Casey discusses shutdown, possible presidential bid
Any Democrat who wants the 2020 nomination for president ought to visit counties like Butler, according to U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa.
In a meeting with the Butler Eagle's editorial team Tuesday morning, Casey addressed recent reports that he is considering a run for president.
“I have an obligation to think about it” is all he would offer, and it's all he's offered to several reporters who have recently asked about a run for the Oval Office.
He downplayed his hopes, saying “I think I'm a lot more likely to be a senator than a candidate.”
Casey, a Democrat, won re-election to his third term in November over Republican Lou Barletta. He won back three counties that swung to President Donald Trump in 2016: Erie, Berks and Northampton.
Trump's win in the Keystone State was key to pushing him over the edge to Electoral College victory. Casey reckons Democrats would need to undo that move to beat him next year.
“If you don't win Pennsylvania, it's game over,” Casey said. “And I think I could win the state in a presidential race.”
But, he added hastily, he also thinks a few of the several dozen others whose names are being floated as candidates could pull out a win in Pennsylvania as well.
They could win, he said, by showing up even where Democrats aren't likely to win. Even in places like ruby red Butler County.
“You can't just settle for the low numbers,” Casey said. “You have to get three points more by speaking to people and showing you respect them.”
Casey soon got a taste of how those discussions might go in a county like Butler, where he lost by 20 percentage points in November.
After his meeting with the Eagle, he toured the Abie Abraham VA Health Care Center. While walking its halls, one man approached him and exclaimed “Why don't you go back to Washington and get this thing resolved?”
The partial government shutdown being fought over in Congress was among the first topics Casey broached when speaking to Eagle editors. He took the offensive, placing blame squarely with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who has not brought an appropriations bill for a vote despite it passing in the U.S. House last week.
“It could happen today if McConnell were to take the bill,” he said.
He argued for reopening other aspects of government, but keeping Homeland Security funding in debates. Trump has refused to OK anything without $5 billion for a southern border wall. Casey called the tactic “holding the other agencies hostage.”
He pointed fingers at Republicans again when discussing health care, slamming his conservative colleagues for only discussing Affordable Care Act repeals in private meetings and bypassing standard public hearings.
Casey said he wants to see immigration like a bipartisan 2013 immigration bill come back for a vote, but doesn't see the support readily appearing. Trump's immigration rhetoric, he said, pushed fellow Republicans away from centrist reform policies.
But when asked how to bridge the gap between the two Pennsylvanias: the one that votes for people like him, and the one that votes for people like Barletta and Trump, Casey mentioned subjects with less national attention.
Topics that he said could start a conversation between rural Pennsylvanians and senators from Scranton, he said, are issues like improving rural broadband service. Or fixing bridges. Saving more of the lives being lost to substance abuse. Keeping some of the young people from leaving, and stopping the small towns from shrinking.
“They might say, 'I don't know if I can vote for this guy,” Casey said. “But at least he's talking about things that relate to me.”
