Philly Restaurant Bans GOP Candidate After Being Told Campaign Shutdown Was An Autism Event

“You’re not welcome back.”

That’s the message the manager of Philadelphia cheesesteak restaurant Max’s Steaks had for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick in Pennsylvania after his campaign held an event outside the restaurant Friday saying the eatery would be about autism awareness.

Mike Sfida — who agreed to host the event because his niece and nephew have autism — was alarmed Friday when he saw Donald Trump signs hanging outside the beloved North Philly spot, the Philadelphia researcher reported. McCormick arrived, gave a speech for the campaign and then handed out free sandwiches.

delvanninspired/Instagram

“We didn’t sign up for that at all. Zero,” he told the paper after the event, which he let the McCormick team finish before making it clear they had to stay out of his restaurant afterward. “I could throw them all out here, but I’ll be nice. Do your thing. When you’re done, leave. You’re not welcome back.’

Sfida told the Researcher it was a local Republican operative, Sheila Armstrong, who contacted him to plan the event, which she did on behalf of her nonprofit, Cooking4Autism, without naming McCormick’s campaign.

Armstrong is a member of the anti-LGBT group Moms for Liberty, which campaigns against school curricula that discuss LGBT rights or race and which the civil rights group Southern Poverty Law Center has classified as a far-right extremist group.

She was a paid staffer for Republican Mehmet Oz’s failed campaign — who lost to U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) in 2022 — but appears to have no official role on McCormick’s team, the Researcher reported. She told the newspaper she was offering to serve as a liaison for the Republican candidate in Philadelphia.

Pressed by the newspaper about whether the campaign stop was an autism awareness event, Armstrong claimed that “it’s always autism awareness because I’m a proponent of education” and said that at one point she spoke to attendees about autism.

“We certainly apologize for any confusion,” a McCormick spokesperson said.

But the disaster didn’t end there.

After showing up at a cheesesteak restaurant to campaign under the auspices of an autism awareness event, McCormick headed across the street to East Bethel Baptist Church, which happened to be holding a fundraiser outside for its food ministry.

The Rev. Thomas Edwards Jr., who leads the church, told his campaign he had to leave because he didn’t want the GOP candidate to use photos of his congregation for campaign purposes.

“You can Photoshop,” he told the Researcher. “You can make things seem like they aren’t. Maybe they’ll post that we eat dogs or cats, like in Ohio. Forgive me if I’m wrong. I don’t trust these people.”