On the eve of Election Day, Senator Bob Casey is keeping his foot on the gas. First, he appeared with Vice President Harris in Scranton, before making a stop at Warrington Fire Co. 1 to make one last push before the election. Nearly 80 supporters went to the station to hear him speak, along with other elected officials, including Democratic nominee for district one, Ashley Ehasz, and NJ Sen. Cory Booker.
“Bob (Casey) said, ‘Final hours, let’s go to Bucks County, Cory, and bring together a community of people, because in these last hours, what we do here makes a difference,’” said Booker. He has been one of the many high profile Democrats who have made stops in the County in the weeks leading up to Election Day, further cementing the importance of the area for federal offices.
Booker was very quick to make that point. “There is no more key seat right now in the Keystone State,” he said. “I am Jersey jealous of you. Your votes are so much more powerful than ours. That’s why a whole bunch of us are crossing the river, we are doing the reverse Washington, because we know how powerful each one of your voters is.”
When talking about New Jerseyans coming to the state to campaign, Booker saw it not as one state’s citizens helping another state, but Americans helping Americans. “America knows that it (PA) is the most important state in the country right now in terms of races up and down the ballot,” said Booker.
“And it worries me, because Dr. King warned us, he said, ‘What we have to repent for is not the vitriolic words and the violent actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence and inaction of the good people.’ And so right now the call is on all the good Pennsylvanians, who know that much of America is looking to you to decide our directions, is to go out and vote.”
After the rally, Casey gave one last message to undecided voters going into election day. “I think most people know what is at stake in this race on rights, whether it’s protecting women’s rights, voting rights, workers rights,” he said. “I also think they know what is at stake in terms of basic issues that involve the lives of their families. The only way that we are going to have a strong middle class is to win the senate majority, elect Kamala Harris and write a tax code next year and the most important tax bill of our lifetime, to give the middle class a tax cut and restore the robust version of the child tax credit.”
While he acknowledged that there is still time to get work done, Casey was very thankful for the volunteers who helped his campaign and other Democrats in the state. “You’re helping all of us, and we’re all personally grateful. We’re the beneficiaries of your sweat and your labor.”
According to Casey, volunteers and staff members knocked on nearly 1.5 million doors over the weekend, which he said showed the dedication of a lot of the people in the room. Ehasz added that her campaign has reached out to over 600,000 voters and knocked on over 10 thousand doors over the weekend.
Ehasz spent much of her time talking about Republicans’ overturn of Roe v. Wade, saying it is a big reason Casey’s opponent, Dave McCormick, and her opponent, Brian Fitzpatrick, should not be voted into office. “I stand here as a combat veteran, and I flew in deadly missions, to protect our freedoms. But now, thanks to Donald Trump and Brian Fitzpatrick, I also stand here as a second class citizen because Roe v. Wade is gone.”
Ehasz went after Fitzpatrick for voting for a national abortion ban multiple times. In 2017, Fitzpatrick voted for the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would have outlawed most abortions after 20 weeks at the Federal level, and voted twice to amend title 18 to protect “pain-capable unborn children and for other purposes”. While the bill passed the house, it did not reach the 60 votes needed to break the filibuster. She also pointed out that Fitzpatrick voted against the Women’s Health Protection Act twice.
“He also voted to make it really hard for women in uniform to gain access to abortion healthcare, and that vote in particular really made me angry,” she said. “And we don’t stand for that, not here in Bucks County.”
There was also mention of election disinformation spreading in the county, which is a major concern for election officials. Bob Harvie, the Vice Chair of the County Commissioners, told a troubling story about fake videos being spread showing ballots with Trump’s name circled, being torn apart. The videos showed Bucks County on the envelopes, and according to Harvie, the FBI informed the commissioners that the Russian government had produced the video.
“We are in crosshairs. I have no doubt that we will see something like this again in the next 24 to 48 hours. We have gotten declassified intelligence from the director of national intelligence that tells us that Iran, China and Russia will be focused on sowing dissent after the election is over. And we know it will be amplified by Donald Trump and the Republican party,” Harvie said.
According to the most recent polling data, Casey has a 1.8 percent lead over Dave McCormick, while The Hill is projecting that Fitzpatrick will beat Ehasz. In the presidential race, Harris and Trump are virtually tied on the last day before the election.
