Democrat Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania to Seek 4th Term

Democrat Sen. Bob Casey announced Monday he will seek a fourth term in office.

Casey, 62, the longest-serving Democrat U.S. senator in Pennsylvania history,  is a key ally of labor unions and President Joe Biden. In Congress, Casey, a moderate Democrat, has backed all of Biden’s top priorities and forged a close relationship with the president, at least in part because the men also have a bond that goes beyond politics: They hail from the same hometown of Scranton.

In running for reelection, Casey’s message sounds similar to how Biden’s campaign for a second term may sound. Casey points to landmark bills produced by a Democratic-controlled Congress that would expand spending on infrastructure such as airports and broadband internet, to reinvigorate a domestic semiconductor industry, to subsidize hydrogen fuel plants and to lower drug costs for Medicare recipients.

Casey has cast himself as standing up to what he calls “corporate special interests,” and said there is more to do to lower the cost of living for working families, such as child care or prescription drugs.

“That means being willing to fight and not back down from any fight for those communities and those families,” Casey said in an interview last week.

The Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, is already attacking 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 championed.

Casey said Republicans “dreamed that up” and countered that the GOP has long been hostile to Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security by proposing budgets and policy ideas that would “devastate” the programs.

Republicans do not have a deep bench to challenge Casey, but they do have one potential top-tier candidate: former hedge fund CEO David McCormick, who narrowly lost the GOP nomination for Senate in 2022 to Dr. Mehmet Oz.

McCormick, who has strong support from party brass, has a solid-gold resume as a decorated Gulf War veteran who graduated from West Point, got a doctoral degree from Princeton, served in the highest levels of then-President George W. Bush’s administration and ran one of the world’s largest hedge funds.

He also has deep pockets and connections across spheres of politics, business and government from which to draw endorsements and campaign contributions — none of which was enough to prevail against Oz, the Donald Trump-backed candidate who went on to lose the general election to Democrat John Fetterman.

If he runs, McCormick may have a contested primary: State Sen. Doug Mastriano has said he may run and suggested that he would win a primary “hands down.” That is prompting handwringing from party leaders after Mastriano, endorsed by Trump, ran a hard-right campaign in the governor’s race last year, and was beaten soundly.

Many Republicans acknowledge that it will be difficult to beat Casey. Some privately say he can’t be beaten.

He is one of the last lawmakers on Capitol Hill to call himself a “ pro-life Democrat, ” and backed a bill last year to write abortion rights into federal law when it became apparent that the Supreme Court would overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling.

Casey is not just any Democrat in the abortion debate. His 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 the case but allowed states to add some limitations on the procedure.

Casey has said he does not support a complete ban on abortion, and believes that lawmakers should work to reduce the number of abortions and unintended pregnancies in their states, and to do more to support women and families.

In January, as he geared up for the campaign, Casey announced that he would undergo surgery for prostate cancer. More than seven weeks after surgery, Casey said he feels fully recovered. His office has said the procedure went well and that he would require no further treatment. He has since returned to work.