HARRISBURG, Pa. — Democratic Sen. Bob Casey went head-to-head with Republican challenger Dave McCormick in a bitter first debate Thursday night that reflected the close nature and high stakes of a race that could help determine the balance of power in Washington.
The hourlong showdown touched on topics from the economy to abortion to energy — and it frequently got personal, as each candidate repeatedly tried to paint the other as a liar. Casey targeted questions about McCormick’s residency and his work as a hedge fund manager, while McCormick attacked Casey, a three-term incumbent, as a career politician who’s a rubber-stamp for Democratic leaders.
“Probably the biggest lie told in the whole election,” Casey said, “was a lie when my opponent said he lived in Pennsylvania when he was living in Connecticut.”
McCormick maintained that he lived in Pennsylvania when he launched his Senate campaign in 2024, as well as in 2022, when he lost to Mehmet Oz in the Republican primary. He has a home in Pittsburgh and owns a family farm in Bloomsburg, and he previously had a residence in Connecticut, where his daughter from a previous marriage lives.
“I’m a seventh-generation Pennsylvanian,” he said, acknowledging that he recently lived in Connecticut while he was the CEO of a hedge fund.
It’s a strategy Democrats have emphasized since the outset of the campaign and one that was successful for them in 2022, when Democrat John Fetterman defeated Oz, who had a house in New Jersey. Outside the WHTM-TV studio where Casey and McCormick debated, a slew of people aligned with Casey’s campaign held signs calling McCormick an out-of-state candidate.
McCormick tried to deflect the line of attack on the debate stage by arguing Casey has little show for his long career in public office.
“When you don’t have a record to run on, which Sen. Casey does not, you attack your opponent,” McCormick shot back. “I remind your viewers to go to ‘Caseylies.com,’ because he is telling some whoppers; there’s a lot of Pinocchios here,” he said of a website his team launched before the debate.
Casey invoked McCormick’s Wall Street career numerous times, particularly Bridgewater Associates’ investments in China when McCormick oversaw the fund. McCormick defended the investments, saying they were 3% of the company’s overall portfolio.
“He’s bought and paid for by these billionaires and corporations,” Casey said.
Polls show Casey and McCormick are locked in a tight race that could play a major role in determining which party wins control of the narrowly divided Senate this fall. They were also pressed about their alignment with their party’s presidential nominees, with Pennsylvania serving as a critical swing state in the battle for the White House.
“Sen. Casey stood next to Joe Biden when he could hardly finish a sentence — we saw this on the debate stage — and said he’s ready to go,” McCormick said, referring to Casey’s support for Biden after his stalling June debate performance when many other Democrats kept their distance.
McCormick said that when Vice President Kamala Harris replaced Biden as the Democratic nominee, Casey quickly changed his tune. “Sen. Casey said, ‘Kamala Harris is great!’” McCormick said.
Casey said “we’ll never know the answer” if Harris’ replacing Biden was the best decision for the party.
“The voters are going to make a decision. … I think Vice President Harris is running a strong campaign,” Casey said. “I think she’ll carry Pennsylvania; it’s going to be very close.”
McCormick, who regularly campaigns with former President Donald Trump, said he does disagree with him on certain policy proposals. He noted that he opposes the state and local tax deduction benefiting states such as New York and New Jersey, which Trump supports. In an interview Monday, McCormick also said he differs with Trump on continued funding for war-torn Ukraine.
Moments after they shook hands at the start of the debate, McCormick wasted little time before he slammed Casey over his vote on the 2015 Iran nuclear deal during the Obama administration, a law all but four Democratic senators supported.
“Casey was the deciding vote that gave Iran $100 billion of sanction money that has been used to underwrite terrorism — that’s where all these missiles are coming from,” McCormick said in response to the moderator’s first question about the conflict in the Middle East.
Casey and McCormick both said the U.S. needs to stand with Israel and refused to draw red lines for their support of the country in the growing regional war.
Abortion, a key issue for voters in Pennsylvania, where it is unrestricted up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, offered both candidates an opportunity to centralize their messages.
Casey, who now supports eliminating the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to codify federal abortion protections, said the Roe v. Wade ruling, which the Supreme Court struck down in 2022, was the “consensus across the country” that allowed for “reasonable restrictions.”
McCormick said that he prefers that the issue be left up to the states and that he would not vote for legislation to restrict or codify the procedure federally.
“There’s no senator who flip-flopped on abortion more,” McCormick said, referring to Casey’s calling himself “pro-life” in the past.
With fentanyl deaths hitting Pennsylvania communities hard, both candidates addressed their positions on immigration and the U.S.-Mexico border, where the drug is trafficked.
Casey said he “absolutely” supports the policies of the Biden administration, noting that illegal border crossings have decreased in recent months. He slammed McCormick for opposing a recent bipartisan border security bill, which Trump was also against.
“We’ve got to invest in hiring thousands more Border Patrol [agents]. That’s in the bill that I voted for twice this year. The bill that my opponent opposes because the leader of his party said ‘don’t support it,’” he said.
McCormick slammed Casey for not having recently visited the border, and he said he would have voted against the “bad bill” independent of Trump. “I am my own man,” he said.
Natural energy, a top industry in the state, was also a topic.
“The same man who lies about where he lives has been lying about my position on fracking,” Casey said. “I voted against a fracking ban.”
McCormick responded: “This is not a guy who’s been a strong friend of the energy sector and the natural gas sector. He said you can’t drill your way to success. … So the senator here wants to have it both ways, because he’s a career politician.”
Harrisburg Community College student Daniel Dolan, a first-time voter attending a watch party organized by a libertarian group for undecided Pennsylvanians, said that he is leaning toward supporting McCormick and that he finds Casey “robotic.”
“Bob Casey, his main thing was talking about how Dave McCormick was the CEO for this company,” Dolan said. “I would have liked Bob Casey to maybe broaden out a little bit and make some better points, but it seemed like he was making the same few points.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
