BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Pennsylvania's U.S. Senate candidates don't seem to agree on much on the campaign trail — with one notable exception.
Both Democratic incumbent Sen. Bob Casey and Republican challenger Dave McCormick have labeled this election cycle, which will determine control of the White House and Congress, as the most important in at least a lifetime.
The duo has painted the race and their own victory as essential to protecting America's quality of life, the economy and national security.
And they've flooded the airwaves, mailboxes and text apps to make sure that Pennsylvanians hear their messages. The advertising data company Ad Impact found Casey, McCormick, their parties and allies have spent $207.4 million on messaging through Aug. 7.
Neither candidate has been a stranger to the Lehigh Valley. Casey has made frequent visits, both in his official capacity and as a candidate on the campaign stump. His local appearances have included celebrating local funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, advocating for Pennsylvania's tech industry and contending that corporate price gouging is to blame on rising consumer costs.
McCormick has stumped throughout the region as well. He and U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, rallied conservatives ahead of the May primary in North Whitehall Township, defended Israel's military strikes in Gaza while in Allentown and backed school voucher programswith former U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos during a trip to Nazareth.
The candidates will face off in their first debate at 8 tonight in Harrisburg. The debate will be hosted by ABC27 and will be streamed at PIX11.com. It also will air on WPHL-TV (CW) out of Philadelphia.
Know the candidates
Few politicians have reached Casey's level of name recognition. A Scranton native and son of a popular former governor, Casey has been a fixture in Pennsylvania politics since the late 1990s. He served two terms as Pennsylvania's auditor general and two years as state treasurer before defeating Republican incumbent Rick Santorum in 2006.
Casey has spent most of his 18 years in office as a backbencher but has generally enjoyed bipartisan support at home. The closest a Republican has come to defeating him was former coal mining executive Tom Smith, who lost the 2012 U.S. Senate race by more than 500,000 votes.
McCormick appears to be one of his toughest opponents yet — recent polls show he's trailing by about 5 points. McCormick has labeled Casey as a do-nothing liberal whose support for President Joe Biden — another Scranton native — has endangered the nation. He took that message to a national audience during the Republican National Convention this summer.
McCormick, a retired paratrooper, was a star wrestler at West Point before seeing combat in the First Gulf War. He went on to serve in President George W. Bush's administration, advising on international trade, finance and national security.
In the private sector, McCormick rose to CEO of Bridgewater Associates, one of the largest hedge funds in the world. He resigned to launch a U.S. Senate campaign in 2022 but lost to reality TV star Dr. Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania's Republican primary. The party rallied around him this year, and he picked up endorsements from former President Donald Trump and other GOP leaders.
McCormick's campaigns have been marked by questions over his residency. While he was born in Washington County and grew up on the campus of Bloomsburg University — his father was university president — he was a resident of Connecticut as recently as last spring, according to the Associated Press.
Voting records show that before his 2022 campaign, he hadn't voted in Pennsylvania since 2006. He currently claims residency in Pittsburgh and owns a family farm in Bloomsburg.
Reproductive rights
The Casey name has long held an important spot in America's legal wrangling over abortion access. Casey's father, Gov. Bob Casey Sr., defended a Planned Parenthood lawsuit where the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Roe v. Wade but empowered states to pass restrictions on abortion access such as waiting periods and parental consent for minors.
When Sen. Casey arrived in Washington, he described himself as a pro-life Democrat. He's repeatedly voted for federal legislation that would restrict abortion access to the 20th week of pregnancy, most recently in 2018.
But Casey's stance appears to have shifted in recent years. He decried the Supreme Court's 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson that overruled Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Since then, he's voted repeatedly to codify federal protections for abortion access, though the bills have not passed.
McCormick has also described himself as a pro-life candidate, and he praised the Dobbs v. Jackson decision that allowed states to set their own limits on abortion access. He opposes the creation of a national abortion ban, according to his campaign website.
During a debate during his failed 2022 U.S. Senate bid, McCormick said he only supported abortion exceptions in order to save the life of a mother. Since then, he has also expanded support for exceptions including rape and incest as well, according to his campaign.
Inflation and the economy
McCormick has hammered away at Casey and Biden, blaming them for the rising costs of everyday goods. Massive spending packages such as the Inflation Reduction Act championed by Democrats led to staggering inflation, he said.
To get inflation under control, the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates to levels not seen in decades, making it harder for everyday Americans to borrow money. While the process has worked — inflation is back to pre-pandemic norms and the Fed has started to lower rates — the price of groceries and other essentials remain elevated.
McCormick has called reducing bureaucratic oversight and empowering America's energy industry the key to revving up the economy.
While national gas and oil production has climbed to all-time highs under the Biden administration, he says that embracing natural gas production would push the economy to new heights. Pennsylvania, as the second largest natural gas producer in the country, would stand to benefit.
Casey has pushed back against McCormick's attacks, arguing American families are suffering because of "greedflation" — price gouging by big businesses. He's also criticized companies for reducing the size of their products while keeping prices the same — a practice he's dubbed "shrinkflation." The end result, he said, is consumers getting less for their buck when they can least afford it.
He's issued reports that found food costs grew faster than inflation, and companies like Tyson and Pilgrim's Pride saw record profits during the pandemic. A Department of Justice antitrust lawsuit alleges the chicken, turkey and pork industry colluded to raise their prices by sharing sensitive information.
He and Biden have called for legislation that would empower the Federal Trade Commission to police companies selling products and services at "grossly inflated cost" while leaving it to the commission to decide how much prices have to spike before amounting to price gouging.
Vice President Kamala Harris has also embraced Casey's rhetoric, and Casey hammered home his greedflation message at the Democratic National Convention.
Foreign affairs
Casey and McCormick generally agree that the United States needs to maintain its global military presence.
Casey has voted for funding packages that sent weapons and aid to Taiwan, Israel and Ukraine. McCormick, while critical of the Biden administration's messaging, has supported those efforts and called for increasing America's military spending to Cold War levels in a bid to keep China, Russia and Iran in check.
McCormick, however, has accused his opponent of damaging America's military might. Casey, he said, voted for a 2015 deal that unfroze $6 billion of Iranian assets in return for a prisoner swap and concessions that handcuffed Iran's ability to produce nuclear weapons. (President Donald Trump later pulled out of the deal, leading Iran to restart its uranium enrichment program.)
While the deal limited the $6 billion to humanitarian causes, McCormick and other conservative critics have argued the agreement allowed Iran to free up funding elsewhere to aid terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
They have accused Casey, Biden and other Democrats of indirectly causing Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the violence that's engulfed the Middle East since. Casey countered that the $6 billion remains out of Iran's reach in a restricted bank account.
Both candidates have adopted harsh language toward China, saying the communist nation is harming America's economic might through unfair trade practices. Each has tried to paint the other as a poor check on China's growth.
McCormick contended that Casey has been at the helm as the United States has grown reliant on Chinese solar technology and as Chinese-made fentanyl has flooded into the country, leading to thousands of overdose deaths.
Meanwhile Casey attacked McCormick's business dealings while leading Bridgewater. While McCormick now says that America needs to divest from China, Bridgewater's holdings in China increased 108,000% over his five-year tenure, CNN reported. The U.S. alleges a subsidiary of a Chinese business Bridgewater invested in committed human rights violations; China and Bridgewater deny the accusations.
Bridgewater also invested $1.7 million in Humanwell, China's largest producer of fentanyl. Casey has used that funding to pin the surge in overdose deaths on McCormick. McCormick in turn has blamed the rise of fentanyl on Casey, claiming his loose border policies have allowed drug dealers to smuggle the drug into the country.
