On the January 1997 day that Bob Casey took the oath of office as Pennsylvania auditor general, everyone expected he would run for governor someday.
Including Bob Casey.
Two years earlier, his father, Gov. Robert P. Casey Sr., wrapped up eight years leading the state, and the governor’s eldest son, then 36, was already two years past the age his dad first ran for the state’s top elected office (1966).
In 2002, Bob Casey Jr. took his shot but lost the Democratic primary for governor to former Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell. At the time, the loss did nothing to change his mind about eventually being governor.
In 2004, after serving the two-term limit as auditor general, Casey ran for state treasurer and won overwhelmingly with the highest vote total in state history.
“Even after I lost a primary for governor, I still believed that if I chose to run again, I'd be in state government, and I decided to run for state treasurer. And I was really looking forward to serving as state treasurer at least for a term, if not two terms,” he said in an interview with WVIA about a week before Christmas. “My goals (had) really been focused on the office I've been in, with an eye towards, you know, at one point, running for governor.”
Life and political realities intervened before Casey’s first year as treasurer ended.
Eager to regain control of the U.S. Senate for the first time in a dozen years, Democrats – led by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Chuck Schumer – lobbied Casey hard to run against Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum in 2006.
“If you had asked me in November or December of 2004, I probably would have said it's nice to consider it, but I'll probably decline it and stay in state government,” Casey said.
Reid and Schumer succeeded. Casey wiped out Santorum, Democrats regained control of the Senate and House for four years and, among other things, passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Casey voted for it and considers it historic.

He remembers Christmas Eve 2009, the day the Senate voted for the most comprehensive overhaul of the nation’s health care system since President Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare and Medicaid into law in July 1965.
“We sat in our seats, and they called the roll, and it was a pretty dramatic moment,” Casey said.
Other Democratic congressmen who backed the bill, including Paul Kanjorski and Chris Carney locally, lost their seats months after the vote in 2010, but Casey didn’t have to run until 2012. By then, the fury over Obamacare subsided, and Casey easily won re-election against an unknown Republican, Tom Smith.
Casey won again in 2018 against U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, the former Hazleton mayor, but that election exposed political weakening in the northeast and southwest, both longtime Casey family bedrocks.

For example, Barletta won Luzerne County, perhaps because he lived there, but also two years after President Donald Trump won it and became the first Republican presidential winner there since President George W. Bush in 2004.
When Casey lost the county against Barletta, it was the first time he or his father lost Luzerne in 24 primary and general elections.
In November, Casey piled up almost 3.39 million votes, more than in any of his earlier elections – and lost a general election for the first time, by 15,115 to Republican former hedge fund manager Dave McCormick. Casey also received almost 39,000 fewer than Democratic president nominee Kamala Harris.
In 2012, the only other time he ran for the Senate during a presidential election, Casey had 31,000 votes more than his ticket mate, President Barack Obama.
In multiple interviews with WVIA and other media outlets, Casey wouldn’t rule out a return to politics, but said he can’t afford to retire and hopes to find a job that allows him to focus on the matters he focused on in the Senate, children, senior citizens, veterans and others among the most vulnerable.
"I have to have an income - I can’t just retire," Casey told NBC 10 Philadelphia.
At age 64, he’s 10 years older than his father was when Casey senior won the governor’s office. With Casey’s close friend and political ally, Gov. Josh Shapiro, expected to seek re-election in 2026, he probably won’t run for that job, at least not then.
In a lengthy Dec. 19 interview with WVIA, Casey reflected on his election loss but also looked back across his entire 28-year career, what he thinks he accomplished and what problems the nation faces as he leaves office.
This interview was edited for clarity and brevity.
WVIA: I've read all of the other interviews you've done looking back on your career. And I just want to go a little bit further back than some of the other reporters. I mean, you've been in office for 28 years. I'm wondering if you foresaw having a career that long. And secondly, how do you think you matched the goals for public service you set out with when you first decided to run for auditor general?
Casey: Well, it's a great question, because my goals — and I was working every day toward those goals, when I was in my first public office — (were) to do a good job as the auditor general of Pennsylvania. That was a challenging enough task at the time ... I never had the United States Senate as a goal, until I was asked to run, because I just saw myself as someone who would, if I remained in government, (it) would be state government, either state treasurer or maybe eventually governor. So that was it. That was kind of the scope of my ambition and focus ...
