PHILADELPHIA_U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr. cruised to an easy re-election Tuesday, according to projections, topping U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, a challenger who could never match Casey's campaign coffers and lacked the resources to effectively introduce himself to voters statewide.
The Democrat incumbent said reports of unusually strong voter turnout for a midterm election could be seen as a rebuke of President Donald Trump, who recruited Barletta for the race, and the Republicans who currently control Congress.
"I think (voters) want more balance," Casey said in an interview before the polls closed Tuesday. "I think they want a check on the administration."
Barletta, 62, the former mayor of Hazleton, tried to cast Casey as a one-time moderate who has shifted leftward during his time in the Senate, putting him out of touch back home in Pennsylvania.
Casey, 58, looked past Barletta for much of the race, presenting himself as a senator willing to work with Trump on issues like infrastructure, middle-class wages and healthcare policy. But he also said he would challenge a president enthralled to special interests.
The race was more fizzle than sizzle, despite Trump's efforts to boost Barletta with fundraisers and rallies in Wilkes-Barre in August and in Erie in October. Trump also sent Vice President Mike Pence to help Barletta raise money in Philadelphia in July.
Casey, the namesake son of a former governor, has held elective statewide office since 1997, serving as Pennsylvania's auditor general and then treasurer before winning his Senate seat in 2006.
Barletta forged his political brand with illegal immigration, including a 2006 controversial push in Hazleton for an ordinance to punish businesses and landlords for hiring or renting to undocumented immigrants. That law, which was never enforced, prompted a federal lawsuit that cost the city nearly $1.7 million.
Barletta insisted his town of 25,000, where the Latino population soared from 5 percent in 2000 to 52 percent in 2016, had to act because of rising crime and costs.
Barletta always lagged Casey in fundraising, making it difficult to tell his story.
"I think more T.V. commercials, more media would have helped," said Val DiGiorgio, chairman of the Pennsylvania Republican Party Tuesday.
