HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Democratic Sen. Bob Casey raised more than $4 million in the past three months, his best fundraising quarter yet, as he awaits a Republican challenger in his re-election bid. critical state of Pennsylvania, his campaign. he said on Wednesday.
Casey’s campaign said the fundraising result beat the previous best quarter of his career by more than $1.2 million.
The campaign brings nearly $6 million to its bank account. That money could prove crucial to ensuring Casey has the resources to successfully navigate a campaign in one of the most politically competitive states in the country.
The second-quarter campaign is giving Casey’s campaign some optimism that Democrats still enjoy support in the state after John Fetterman’s 5-percentage-point victory in last year’s race for the open seat in Pennsylvania Senate.
Casey, 63, is preparing to seek his fourth term in office. He is a key ally of unions and President Joe Biden and gives Democrats a strong candidate in their defense of a seat in what is expected to be a tough 2024 campaign to retain their 51-49 Senate majority .
Fetterman, who was Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, also reported raising $4 million in his first quarter as a Senate candidate in 2021. Fetterman eclipsed that with a third quarter of $22.4 million in 2022 in his way to beat dr. Republican Mehmet Oz, who was supported by Dr. former president Donald Trump. Last year’s Senate race was the most expensive in Pennsylvania history, totaling $420 million, according to OpenSecrets, a Washington-based nonprofit that tracks data on campaign finance and lobbying.
Casey enters the 2024 race with strong name recognition — his father was a two-term governor of Pennsylvania — and Republicans don’t have a large pool of potential recruits.
One Republican who could run is former hedge fund CEO David McCormick, who narrowly lost a hard-fought and expensive 2022 GOP Senate nomination to Oz.
McCormick has said he is “seriously thinking” about running. He brings deep pockets and connections to the worlds of government, finance and Republican politics after a career on Wall Street and at the highest levels of President George W. Bush’s administration.
But many Republicans recognize that it will be difficult — if not impossible — to beat Casey.
In Pennsylvania, Casey has already run statewide seven times, winning six of those races, and has never run a close Senate race. He won his 2018 race by 13 percentage points and kept an active schedule in last year’s campaign helping Fetterman.
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