Democrat Sen. Bob Casey and Republican challenger David McCormick will face each other in Pennsylvania's high-stakes U.S. Senate contest in November, as Tuesday's primary election put them on track for a race that could decide control of the Senate next year.
Casey and McCormick won their respective party primary contests after they were uncontested and now enter what is likely to be a grueling, expensive and hard-fought 2024 general election campaign that culminates in the Nov. 5 vote.
Casey, seeking his fourth term, is perhaps Pennsylvania's best-known politician and a stalwart of the presidential swing state's Democratic Party – a son of a former two-term governor and Pennsylvania's longest-ever serving Democrat in the Senate.
McCormick is a two-time Senate challenger, a former hedge fund CEO and Pennsylvania native who spent $14 million of his own money only to lose narrowly to celebrity heart surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz in 2022's seven-way GOP primary. Oz then lost to Democrat Sen. John Fetterman in a pivotal contest.
This time around, McCormick has consolidated the party around his candidacy and is backed by a super PAC that has reported raising more than $20 million.
McCormick's candidacy is shaping up as the strongest challenge to Casey in his three reelection bids. McCormick, intent on shoring up support in the GOP base, told an audience of conservatives in suburban Harrisburg earlier this month that he tells people "you're going to agree with about 80% of what I say ... but we disagree 90% of the time with the crazy progressive left that's destroying our country."
The Senate candidates will share a ticket with candidates for president in a state that is crucial to whether Democrats can maintain control of the White House and the Senate.
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, each of whom was declared the winner of their party primary Tuesday by DecisionDeskHQ,made campaign trips to Pennsylvania in recent days, and voters can expect to see plenty of them, their TV ads and their surrogates campaigning over the next six months in a state that swung from Trump in 2016 to Biden in 2020.
Trump, speaking to reporters after arriving at a courthouse in New York for his criminal hush money trial, urged people to vote in Pennsylvania and gave a shout-out to McCormick.
"lt's a big day in Pennsylvania. And we hope that people get out there and vote. It's important to vote to let 'em know that we're coming on November 5th, we're coming big," Trump said. "Maybe they'll think also about a very good person who's running for the Senate in Pennsylvania: Dave McCormick. And he's doing a good job. He's working very hard, successful man, wants to put his success to the country."
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