As Election Day nears, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pennsylvania) brought his re-election campaign to Temple Wednesday, alongside Sen. Rev. Raphael Warnock (D-Georgia). The rally was one of the day’s two campaign events Casey held in the Philadelphia area.
The event took place at the TLO Event Complex located on Cecil B. Moore Ave near 16th Street right off Temple’s Main Campus. With less than 15 days until the election, Casey is focusing his campaign on the issues most important to college students, which he says is cost of living and reproductive rights.
“For a lot of Pennsylvanians the number one issue I hear about everywhere, there’s not even a close second, is the cost of living,” Casey told The Temple News. “When food prices are high, the cost of household items is high, and they know that corporations are engaged in price-gouging, and that they’re being ripped off. They want us to take action against that.”
Lourdes Cardamone, president of Temple Democrats and the Chief of External Affairs for Temple Student Government, opened the event. She stressed the importance of voting for a candidate that defends the rights of others.
“[Casey] will stand up for LGBTQ+ rights and protect us, and he voted twice for the Women’s Health Protection Act to restore the protections after Roe,” said Cardamone, a junior political science major. “I know that as a woman, he will fight for me and my reproductive freedoms. David McCormick won’t look out for people like me.
Casey brought along Warnock, the Senator from Georgia who flipped the Senate with his win in 2022 against Republican nominee and former football star Herschel Walker. Pennsylvania and Georgia are both major swing states, with Georgia holding 16 electoral votes and Pennsylvania holding 19. The senators collaborated on legislation regarding inflation in the pharmaceutical industry earlier this month.
The event covered a range of current concerns, focusing mainly on the future of reproductive rights in the commonwealth, inflation, human and workers fights. Warnock’s state currently has one of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the country. He spoke out against Republican lawmakers’ attempts to pass pro-life legislation.
The topics of abortion and reproductive rights have been a reoccurring conversation since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022. Reproductive rights are 72% of students’ largest concern this election, according to an August 2024 poll by The Temple News.
Warnock specifically mentioned issues in his state, stating women woke up two summers ago to a loss in rights.
“I think about a young woman in Georgia named Amber Thurman, who literally found herself in the hospital needing basic routine care,” Warnock said in his speech. “She needed a procedure that’s called a DNC, and it’s something that doctors perform all the time, but because of Georgia’s abortion ban, the doctors were afraid to perform it. They were stuck somewhere between their Hippocratic oath and the threat of prison time.”
Casey brought up his opponent, Republican candidate Dave McCormick, criticizing his “resume gaps.” He spoke on McCormick’s past as CEO of hedge fund Bridgewater Associates. Casey also made digs at his residency, stating McCormick lied to voters in Pennsylvania about living in the state when running for office.
Casey has also advocated against “shrinkflation,” a topic he has brought to Congress many times. Shrinkflation refers to the practice of reducing the size of a product while still keeping it the same price. In 2024, he introduced the Shrinkflation Prevention Act. The bill allows for the Federal Trade Commission to regulate issues and establish shrinkflation as a deceptive act. The bill has not passed the Senate yet.
An Oct. 7-10 poll conducted by The New York Times in conjunction with Siena College and The Philadelphia Inquirer showed a 4% lead for Casey against McCormick. With the race likely to be decided by a slim margin, college students will likely play a large role in deciding whether or not Casey will remain in office.
“I think it’s important for him to come [to campus] because he’s not someone like [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez],” said Jaiman Kondisetty, a junior risk management major. “He doesn’t get a lot of coverage from younger people and the media sources they look at. So it’s important for him to come to [campuses] like this so they can meet him.”
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