has consistently supported legislation aimed at stopping sexual misconduct and holding predators accountable.

He co-sponsored the Military Justice Improvement and Increasing Prevention Act, a bipartisan 2021 bill to move decisions about whether to prosecute sexual assaults out of the military’s chain of command and to independent military prosecutors. A version of the proposal was included in December 2022 in the National Defense Authorization Act, which became law with Casey’s support.

Casey authored the 2013 Campus Sexual Violence Elimination (SaVE) Act, which established uniformed standards for colleges and universities in reporting sexual violence, expanded victims’ rights, and required sexual assault prevention programs on campuses.

He proposed the Safe Equitable Campus Resources and Education Act of 2023 to expand sexual misconduct protections for individuals with disabilities on campuses and the Students’ Access to Freedom Act (SAFER) of 2022 to address harassment and discrimination in federally funded educational programs, from kindergarten through college.

“So many students who endure sexual harassment or assault experience isolation, fear, and difficulty focusing on their education as they process a traumatic ordeal. To add insult to injury, students who report their experiences face an uphill battle to seek justice,” Casey said in a December 2022 press release. “We cannot go backwards. School should be a safe place, from early education all the way to institutions of higher learning. The SAFER Act would protect the civil rights of students across the country and help them feel safe and supported as they pursue their education.”

“Casey has cosponsored hundreds of bills during his time in the Senate which include policies that address or otherwise take into consideration the needs of survivors of sexual harassment and violence,” a spokesperson for Casey’s Senate office said in an email, including voting to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act and the Family Violence Prevention Services Act and to pass the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022, which closed a loophole that made it possible for people convicted of domestic abuse to buy and possess firearms.