Senator Bob Casey, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, speaks during a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing in Washington, DC, on Thursday, March 9, 2023.
Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., on Monday announced he will seek a fourth term in the battleground state next year as Democrats fight to keep their Senate majority.
In announcing his re-election bid, Casey pointed to legislation passed by a Democratic-controlled Congress during the first two years of the Biden administration that expands investments on infrastructure, semiconductor manufacturing and research, and lowering prescription drug costs for Medicare recipients.
“I’m running for re-election because with so much on the line for Pennsylvania’s working families, I want to keep delivering results for Pennsylvania,” Casey said in a statement announcing his re-election campaign. “There’s still more work to cut through the gridlock, stand up to powerful corporate special interests, and make the lives of hardworking Pennsylvanians a little bit easier.”
No other candidates for the 2024 Pennsylvania Senate race have been officially announced.
On the Republican side, former hedge fund executive Dave McCormick, who lost a close Republican Senate primary to celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz in 2022, is seen as a top GOP recruiting target. McCormick has been touring the state to promote a recently published book. Also weighing a GOP primary bid is state Sen. Doug Mastriano, an ultra-conservative election denier who was defeated by Democrat Josh Shapiro in last year’s race for governor.
Casey’s announcement comes after he underwent surgery for prostate cancer earlier this year.
Casey is the longest-serving Democratic senator in the state’s history. His 2024 announcement comes as Democrats face a daunting Senate map next year, with 21 Senate Democrats up for re-election, and the two independents who caucus with them.
Former President Donald Trump in 2020 won three states with Democratic senators who are up for re-election in 2024: Montana, Ohio and West Virginia. Casey is among a group of five Senate Democrats who are from states that President Joe Biden won by less than 4 percentage points in 2020, making them potentially vulnerable for re-election next year.
Casey, who turns 63 this week, was first elected to the Senate in 2006 and secured re-election in 2012 and 2018 even as the state swung between Republicans and Democrats in presidential races. A moderate Democrat, Casey is a key Biden ally and outspoken supporter of labor unions.
During his time in the Senate, Casey has joined Republicans and other Democrats to negotiate bipartisan bills. The longtime senator entered Congress with a pro-gun rights position that contrasted with other Democrats, but he came around to helping negotiate legislation such as background checks for gun purchases.
Casey, who has long held anti-abortion views, had a complicated stance on the government’s role in abortion rights. However, he joined Democrats last year in coming out in support of some abortion rights protections in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, marking a shift from his prior resistance to codifying abortion rights protections nationwide.
He is the son of Bob Casey Sr., a former governor of Pennsylvania who opposed legal abortion and defended his state’s restrictions in the 1992 landmark Supreme Court case Planned Parenthood v. Casey.