U.S. Sen. Bob Casey won’t seek presidential run in 2020
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, a third term Democrat from Pennsylvania, will not launch a presidential campaign for the 2020 election.
In a statement Friday, Casey, 58, said the best way he can serve his constituents is to remain in the U.S. Senate.
“2020 is not the time for me to run for President, but it is the right time for me to continue to fight the battles I have fought as U.S. Senator and state official. I have no doubt that our Democratic Party will nominate a candidate who can win Pennsylvania and the Presidency,” he said.
The senator, who was recently sworn in for a third six-year term, defeated Republican challenger and Trump supporter Lou Barletta in a state that President Trump won in the 2016 election.
The 2020 election “will be the most important Presidential election of the modern era,” Casey said, because Republicans and the Trump administration are straining the already-burdened middle class by attempting to gut healthcare protections and rigging the tax code for corporations and the wealthy.
Moving forward, it will be important for Republicans and Democrats to work together to “enhance our national security and rebuild our alliances,” he said, especially after the resignation of Defense Secretary James Mattis and Trump’s “erratic approach to foreign policy.”
As Senator, Casey said, he wants to build on law measures that “advance the cause of those with disabilities and improve the lives of children.”
Casey is the first Democrat in Pennsylvania to be elected to a third term in the Senate.
Before he was first elected to the Senate in 2006, Casey served as Pennsylvania Auditor General from 1995 to 2005 and Pennsylvania Treasurer from 2005 to 2007.
“Pennsylvania workers need a Senator who will always fight for their economic livelihoods, and our children and seniors need a Senator who puts their needs first,” he said.
.jpg)