PHILADELPHIA — Democratic Sen. Bob Casey (Pa.) isn’t a firebreather. The no-frills, mild-mannered Pennsylvanian just doesn’t operate that way.
That’s why Casey’s speech to a crowd of carpenters at a union hall here was so jolting.
“I’m a little bit sick of talking about this guy,” Casey quipped about his GOP opponent Dave McCormick, before haranguing McCormick over his business record, residency and opposition to the infrastructure law.
“He’s a creep!” someone in the crowd yelled. Casey responded: “He might be worse than that.”
That Casey was campaigning out of character during the final sprint was undoubtedly a reflection of the long, exhausting slog this cycle has been. Yet Casey’s unfamiliar posture underscores the uniquely unfamiliar position he finds himself in.
After toppling a GOP incumbent in 2006, Casey won his next two reelection bids — in 2012 and 2018 — by comfortable nine- and 13-point margins respectively. But this year, with Pennsylvania as ground zero in the fight for the White House, was always going to be different. McCormick is now within striking distance of what would be a huge pickup for Republicans.
Casey’s strategy: Democrats struggled in 2022 to capitalize on the bipartisan legislative achievements of the previous two years, in part because they hadn’t been implemented and were therefore abstract concepts to voters.
Now that they’re being implemented — especially infrastructure projects — Democrats are looking to use this to their advantage in battlegrounds. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has touted this.
“Sometimes when there isn’t something that’s manifest and right in front of people, it’s harder to conceptualize,” Casey told us after his speech. “But my sense is people are seeing more activity, they’re seeing the investment.”
Casey is also using some of this year’s failed messaging votes — another Schumer-driven strategy — to criticize McCormick. Casey‘s doing this with the bipartisan border security deal in arguing McCormick will do whatever former President Donald Trump tells him to do — in this case, opposing the bill.
It’s also an effort to counteract McCormick’s stated goal of attracting voters outside the Trump base, which is of course necessary to win a battleground state. Casey called McCormick’s border-related attacks “bullshit.”
The presidential race: Like other Senate GOP challengers, McCormick has hitched himself to Trump. Yet McCormick also knows he needs to grow his vote share in the suburbs, which may require breaking from Trump at times, although he has yet to do so in a major way.
Casey, however, is running an ad statewide highlighting his opposition to President Joe Biden’s decision to pause liquified natural gas exports. But he’s still tying himself closely to Vice President Kamala Harris.
McCormick says he’s thrilled Harris replaced Biden, calling Pennsylvania “the one place” where Democrats would’ve preferred Biden.
“Say what you want, but Biden had campaigned in Pennsylvania for 50 years, calling himself Pennsylvania’s third senator, Scranton Joe, knew every union leader, county commissioner,” McCormick told us. “Kamala Harris comes on the stage, gets this bump of media euphoria. Then people start to look at her and what she’s said in her own words.”
Casey’s explanation for the race’s tightening? Money.
“It’s not anything [McCormick] did. It’s what his billionaire backers did,” Casey said “When that happens, when they rain down that much in negative ads, it’s going to make the race closer… But they’re not going to knock me down.”