But it wasn't until I began to really think about it more seriously and really give it kind of due consideration, that I decided to run (for the Senate) and it turned out to be the right decision. Not simply because I won the race that they wanted me to run, but because of the work. I had never, until I was a candidate, considered what I could do as a senator, and I was blessed to have had the opportunity and then to not only be elected, but then to be elected two more times was something I never really thought about.
In fact, I remember running for the U.S. Senate and thinking about just what we had to do in the campaign. I never really gave any consideration to what it would be like to be in the Senate, other than saying I would like to be elected, work on some major issues like health care. But I didn't think about the Senate as an institution, or the life of being in the Senate, or all of those things that eventually came to pass. I've been very fortunate. And to serve in three statewide offices is about as rare a privilege as you can have.
His days as state auditor general
WVIA: I want to follow up on that, but I do want to ask you a little bit about your days as auditor general and treasurer, because you did some significant things. Could you, especially as auditor general, talk a little bit about some of the things you remember accomplishing? And I'm thinking in terms of the performance audits. It was kind of a big deal.
Casey: So, I've often (said) the work in those eight years (was) making nursing homes safer, childcare more affordable, and government more accountable. That's kind of the top line summary of it.
And what I was trying to do in those years was to, first and foremost ... perform the constitutional duties of the office in the most proficient, effective manner possible. So that means (you) have to hire a really good team to do all of the mandatory audits ... The parallel in the Senate would be, if you're in the United States Senate, you’ve got to vote, and you can't miss many votes, and thankfully, I've only missed 1% in 18 years ...
And then after that, you can add to that, you can work on priorities, as I did as a senator, where there's focusing on our kids, our seniors, people with disabilities, veterans, workers.
When I was in state government, it was ... to add in, what you made reference to, performance audits, where you're looking at using what is, in essence, discretionary power, to conduct audits that focus on economy and efficiency.
So we decided to participate in a national project where we're auditing ... the oversight of nursing homes. So that meant auditing the state Health Department ... And the more we dug into the oversight of nursing homes, the more problems we found, especially complaints. So that was kind of the first big performance audit that we did, and it got a lot of attention.
Because of the gravity of the problems, it led to Gov. (Tom) Ridge ... hiring more people to investigate these complaints in a more timely fashion, and they added technology.
Then later, of course, we took on the fight on care to get those childcare co-payments down. And that led to other audits. We had an audit of the oversight of Megan's Law, where they focused on the most violent predators in our society as it relates to children. We did oversight of both the state police and the other agencies in state government.

WVIA: I remember Ridge railing against you when the audits came out. But then he kind of did a lot of the things that you recommended.
Casey: They really took up a lot of, if not the verbatim details, the recommendations, at least the spirit of them ... So that was a result that doesn't often transpire. Sometimes ... and you've seen it in both, I'm sure, the public sector a lot, but also the private sector ... Reports get issued, a long list of recommendations, and then they sit there forever, and no one acts on the recommendations ... But I do think that was the predicate or the foundation for the work that I tried to do in the Senate. I did a lot of work on children's issues, including childcare, like I was doing in state government focused on seniors. The nursing home oversight was about seniors.
WVIA: The CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program) renewals.
Casey: Yeah, yeah, we had to reauthorize CHIP, which, as you know, it was a consensus position in the Senate. (Senators) Ted Kennedy and Orrin Hatch and others worked on CHIP in a bipartisan fashion. It only became partisan or more difficult to reauthorize years later ... And so a lot of the work that I did, was doing in state government, I had a chance to continue in the Senate.
His days as state treasurer
WVIA: There were a couple things that you did as treasurer, too, but I just don't remember what they were. I'm wondering if you can refresh my memory a little bit.
Casey: Maybe I should go back someday and finish my term ... But no, one of the things as treasurer ... that we began to spend some time on were issues relating to pension plans ... We had kind of a partnership where — that may not be the best word — but maybe an alliance with some financial institutions that allowed us to use some of the leverage that the state treasurer has. Because technically, the state treasurer is the custodian of what was then $100 billion — it's probably $150 (billion) or $160 billion now — you had some leverage.
And you could use that leverage to create opportunities where, at one point, we had started a program where a homeowner could get higher efficiency home appliances ... and get, not a tax benefit, but almost like a rebate ... So, it was kind of a new and creative thing to do, but it was just in its early stages when I became a senator.
