Senate Democrats fighting for re-election in battleground states aren’t expressing much confidence in President Joe Biden as he faces calls to withdraw from the race.
Some have said they doubt he will win if he remains on the ballot. Others have stayed silent or not appeared alongside him at campaign events.
Bob Casey has been an exception.
The longtime Pennsylvania senator joined other members of the state’s congressional delegation to greet Biden at the Philadelphia airport on Sunday, before attending church with him in a predominantly Black neighborhood. And Casey has batted down suggestions from colleagues that Biden is at risk of suffering a “landslide” defeat.
“No,” Casey told reporters on Wednesday when asked about Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., making such a suggestion the day before. Asked why he’s confident in Biden’s chances, Casey said, “It’s just my view.”
Last week, in his first public appearances since the June debate, Casey acknowledged Biden “had a bad night and debate, but I think people know what’s at stake.”
“I’ve been at this a while, and I know his work,” Casey told reporters. “And I also know that the American people and the people of Pennsylvania are going to focus on these races in the way that I just outlined.”
Casey’s support has not been as full-throated as that of some of his Democratic colleagues who are not locked in re-election battles this year, such as John Fetterman, his fellow Pennsylvania senator.
But Casey’s willingness to stand by the president as he fights for political survival offers him a boost in the critical swing state, and signals that Pennsylvania Democrats may not be as willing to ditch the president as some other members of the party.
In fact, no one in the Pennsylvania Democratic delegation has broken publicly with Biden in the two weeks since his disastrous debate performance against former President Donald Trump. That has added importance as the Biden campaign said in a Thursday memo that they will increasingly lean on the “Blue Wall” states — Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin — to try and pull out a win.
Pennsylvania Democratic operatives said they felt Casey was risking little in sticking by Biden. They pointed out Casey outran then-President Barack Obama in the state in 2012 and easily won his 2018 race.
Casey, whose father served as governor decades ago, has an established brand in the state, and Pennsylvania Democrats said that will only help him get across the finish line this fall in a race where he currently outpolls both Biden and his opponent, Republican business executive Dave McCormick. And although polling averages currently show Trump with an edge in Pennsylvania, Democrats said the former president and his allies have suffered up and down the ballot in the state in each election cycle since his shock 2016 win.
“He has a pretty established brand in a state that is big enough that it’s tough to get known,” J.J. Balaban, a Democratic operative based in Pennsylvania, said. “So he’s probably not worried about having to prove that he’s independent of Joe Biden.”
Biden also has a deeper personal relationship with Casey than other front-line Senate Democrats. They’ve known each other for decades as Biden, a Pennsylvania native, long embraced the label of being the state’s “third senator.” During the State of the Union address in March, Casey earned a shout-out from Biden, who urged Congress to “pass Bobby Casey’s bill to put a stop to shrinkflation.”
“Look, Casey is somebody who has known the president for a long time,” a Pennsylvania Democratic operative said under the condition of anonymity. “[Biden is] obviously somebody who he’s worked with for a long time. And that’s a show of who he is as the person that when the going gets tough, he’s not just going to back away or follow the punditry for an immediate reaction to something.”
Though it’s still early, Democrats in the state say they haven’t seen efforts to hit Casey over standing by Biden breaking through with the electorate yet.
But Republicans are ramping up their attack. Soon after the debate, McCormick’s campaign launched a digital ad backed by a five-figure buy titled “Bob Casey knew,” hitting the senator for talking up Biden’s ability to serve as president. In a news release, the campaign said Casey was “sticking with Joe Biden while other Dems scramble for cover.”
“There’s nobody in the Senate closer to President Biden than Bob Casey,” McCormick said in an interview. “They’ve known each other for 30 years, they talked about each other as good friends, best buddies, all this stuff. So he’s campaigned with him dozens of times over the last 24 months. So what Bob Casey’s essentially saying is he has no concerns, no worries, even as many, many Democrats — senior people in the Democratic Party — many senators are distancing themselves.”
McCormick said either Casey “sees no cognitive decline” or is “part of this essential conspiracy of silence where you have people rallying around Biden to protect him for purely political purposes.”
“I can’t imagine he doesn’t see the decline,” McCormick said. “He’s riding with Biden. … That’s who he’s got a 30-year relationship with.”
When asked about Biden’s poor standing in the polls, Casey on Tuesday took aim at McCormick, saying his day-to-day focus is on making sure “people know the difference between my opponent and me,” expressing eagerness to go after McCormick’s business record and questions about his residency.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Casey declined to offer Biden any advice on how he should handle the growing calls for him to leave the race.
“I don’t give advice to candidates because I don’t like getting it myself from other candidates,” he quipped. “It’s kind of my rule.”
As Casey has stood by Biden and rallied with him, his colleagues have often taken another path.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., did not attend an event with the president last week in her home state. Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, two of the most vulnerable Democrats facing re-election this fall, voiced concerns that Biden couldn’t win at a closed-door Democratic policy lunch this week, a source familiar with the discussion said. And The New York Times reported that Rep. Elissa Slotkin, the odds-on favorite to be the Democratic Senate nominee in Michigan, told donors that Biden was falling behind in her state.
“I don’t understand why everyone isn’t going to be proud to campaign with the president,” Fetterman, who also campaigned with Biden on Sunday, told NBC News on Tuesday, adding he was “proud” to campaign alongside Biden in the 2022 midterms, when many felt the president would drag down Democrats. “And we won by 5 points.”
Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., who was also in attendance for Biden’s Philadelphia campaign event, declined to comment on how Casey should handle the political maelstrom engulfing Biden, but said he was “confident” the senator would be re-elected.
As for Biden, Boyle was in alignment with his congressional delegation.
“I’m always proud to stand with him in bright days and stormy days,” he told NBC News on Tuesday. “He has an excellent record that will go down in the history books. He’s also a personal friend and I wanted to especially make sure that I was there with him on Sunday.”
Asked Tuesday why he was willing to campaign with Biden over the weekend, Casey offered a short answer as a Senate elevator door closed.
“I’ve done so before,” he said.
