Casey and McCormick outline most important issues in Pennsylvania Senate race
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — When Pennsylvanians go to the polls, there's a lot more on the ballot than the presidency. One key race is for United States senator, featuring a long-time Pennsylvania name and a well-financed challenger.
Sen. Bob Casey has been a fixture on the political scene for decades. This year, the Democrat faces his toughest challenge for reelection from Republican Dave McCormick, who grew up in Pennsylvania and ran a hedge fund in Connecticut for 12 years before returning home to run for Senate in 2022.
"What do you think is the biggest issue in this election?" KDKA-TV political editor Jon Delano asked McCormick.
"I think the biggest issue is the economy and the skyrocketing prices that are affecting most Pennsylvanians. Sixty percent of Pennsylvanians live paycheck to paycheck," McCormick said.
McCormick blames Casey for this inflation.
"I say Casey because he voted 98 percent of the time for all these reckless spending bills, and he's also been at the forefront of this war on fossil fuels," McCormick said.
Casey disagrees, saying he's been fighting against higher costs for families "for a long time."
"I've supported efforts to invest more in child care, which obviously brings down costs, supported tax policies that would lower costs," he said.
Casey agrees that the economy is the number one issue but notes his work against corporate "greedflation" and says their excessive profits drive inflation, and he makes no apologies for supporting bills to expand child tax credits, cap insulin costs for seniors and bring infrastructure jobs to this region.
As for fracking, because it creates local jobs and energy independence, Casey says, "Every time that issue has come up, I've supported gas extraction in Pennsylvania."
But both Casey and McCormick see larger issues at stake in this election as well. For McCormick, he says he's the conservative outsider versus a liberal incumbent.
"People see this as a choice between change and the status quo. In my case, I'm running against a 30-year career politician, someone who hasn't been a leader in the Senate, someone who has voted 98 percent of the time with the increasingly liberal agenda of the Democratic Party, and I'm running as a political outsider," McCormick said.
For Casey, he says he's the defender of middle-class families and an opponent to wealthy interests that want to take over the Senate to limit fundamental rights.
"Who's going to be on the side of families and who's going to be on the side of big corporations and the billionaires, people making as much as my opponent was making?" Casey said.
"Not just for our commonwealth, but for our country, on basic rights – whether it's women's rights, workers' rights, and of course, voting rights and democracy itself," he added.
Pennsylvania Senate race features ads with harsh attacks
Like the race for the presidency, the Senate race has featured some particularly harsh attacks on each other.
The negative attack ads in this year's Senate race have been overwhelming, and both Casey and McCormick say the other side is lying.
KDKA-TV's Jon Delano asked both about three of the major attack lines: abortion, immigration and residency.
On abortion, Casey says it's a defining issue. He says he will support the Women's Health Protection Act to restore abortion rights in every state and says McCormick won't.
"Dave McCormick is not going to support that legislation. He's unalterably opposed to that," said Casey.
McCormick says abortion is a state issue and he will oppose all federal legislation on abortion, for or against.
On immigration, McCormick has attacked Casey repeatedly for allowing illegal migrants into the country.
"We have wide open borders that are making our citizens of Pennsylvania more [in]secure and contributing to this huge fentanyl crisis," McCormick said. "He voted against the border wall. He voted against funding for the Border Patrol. He voted against the fentanyl initiative. He voted for sanctuary cities."
Casey said McCormick is lying about his record.
"I have voted for every border security bill that's been in the Senate for the last decade – 25 times I've voted for border security and in almost every one of those bills, there were provisions that would help us stop the flow of fentanyl," Casey said.
Citing an Associated Press story last year, Casey says McCormick has not been truthful about his Connecticut residency.
"When you're telling people all throughout 2022 as a candidate and then after his primary, all throughout 2023, and then into 2024, 'I live in Pennsylvania. I live in Pennsylvania.' He was living in Connecticut, and so it was a lie," Casey said.
McCormick says he never lied about his Connecticut residency, keeping a home in that state so he could see his daughters from a previous marriage who are still in school there.
"I did live in Connecticut for 12 years and ran Bridgewater, so I've never disputed that. In 2022, I bought a home in Pittsburgh and moved back to Pittsburgh, and I would periodically travel to Connecticut to see my daughter," McCormick said.
Do these negative attacks make a difference with voters? Maybe not. A lot of people think this race for Senate comes down to who wins the presidency in Pennsylvania, Harris or Trump. But Pennsylvania is a state known for splitting tickets, choosing the person over the party.
Recent polls suggest that this race between Casey and McCormick is within the margin of error, meaning one candidate or the other could be ahead. The Cook Political Report says it's a toss-up.