On running for the Senate
WVIA: I know you had Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid trying to talk you into it (running for the Senate), but what made you finally decide to do it? And what were your expectations? And how well do you think you met them?
Casey: One of the things I took a prime interest in at the end of my time as state auditor general and then in the two years as state treasurer was the issue of health care. And I remember I had given a couple of speeches about it and began to talk about how we had to somehow begin to tackle it.

Because this was, of course, in the aftermath of the effort by the Clinton administration to bring about health care reform that collapsed. My father, either in the last two years of his governorship, had a major health care initiative which had some of the elements of what the Clinton administration was trying to do, but he's doing it at a state level.

So I guess, inspired by that, I began to think, what can I do as at least an advocate, even if I don't have direct power, as state auditor general or state treasurer? And so I just began to study more and think more about at least at a minimum, being an advocate for health care reform.
If you had asked me, "Please isolate for me one issue that's motivating you to run for the United States Senate, as opposed to staying in state government," it was healthcare, because I do remember asking myself, where can you do more? Where can you have more direct influence on what happens at healthcare? As state treasurer or U.S. senator? And that was a motivating factor.
WVIA: There were big problems back then with constantly rising health insurance premiums.
Casey: Then, in 2006 I would have said one of the reasons I'm running was because ... of health care. But then if you would stop me in the middle of 2007 or 2008 and said, What do you think is possible at the federal level on health care? I would have answered it probably in the following fashion: We can strengthen and even expand the Children's Health Insurance Program, make sure that's rock solid, and maybe somehow expand it or make it better.
If you said, what's possible? I would have said, well, maybe, maybe an initiative on health care for small business. That's it. That was pretty much what I thought was within the realm of the possible. I never envisioned ... that in 2009 that I would be a member of the Health, Education, Labor Pensions Committee and we'd have the longest markup of a bill in the history of the United States Senate ... and we would vote out a bill out of that committee which would be as comprehensive as it was.
But I never thought we'd have the scope of it, that we would protect people with pre-existing conditions, that we would expand healthcare with coverage itself through the exchanges. I never envisioned Medicaid expansion at the time, but broadly, the issue of healthcare was a motivating factor for me to run.
Fixing big problems
WVIA: And you guys got that done. It's the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that you're talking about in March 2010. I asked (Rep.) Matt Cartwright this. When he first ran, Barack Obama would repeatedly say, we've known the country's major problems for 40 years and done nothing about them. Do you think that Congress during your time, did anything to confront the major problems?
Casey: Certainly, on health care, big win for the country. I mean, just think about it. Just in basic numerical terms, 1.4 million Pennsylvanians have health care solely because of that legislation.
And as you know, most of the growth in those covered was because of Medicaid expansion ... The numbers keep going up every year. So it's proven to be both popular and effective, even though health care costs are too high and there's still work to do. That was a great breakthrough for the country.
Another big example was when we passed the infrastructure law, which fortunately was bipartisan, unlike health care, but that was a big, big breakthrough. We had a 50- or 60-year conversation about doing a big infrastructure bill.
It never happened, and President Biden should get a lot of the credit for leading that effort and putting together a coalition of Democrats and Republicans to get it done.
I also think the American Rescue Plan, as much as it had a direct nexus to the pandemic ... I don't think should be — or at least individual elements should be — a one-time thing. In other words, the child-tax credit should be a moment where we say, "Oh, that was a great idea. It reduced childhood poverty by 40%." We should do it again ...
That's why the 2025 tax bill, as I mentioned yesterday in my floor speech, should be a moment where children win, where big corporations pay more to allow children to win, where middle-class families win and the billionaires and the richest among us lose. They lose and the middle class wins. It should be that simple. So I think we've proven in the Senate, not every day, not every year, but plenty of instances where we advance the ball on big issues and show that America can achieve significant progress, sometimes in a in a big bipartisan way, and sometimes with just the efforts of one party.
The ABLE Act and free lunches
WVIA: Which of the bills that you authored are you most proud of? I read the (Senate farewell floor) speech ... but I'm going to guess that ABLE Act is really the one that sticks out for you. (The act allowed people with disabilities to save money for their care without losing federal subsidies they receive for disabilities.)
Casey: It does, and that was a demonstration of a remarkably bipartisan, bicameral effort. I was working with very conservative Republicans on that, and we all teamed up together, but there are others ... The free school meals example that I had in the speech was one that, frankly, happened so long ago that a lot of people had forgotten about it ... It's proven to be a great, great success.
