Does David McCormick live in Pennsylvania?

David McCormick’s ties to Pennsylvania are again in the spotlight as he prepares for a widely expected second run for U.S. Senate, in 2024.

The former hedge fund manager moved from Connecticut to Pennsylvania to run in the 2022 Republican primary, which he narrowly lost to celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz. But he still spends a good deal of time in Connecticut, the Associated Press reported this week, prompting attacks from Democrats eager to repeat an offensive that worked well against Oz last year and ardent defenses from Republicans, who are encouraging him to run.

McCormick, 56, faced some scrutiny over moving here to run in the last Senate election, which had several transplants. Oz had moved from New Jersey to run, and Carla Sands, former ambassador to Denmark, was from California. McCormick arguably had the most direct claim to Pennsylvania of the three, having lived here for the first 30 years of his life.

But now, as McCormick prepares a likely second run, with a currently clear GOP primary field, questions over his ties to Pennsylvania could create campaign hurdles similar to those of Oz, who struggled to bat back attacks from Democrats that he was a wealthy, out-of-touch outsider who didn’t understand Pennsylvanians.

It’s clear that McCormick spends time in both Pennsylvania and Connecticut, where his daughters attend high school. The Associated Press reported this week the balance seems to fall far more heavily on Connecticut’s Gold Coast, an affluent stretch 50 miles from New York that is home to many wealthy Manhattanites.

McCormick rents a $16 million mansion in Westport, Conn., overlooking Long Island Sound. The six-bedroom, nine-bathroom, two-acre estate has a 1,500-bottle wine cellar, an outdoor fireplace, and a hot tub overlooking the waterfront.

In January 2022, McCormick sold his $6.5 million home in Fairfield, Conn., and bought a $2.8 million home in Pittsburgh’s Shadyside neighborhood ahead of the GOP primary that spring. McCormick didn’t get a homestead tax exemption on the Pittsburgh home, though, a break typically used for a person’s primary place of residence, the AP noted. He voted at his Pittsburgh precinct in both the 2022 primary and general elections, according to the Pennsylvania voter roll.

McCormick’s Connecticut address has appeared on documentation as his home address, including on paperwork related to the sale of his $13 million condo on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. McCormick has also done several Zoom interviews from the house.

He has been around Pennsylvania, too. McCormick attended frequent GOP events in Pennsylvania in the last year, promoting his book and gearing up for his campaign.

“The son of two Pennsylvania public school teachers, David McCormick lives in the commonwealth and has spent the majority of his life in Pa., coming from humble roots, graduating from public schools, and later raising his young family and creating jobs in Western Pennsylvania,” his spokesperson Elizabeth Gregory said in a statement. “And to smear him as a private citizen because he also spends time where his daughters go to school now is disgraceful.”

McCormick was born in Washington, Pa., and grew up in the Pittsburgh area, including on his family’s Christmas tree farm in Bloomsburg. His father is the past president of Bloomsburg University and was also a chancellor within the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.

In 1987, McCormick graduated from West Point. He was part of the first wave of U.S. troops sent into Iraq during the first Gulf War, where he led an engineering company of 130 soldiers clearing minefields. McCormick left the service in 1992 after five years and enrolled in a doctoral program at Princeton.

He started his career in finance in Pittsburgh in 1996 as a consultant at McKinsey & Co. From 2005 to 2009, he served in President George W. Bush’s administration. In 2009, he started working at the investment management firm Bridgewater Associates, where he’d stay until retiring as CEO in 2022.

McCormick talks about his upbringing in Pennsylvania frequently and aired campaign ads in 2022 highlighting his Keystone State roots. He also launched a super PAC last year to help GOP candidates in Pennsylvania.

McCormick and his wife had $24 million to $120 million worth of various city homes, farmland, and rental properties as of last year’s statement of financial interest.

He and Oz poured significant personal wealth into their campaigns last year, and the two candidates’ riches defined the Republican primary. If either had been elected, he would have been the wealthiest person ever to represent Pennsylvania in the Senate.

In addition to the Pittsburgh home, public property records show that McCormick and his wife purchased a Dallas condo in 2021 for $4.1 million. They described it as an investment property on the statement of financial interest, along with a Colorado ranch worth $5 million to $25 million.

McCormick also owns his family farm in Bloomsburg, where he grew up, valued now at $1 million to $5 million. Public records show he has significantly expanded it over the years by buying up neighboring land. McCormick’s 2022 campaign said he has owned the farm for 10 years.

There are only three constitutional requirements for serving in the Senate: to be at least 30 years old, a U.S. citizen for at least nine years, and to “inhabit” the state you’ll represent at the time you’re elected.

McCormick — or anyone else — could theoretically run a campaign from Hawaii, and wait until just before Election Day to move to Pennsylvania and legally be eligible.

There’s no precise definition of what makes someone an “inhabitant” and no minimum time period attached to that designation. The Constitution’s framers, in fact, explicitly debated a time requirement and rejected the idea, according to the Congressional Research Service, the nonpartisan research body of Congress.

“There is a general (legal) presumption within the American democratic tradition that the whole of the adult citizenry are eligible to serve in political office, and anyone challenging such presumption of eligibility has the burden of proof,” CRS wrote in a 2015 report.

It’s unclear. McCormick still hasn’t officially declared his candidacy for the office yet, so it’s possible he’ll spend a lot more time in the state once the campaign is underway. And voters aren’t particularly tuned into the Senate race right now.

The amount of time McCormick spends in Pennsylvania is unlikely to be a factor in the GOP primary unless other serious candidates get into the race.

But Democrats are already seizing on an opening to attack McCormick over his dual-state residency and revive an offensive that worked well against Oz last year in parochial Pennsylvania. Oz struggled to quiet an onslaught of attacks from Democratic candidate John Fetterman about being from New Jersey.

Fetterman, now senator, on Monday retweeted a link to an article about McCormick’s residency alongside a viral video that he’d recaptioned: “That m*****f***** is not a Pa. resident.”

Oz had baggage McCormick won’t — such as 20 years of hosting a daytime talk show with sometimes questionable medical advice and Hollywood connections that contributed to a negative impression among some voters that he was an opportunistic outsider.

Allegheny County GOP chair Sam DeMarco called any question of McCormick’s ties to Pennsylvania “ridiculous.”

“Dave is a Pennsylvanian who is laser-focused on helping Republicans win in Pennsylvania, and anyone who doesn’t see that hasn’t been paying attention,” he said.

“He’s raising money for candidates, speaking at events to generate enthusiasm, and having one-on-one conversations with Republicans all across the commonwealth about how to win this November.”

An earlier version of this article misstated the number of years McCormick has lived outside of Pennsylvania.