HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Democratic Sen. Bob Casey will seek a fourth term, bringing current and unmatched name recognition in Pennsylvania politics to his party’s defense of a seat in a critical presidential battleground state.
The announcement by Casey, the longest-serving Democratic U.S. senator in Pennsylvania history, gives Democrats a boost ahead of a tough Senate map in 2024. They must defend incumbents not just in red states — Montana, Ohio and West Virginia — but and from several cradle states.
Casey, who will turn 63 in a few days, is a key ally of unions and President Joe Biden. In Congress, Casey, a moderate Democrat, has supported all of Biden’s top priorities and formed a close relationship with the president, at least in part because the men also share a bond that goes beyond politics: They hail from the same hometown of Scranton. . .
As he runs for re-election, Casey’s message sounds similar to what Biden’s campaign for a second term might sound like. Casey highlights flagship bills from a Democratic-controlled Congress that would expand spending on infrastructure like airports and broadband, revive a domestic semiconductor industry, subsidize hydrogen power plants and lower drug costs for beneficiaries Medicare.
Casey said she stands up to what she calls “corporate special interests” and said more needs to be done to lower the cost of living for working families, such as child care or prescription drugs.
“That means being willing to fight and not backing down from any fight for those communities and families,” Casey said in an interview last week.
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, file
The Senate Republicans’ voting arm, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, is already criticizing Casey for voting for laws under Biden that they say have worsened inflation and threatened Social Security and Medicare, two programs that Casey- has long argued.
Casey said Republicans “dreamed of it” and countered that the GOP has long been hostile to Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security, proposing budgets and policy ideas that would “devastate” the programs.
Republicans don’t have a deep bench to challenge Casey, but they do have a potential top contender: former hedge fund CEO David McCormick, who narrowly lost the 2022 GOP Senate nomination to Dr. Mehmet Oz.
McCormick, who enjoys strong party support, has a solid gold record as a decorated Gulf War veteran who graduated from West Point, earned a doctorate from Princeton, served at the highest levels of the presidential administration of to George W. Bush and ran one of the largest hedge funds in the world.
He also has deep pockets and connections in politics, business and government from which to draw support and campaign contributions, none of which were enough to defeat Oz, the candidate backed by Donald Trump, who lost the general election to democrats. John Fetterman.
If he ran, McCormick could have run in the primary: State Sen. Doug Mastriano said he might run and suggested he would win a “down” primary. That’s prompting a row from party leaders after a Trump-backed Mastriano ran a right-wing campaign in last year’s gubernatorial race and was soundly defeated.
Many Republicans acknowledge that it will be difficult to defeat Casey. Some say privately that he cannot be beaten.
Casey is perhaps the best-known politician in Pennsylvania, even if he has a relatively low profile in Washington, without a major committee chairman in his portfolio. In Pennsylvania, he has already run for statewide seven times — winning six of those races — and is the son of a former two-term state governor.
He has never run in a close Senate race — he won his 2018 race by 13 percentage points — and maintained an active campaign schedule last year, helping Fetterman.
Still, Casey said he always expected a tight race given Pennsylvania’s status as a battleground state.
“I’ve spent years traveling and going to all 67 counties and delivering for the people of our state and the communities of our state,” Casey said. “And that’s the kind of approach I’m going to take in the campaign: We’re going to go everywhere and try to get every vote.”
He is one of the last lawmakers on Capitol Hill to describe himself as a “pro-life Democrat,” and last year he supported a bill to enshrine abortion rights in federal law when it became clear that the Supreme Court would overturn the landmark Roe versus Wade. government.
Casey isn’t just a Democrat in the abortion debate. Her father, former Gov. Bob Casey, Sr., opposed abortion rights and signed legislation in the state that spawned another landmark abortion case, Planned Parenthood v. Casey. In 1992, the Supreme Court ultimately upheld Roe in that case, but allowed states to add some limitations to the procedure.
Casey said she does not support a complete abortion ban and believes lawmakers should work to reduce the number of abortions and unwanted pregnancies in their states and do more to support women and families.
In January, while preparing for the campaign, Casey announced that he would undergo surgery for prostate cancer. More than seven weeks after the surgery, Casey said he felt completely healed. Her office said the procedure went well and she won’t need any more treatment. He has since returned to work.
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