It's one of those things where it's a pilot program we put in ... and little by little, school district after school district adopted it. Now it's, 20 million kids and 68% of the districts. So, but look, I think we've demonstrated that you can, by fighting every day on behalf of children, seniors, people with disabilities, workers, veterans, you can achieve significant real results.
(At this point, Casey talks about a map produced by his office that highlights examples of federal money spent on local projects.)
It's about 1,785 examples across the state, including 80 examples in Lackawanna Luzerne County combined. One of the reasons we do that is so that people know that what happens down here when you pass the American Rescue Plan within the last four years, when you pass the Inflation Reduction Act or the infrastructure bill, that you can land a lot of results for people, that you can invest in, people you can invest in communities, and you can, you can improve people's lives.
And it's not just simply that a public official wants to boast about their record of delivering, which is part of your job, to tell people what you've been doing, but it's also over time you have to begin to show people results.
Plenty of politicians in Washington come down here for four years or six years or 12 years or 18 years, and all they do is tear down government, say it's always wrong, it’s always bad, it never delivers. We have to prove them wrong, and so yes, it does deliver when you reduce childhood poverty by 40% that's never happened in American history. We did it, and we have to do it again.
The Democrats lost because ...
WVIA: Why do you think you and other Democrats lost in this election? And do you think the election really handed Republicans a mandate?
Casey: Well, the second part of that is in the eye of the beholder, right? And maybe it's dependent upon your answer the first question.
I think there are some political dynamics to explain what happened, but also some issue dynamics. There's no question, on the issue front, that costs and border security and a few other issues played a big role. But that doesn't fully explain the political or strategic dynamics in a particular campaign.
Look at my race. I think the two major factors and maybe the only two substantial factors ... were the strength of Donald Trump's vote, which affected every race, affected my race. It's one of the reasons why our race turned out the way it did. Donald Trump was stronger this time, much stronger than he was in (20)16 or (20)20 and that affected our race.
And number two, the combined effect of not one, not two, but three Super PACs spending against me $150 million, I think.
I could have survived one without the other, but trying to survive the attacks from three Super PACs and $150 million plus a Trump wave was a tough combination. In some ways, I’m kind of shocked we got as close as we did.
To come within 15,000 votes was in some ways surprising to me, when you consider those factors, but I think there’s going to be probably more analysis on both the politics and strategy and the issues that will play out over months, because there's still a lot of things about this election that we're just learning or just better understanding.
WVIA: These elections the last 15 years have gone back and forth constantly ... So I question the idea of a mandate. But I do wonder if you think that there's things that Democrats need to change in order to gain control of Congress again, or is it just political circumstances that's dictating these things now, like political environments?
Casey: As a party, we (need to) do a much better job of translating to folks back home what we've gotten done, what we delivered on. That's something that I should have done a better job on. That's something that candidates up and down the ballot need to do, because that's part of the determination that a voter makes, what they think you have delivered on or not.
But I'm not in the camp of people who say that there has to be a wholesale reformation or rewriting of, you know, the Democratic message, or the Democratic brand, or whatever formulation people come up with ... One thing that I'm certain of, and I'll be proven right about this, Donald Trump is the strongest Republican candidate by far for president for Pennsylvania ... I think that leads to the conclusion that in 2028 it's going to be a different story, with a different nominee in Pennsylvania, and that that's going to matter, that's going to result in one or two percentage points that will be significant.
Worries about the future
WVIA: So, are you worried about the next four years?
Casey: Sure. I’ve got a lot of concern about the next four years ... I think we should worry about the next six months, or whenever they get to the tax bill, because that's going to be the most important moment for most American families for the next decade ... That tax bill, there'll be big winners and big losers, one way or the other, and we have to make sure that middle-class families and people struggling to get to the middle class are the winners in the wealthiest and the largest corporations – if we do, if the Congress does its job, as I hope it does - the guys with all the money, should be the losers in that fight.
WVIA: What else are you worried about in the next four years? I think I read somewhere Ukraine is (on your mind).
Casey: Worried about that in a big way, in light of what the incoming president said in light of what we have now.
