Bob Casey looks back on two decades in the Senate — and to a future without Trump on the ballot.
Democratic Sen. Bob Casey is one of the longest-serving senators in Pennsylvania’s history. But his run of electoral success ended last month when he narrowly lost to Republican challenger Dave McCormick.
Now, with just weeks remaining in his 18-year Senate career, Casey is reflecting on what went wrong for him and his party in what was the most consequential battleground state on the map. Casey was the only Democratic Senate candidate running in a presidential battleground who lost his race, falling to McCormick by roughly 15,200 votes as President-elect Donald Trump built a far more substantial victory in the Keystone State than he did in 2016.
Although Democrats were wrecked up and down the ballot in Pennsylvania, Casey doesn’t think the party needs to rip up its playbook. In fact, he thinks the factor that will help them the most is not having to face Trump on the ballot again.
“I think he’s about as strong a Republican candidate as they’ve had for president in my lifetime,” said Casey, who has served in statewide office for three decades and whose father served as a two-term governor of the state.
In an interview with NBC News, Casey discussed this year’s campaign, what’s next for him and his party, and the highlights of his Senate career.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
NBC NEWS: What went wrong in Pennsylvania this year?
CASEY: Well, I think we’ll know a lot more over time, but obviously, when President Trump was running as strong as he ran, that was going to, and it did, affect the results all across the ticket. So that’s certainly one, what I would call a substantial factor. …
Just in our race, I think the combined impact of the Trump wave, plus the $150 million spent against me by three super PACs, that had an impact, as well as the presidential race. It’s harder for me to analyze that because I just wasn’t paying as close attention to the data there. But obviously, for probably a variety of reasons, President Trump had his strongest performance ever in Pennsylvania of the three races and got about 50%.
NBC NEWS: And why do you think he did run as strong as he did in Pennsylvania? I mean, you have served there in elected office for many, many years, and have seen the state go through a number of political cycles. What do you think this time around made it so fertile for the former president?
CASEY: Well, I do think that the economy — and principally the driver of that was inflation, even though it had come down substantially, way down well before the election — there was a sense among folks that the economy was better under his administration. I don’t think that’s accurate, but that’s the perception that people had, and that if he was able to achieve that once, he could do it again. So that drove it.
0 Comments