Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey hopes his record as a ‘proven fighter’ carries him to victory

Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. is pitching himself as a “proven fighter” in a closing message to key voters in the tight Pennsylvania Senate race. 

Mr. Casey, the three-term incumbent Democrat, published an op-ed in Fox News on Friday asking Pennsylvanians to vote for him over Republican candidate Dave McCormick, former CEO of the world’s largest hedge fund.

“The people of Pennsylvania have an important choice to make between a proven fighter for the middle class and a Connecticut hedge fund executive who has only ever fought for himself, his own bottom line, and the billionaires funding his campaign,” he wrote. 

Mr. McCormick published his own op-ed in Fox News on Wednesday pitching himself as a “political outsider” who offers a “change after once-in-a-generation price increases, a wave of violent crime in our cities, a wide-open southern border and a fentanyl crisis that is killing more than 4,000 Pennsylvanians each year.”

The Pennsylvania Senate candidates have had to compete for messaging space on broadcast and print media with the presidential candidates, who have made the Keystone State the top target of the 2024 cycle. 

Mr. Casey has been consistently leading Mr. McCormick in the polls, but the margin has tightened in the closing weeks of the election. His average lead is now 2.4 points, according to Real Clear polling’s aggregate, which includes half a dozen polls that concluded this week finding Mr. Casey ahead by 2 or 3 points, and two polls showing the race tied.

Mr. Casey is not the only vulnerable Democratic senator to publish a Fox News opinion piece in an effort to reach Republican and independent voters who will be crucial to their survival. The incumbents have been rolling out their pitches in the conservative outlet all week, starting with Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin published on Tuesday, followed by Nevada Sen. Jacky Rosen on Wednesday and Montana Sen. Jon Tester on Thursday.

In his op-ed, Mr. Casey said he has worked to lower costs, create jobs and bring investments to Pennsylvania and will continue to do so if reelected. 

“I have always put Pennsylvania first, no matter what,” he said, while accusing Mr. McCormick of “fighting for himself and his wealthy friends.” 

“He said he lived in Pennsylvania, when in reality he was taking a private jet from Connecticut for multiple campaign events. He didn’t even vote in Pennsylvania for 15 years,” Mr. Casey said of Mr. McCormick. 

Mr. McCormick described himself as “a proud seventh-generation Pennsylvanian who was born in Washington County and grew up in Bloomsburg,” and did not mention his second residence in Connecticut in his op-ed.

Mr. Casey talked about legislative accomplishments he and congressional Democrats have had in recent years, passing laws that cap insulin costs for seniors, allow Medicare to negotiate lower prices on other prescription drugs and expand healthcare coverage for veterans exposed to toxic burn pits.

The burn pit legislation has helped more than 32,000 veterans in Pennsylvania, Mr. Casey said. 

The incumbent Democrat also touted cost-lowering plans that have not yet been passed into law, like a measure he’s proposed to crack down on corporate price gouging, which he calls “greedflation.” Mr. Casey said his legislation “would go after companies that deceptively shrink their products at the grocery store, making families pay more for less product.” 

Mr. McCormick said Mr. Casey “votes 98% of the time for the failing, liberal agenda of President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris that has devastated the livelihoods of working Pennsylvania families,” including “more than $5 trillion in new spending that sent inflation soaring.” 

Mr. Casey cited his support for a bipartisan border deal that stalled in Congress earlier this year, which Mr. McCormick has said he would have opposed, and various votes he took to invest in additional border patrol agents, fencing and screening technology.

Touting legislation he supported to combat fentanyl trafficking, Mr. Casey said Mr. McCormick invested in China’s largest producer of fentanyl when he served as CEO of Bridgewater, the world’s largest hedge fund. 

“While he was enriching himself, he was hurting Pennsylvanians,” Mr. Casey said. “He shorted Pennsylvania companies like U.S. Steel and bet against their success. He laid off hundreds of workers in Pittsburgh and even helped teach other companies how to outsource jobs.” 

Mr. McCormick did not mention his time at Bridgewater in his op-ed, although he said Mr. Casey has attacked his success and lied about his record. He did tout his time in the Army and as CEO of a Pittsburgh software company called FreeMarkets that he said created hundreds of jobs in the state. 

The Republican candidate said if elected he would be “an independent, bipartisan voice and a problem solver.”