We have now, in essence, a MAGA majority in the Senate. It's different than a Republican majority. It's different than a conservative majority ... Look what just happened in the last less than 24 hours. Twenty-four hours ago we had a spending agreement where all four caucuses agreed, and then one single individual, Elon Musk, sends out a tweet, and the entire spending agreement is upended.
That, unfortunately, in some ways, will be a forecast, or could be a forecast ... And that's not just the next couple of months, but the next four years. And that is a dangerous scenario, I think, for the country.
But here's something that I hope would be not just a Democratic priority, but ... a Senate and congressional and administration priority ... It's going to require probably several presidential administrations and, in several congresses, and that's what I talked about in the in the speech about five freedoms for America's children.
The freedom to be healthy, the freedom to learn, the freedom to be economically secure, the freedom from hunger and the freedom to be safe from harm. Those five freedoms should be the subject of a strategic plan that I've already outlined, by people in both parties.
How do you achieve the full measure of those five freedoms for every single American child? And that leads you into a discussion of the child tax credit and the child independent care tax credit and tax policy more broadly in child savings accounts and children's health insurance and protection against predators that prey on children and food security programs, whether it's the WIC program or the SNAP program, it leads into a broad discussion.
And one of the five freedoms that doesn't get as much attention as the others is, how do you protect children from predators and what can the federal government to do to strengthen prosecutors?
Now that's one of the reasons I totally disagree with what the president did on the (former Luzerne County Judge Michael) Conahan case. (It was wrong) to shorten, to commute the sentence of someone who played any role in that awful scandal, no matter what the role was. Judge Conahan should have served the entire length of his sentence till, I guess, August of 2026, according to what I read.
In fact, I agree with the governor, who said he should have had a longer sentence. But that was not what the court decided ... We've got to do more to protect children. We've got to do more to make sure they have enough to eat every day, every single child. That's why that free school meals provision was so critical. We've got to make sure that they're healthy. That's why CHIP and Medicaid are essential. And these Republicans are talking about gutting Medicaid again, just like they tried in (20)17 and (20)18 and (20)19 and (20)20. And we got to make sure that children have a chance to learn. That's why pre-K is so important. That's why the early learning that comes from even good childcare programs so kids can learn more now and earn more later.
What's next
WVIA: Just a couple of smaller questions. A lot of people have asked you about what you plan to do, and you haven't ruled out running for office. You said, “Never say never.” But I'm just kind of wondering, what does appeal to you in terms of your after-the-Senate life? I mean, I haven't checked lately, are you still a lawyer? (Note: He’s still licensed) Would the law appeal to you or serving in some another president's administration?
Casey: I really would hope that I can do work that allows me to continue to advance the causes that I've worked on as a public official. Children, seniors, people with disabilities, workers, veterans. I mean, just issues that I've worked on for years. I want to continue to advance those issues and to try to be, from outside of government, an advocate for people that need advocates, need folks that are going to lift them up.
I have to make a living though. I can't just be an advocate out there. I have to make a living, but I want to try to combine paying my bills and advancing those causes for which I'm most passionate.
WVIA: It occurred to me this afternoon that during your tenure in public office, your mom and your dad died, and I'm just wondering if you've thought about them as your career here in the Senate winds down and what you what they might think of the way it went for you?
Casey: Yeah, I talked about both of them in the remarks yesterday. I talked about my mother's, her continual reminder to us when we were kids, to count your blessings. It's based in the Scriptures ... And I wanted to remember that as a way to frame or outline why I was grateful for the chance that the people of the state gave me to serve in three statewide offices. And I was reminded of my father, because I've often quoted that, that inscription on the Finance Building in Harrisburg. (All public service is a trust, given in faith and accepted in honor.)
WVIA: I think I heard you say that before.
Casey: Yeah, I used to reference that a lot, and it really has been an inspiration for me. But in so many ways, it was the formulation of what my father literally preached to us. In other words, (when) we were growing up, and he would talk about being in government ... he would stress and emphasize how important that public trust was.
And there's a story about when he was a state senator in his first year. And there was some guy in Harrisburg who sent something to every state senator, some kind of an award, like a plaque or something ... And I was told my father sent it back because he thought it was, I guess, some kind of undue influence. So he had an understanding, as a very young public official, about the importance of public trust. And anything that he thought could undermine or compromise that, he did his best to avoid.
So, in some ways, it was right there on the front of the building that he worked in for eight years when he was auditor general. The precept that was inscribed on the building in the early 30s was what he lived by. And I've tried to do the same.