Incumbent Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. Bob Casey has put out a new ad that bucks President Biden on the issue of fracking and touts Casey’s past support for former President Donald Trump’s tariffs on China.
The TV spot features a married couple from Old Forge in solidly Democratic Lackawanna County celebrating the three-term senator as an “independent” based on his defense of US natural gas drilling and support for trade wars with Beijing.
“I’m a Republican,” says the wife, Marygrace.
“And I’m a Democrat,” adds the husband, Joe.
“Our marriage, pure bliss. But on politics, we just don’t agree — except for Bob Casey. He’s independent,” Marygrace claims.
“That’s right,” her husband agrees.
“Casey’s leading the effort to stop corporate greed, inflation and price gouging,” his wife goes on. “Casey bucked Biden to protect fracking, and he sided with Trump to end NAFTA and put tariffs on China to stop them from cheating.”
“So, in this house, we agree: It’s Bob Casey who’s doing right by Pennsylvania,” Marygrace concludes.
“I’m Bob Casey and I definitely approve this message,” the candidate says, beaming.
Vice President Kamala Harris, 59, has flip-flopped on her opposition to fracking since rising to the top of the 2024 Democratic ticket, making her past comments a liability in the swing state of Pennsylvania.
Both the fracking and iron, steel and manufacturing industries are critical sources of revenue and provide hundreds of thousands of jobs in the commonwealth.
Casey, 64, was one of a handful of Democrats who on behalf of his state’s workers embraced Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from China.
Biden, 81, went on to keep those tariffs in place during his administration — but cut off lucrative natural gas exports earlier this year, earning the ire of both of Pennsylvania’s Democratic senators.
“Pennsylvania is an energy state,” said Casey and Sen. John Fetterman in a joint statement. “As the second-largest natural gas-producing state, this industry has created good-paying energy jobs in towns and communities across the Commonwealth and has played a critical role in promoting US energy independence.”
“While the immediate impacts on Pennsylvania remain to be seen, we have concerns about the long-term impacts that this pause will have on the thousands of jobs in Pennsylvania’s natural gas industry,” they added. “If this decision puts Pennsylvania energy jobs at risk, we will push the Biden Administration to reverse this decision.”
While distancing himself from some items on the Democratic agenda, Casey has still embraced Harris’ crackdown on so-called grocery price gouging.
His solution was to introduce a bill, which has since been adopted as part of Harris’ platform, to set price caps on companies providing consumer goods — a move that Casey’s Republican opponent, Dave McCormick, slammed in their last debate as pure “socialism.”
Economists left, right and center had already panned the Harris proposal for making a scapegoat of an industry that has small profit margins — and failing to address real inflationary concerns.
Public polls show the economy ranking as the most important issue among Pennsylvania voters, followed by immigration and abortion.
Casey currently holds a 3.8-percentage-point lead over McCormick in the closely watched Senate race, according to the RealClearPolitics average of recent polls.
