HARRISBURG, Pa. – Democrat Sen. Bob Casey and Republican Dave McCormick have each tried to balance the top of their ticket in Pennsylvania, which will play a key role in determining control of both the White House and the Senate.
The two Senate candidates have regularly held rallies in the state with Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, enthusiastically touting the policies they agree on. However, they also noted their differences with their party’s presidential candidate in order to demonstrate their independence in the narrowly divided state and fend off the attacks of their opponents.
That’s a dynamic that will likely be on display Thursday, when Casey and McCormick meet for their first debate less than five weeks from Election Day.
Unlike the Democratic Senate candidates running in Ohio, Montana and Arizona, Casey campaigned closely with Harris, who is seeking a fourth term. She has joined him at campaign events across the state and has publicly supported his policy proposals, such as breaking the 60-vote threshold required for majority legislation in the Senate.
Still, Casey, the son of a former two-term Pennsylvania governor who has won his last three races handily, expressed confidence that he can beat Harris this fall, even if the ticket split shrinks.
“I think when it comes to the decision a voter has to make, they’re going to make a different decision based on the office,” Casey said in an interview with NBC News outside Pittsburgh on Sunday.
“They will make a decision in the presidential race, where they will take into account a number of considerations. They will also make a choice-specific decision about who will be their next senator in my race,” he said.
Casey still needs to attract people like University of Pittsburgh sophomore Seth Klein. The first-time voter plans to support Harris, but he’s not committed to sticking with the Democratic Party for the rest of the ballot.
“I’m registered as an independent, so I’m not biased one way or the other. I’m just going to vote for whoever, in my eyes, is the better candidate,” Klein said.
Meanwhile, McCormick, a former hedge fund CEO and combat veteran, won Trump’s endorsement this term after losing the 2022 Republican Senate primary in Pennsylvania. In that race, Trump, who supported the famous doctor Mehmet Oz, called McCormick a “liberal Wall Street Republican.”
Now, McCormick has tried to stick it to Trump, who won Pennsylvania in 2016 and lost in 2020. He has been a regular speaker at the former president’s rallies, including last weekend in Erie, but has also emphasized their limited policy differences.
“I’ve had a history that if I disagree with President Trump, I’ve said so,” McCormick said. , giving tax breaks to millionaire homeowners in California, New York at the expense of Pennsylvania taxpayers. For example, I would not support it.”
Trump said some things about Ukraine. My opinion about Ukraine is that we should support Ukraine with military aid,” McCormick said. Pennsylvania has the second largest population of Ukrainian Americans.
“My opinion is that President Trump is right, France and Germany should pay their fair share,” he added.
Asked whether he would vote for Trump’s proposed 60% tariff on Chinese imports as a senator, McCormick said he supported the “strategic” use of tariffs but would not commit to Trump’s specific plan.
“I’m not going to get into the specifics of that,” McCormick said, adding that he was “not sure” what Trump meant by his latest plan. “I support using tariffs to make sure we get a fair deal, and that’s what President Trump has done so far, and I support him in doing that.”
McCormick is also expected to attend Trump’s Butler rally on Saturday, the GOP presidential candidate’s first return to the area since an assassination attempt against him in July. McCormick encouraged both Republicans and Democrats to “not resort to dehumanizing rhetoric,” but told NBC News that he had not spoken directly to Trump about it.
“I’m not advising the former president,” McCormick said, adding that Republicans “need to focus on the battle of ideas” rather than personal attacks. (Trump at a weekend rally in Erie cited Harris as “mentally disabled”.)
“I have to run a campaign that best represents who I am and the senator I will be, and I can only manage myself,” McCormick said.
McCormick also tried to paint Casey’s alignment with Harris as negative on issues like immigration, inflation and energy.
While Harris now says he has no intention of banning fracking, a key technology that is changing the energy industry in rural Pennsylvania, it is a retreat from his position as a senator and presidential candidate in 2019.
“I have supported natural gas extraction as a public official, and when there was an attempt in the United States Congress to ban it, I opposed it and I will continue to oppose it,” Casey said.
Addressing coal workers at the Gilberton power plant in Frackville on Monday, McCormick called it “the height of hypocrisy for an election year that 50 days into an election year, all of a sudden they’re in favor of natural gas, fossils.” they will burn. “I don’t think Pennsylvanians will believe that, and it’s very important for our future.”
Pressed about Trump’s evolving positions on a range of issues from abortion to TikTok to marijuana, McCormick said Harris has “changed all his positions.”
“I think it’s election-year gymnastics and we’re in sync with Bob Casey and Kamala Harris flip-flopping on the issues because they see they’re on the wrong side of these propositions,” he said.
Democrats, in turn, have made reproductive rights central to their messaging as Harris and Casey hope to win over suburban women and moderates.
Casey, a Catholic who once called herself a “pro-life Democrat,” is now attacking her opponent over repealing federal abortion protections. He defended his progressive views on the issue and warned voters that electing his opponent could lead to bans on abortion pills and contraception.
McCormick said the issue “should be left up to the states” and said he would never support federal legislation banning the procedure or contraceptives.
McCormick also said he believes any law banning abortion should make exceptions for rape, consanguinity and when the mother’s life is in danger. He did not specify when he believed abortions would be banned, only stating “after fetal viability.”
Bradley Flenory, a chef at a restaurant in Pittsburgh, said that while the economy is important, reproductive rights are his top concern. It is personal to him and his family because his wife has a condition that increases infertility in women. She said that they have been trying to have a child for 10 years and now their only option is in vitro fertilization.
“We had two pregnancies. One was stillborn and almost died, and the other miscarried,” Flenory said. “We were trying to do IVF. So where I go is Kamala Harris, because you know Trump and everybody is against abortion.”
Flenory said he “doesn’t trust” Trump or McCormick’s promises that they would not impose any federal restrictions on abortion or other forms of reproductive care: “Trump’s Trump. Trump will do whatever he wants to do.”