Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.) will chair a key subcommittee on Middle East affairs, ascending to the role after campaigning as a resolute defender of Israel and fierce critic of Biden-era policies that enabled Iran’s terror network in the region, The Post has learned.
The freshman senator will take up the gavel for the influential Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism, according to sources familiar the matter, which will be announced later by the full committee’s chairman James Risch (R-Idaho).
“I am honored to chair a subcommittee on such critical issues,” McCormick told The Post. “I see this as a great opportunity to strengthen the US-Israel alliance, expand the Abraham Accords, grow US-India cooperation, and delve deeply into regional energy, economic, and security issues.”
“I look forward to working with President Trump and my colleagues to deter the Islamic Republic of Iran, stamp down the terror threat, and realize his vision for a more peaceful Middle East,” he said. “I am hopeful my background and perspective will allow me to lead this subcommittee in a manner that is good for Pennsylvania and the country.”
The panel, which was headed up by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) during the last Trump administration, oversees US policy in the region, as well as its posture toward international organizations like the United Nations.
Specifically, it focuses on “terrorism and non-proliferation,” “crime and illicit narcotics,” “US foreign assistance programs” and “the promotion of US trade and exports.”
Iran and its proxies have escalated conflict in the region throughout President Biden’s term, with Hamas killing 1,200 Israelis and 46 Americans in an Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in Israel — the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust — that immediately erupted into a war in the Gaza Strip.
Last year, the US deployed thousands more troops as well as fighter jets and ships to the Middle East and later engaged in direct strikes on Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen to deter a broader regional war.
Before the 2024 election, hackers from an Iranian paramilitary group also targeted Trump’s campaign and tried to leak sensitive communications to Biden aides in an effort to tank the Republican’s candidacy.
Additionally, the US Secret Service disclosed before Election Day that agents had also been alerted to the threat of a “possible drone attack” by Tehran on the 45th president — more than a year ahead of the first assassination attempt against Trump at a Pennsylvania rally on July 13.
On the campaign trail, McCormick frequently slammed his Democratic opponent, three-term Sen. Bob Casey, and Biden for their “weakness” in the face of Iranian aggression and mounting global conflicts, especially criticizing the president’s order to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan.
The former hedge fund manager also faulted both of them for supporting the 2015 Iran nuclear deal during the Obama administration, allowing Tehran to rake in billions of dollars in oil revenue due to relaxed sanctions.
“The original sin is Iran,” he said at a roundtable with The Post and other reporters in Harrisburg, Pa., last September. “Senator Casey was the deciding vote on that Iran deal, which has underwritten terror.”
McCormick, a staunch pro-Israel candidate, returned from a visit to the Jewish state in January 2024, declaring that his eyewitness experience “reinforced the need to absolutely eradicate Hamas.”
“You can’t live. You can’t sit in your backyard and look 600 meters across the cornfield and think that you can live side-by-side with people and a terrorist organization that can undertake such a horrific genocidal campaign,” he told The Times of Israel.
As a retired Army captain, his tough talk on terrorism — as well as exploding antisemitism on college campuses in the US — was likely significant in securing far more of the Jewish vote than previously achieved for a Republican in the swing state of Pennsylvania.
McCormick was also accompanied on the trip to Israel by his wife, Dina Powell, the former deputy national security adviser during the first Trump administration, helping to reach the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between the Jewish state and Bahrain, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates.
The Pennsylvania Republican will also sit on the subcommittee on East Asia, The Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy as well as the subcommittee on Multilateral International Development, Multilateral Institutions, and International Economic, Energy, and Environmental Policy.
The newly-elected senator has indicated he’s also looking forward to working across the aisle with Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman, announcing earlier this month that the two had dinner with their wives and talked about how “to best serve” their state.
“From stopping the spread of fentanyl, to fighting antisemitism & supporting Israel, & providing the best constituent services for the people of our commonwealth,” McCormick said of their conversation.
Fetterman also told the Pennsylvania Capital-Star that the two had a “great discussion” and were ready to get to work confirming some of Trump’s nominees — including US ambassador to the UN designee, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), who has denounced the international body as a “den of antisemitism.”
Before running for office, McCormick served as the CEO of Bridgewater Associates. He will also sit on the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee and the Joint Economic Committee.
