After being defeated by Dave McCormick, Senator Bob Casey’s eighteen years in the Senate is ending. Before becoming a Senator, Casey was elected Treasurer in 2004 and Auditor General in 1996. While Casey often benefited from favorable political environments, his record makes him one of the most electorally successful politicians in Pennsylvania’s recent history. His decades of success and recent defeat offer two crucial lessons for McCormick.

The end of Casey’s tenure as Pennsylvania’s senior Senator became apparent when a Congressional aide from his central Pennsylvania office sent a farewell email. I got to know this aide in Casey’s constituent services during my time as Elk County’s Chief Clerk. My relationship with Casey’s office continued as I worked with others in my native Elk County to preserve maternity services in rural Pennsylvania. 

The constituent services Casey’s office provided stood above those of other federal elected officials I’ve interacted with, whether Democrat or Republican. His aides were quick to return a phone call or respond to an email. They also worked tirelessly to connect constituents with federal officials and resources. Casey owes no small part of his electoral success to his ability to serve the citizens of our Commonwealth. It demonstrated a commitment to do the necessary but unglamorous work of serving as a representative of the people. 

Elected officials increasingly are more interested in being pundits rather than a bridge between their constituents and our cumbersome federal bureaucracy. Casey, to his credit, resisted this temptation.

McCormick would be wise to learn this lesson early. 

Thousands of constituents have outstanding issues that must be transferred from Casey’s office to his. McCormick’s ability to manage this transition will be for many their first impression of McCormick as a Senator. No one on Fox News or in the pages of the Philadelphia Inquirer will pat McCormick on the back for helping a senior citizen resolve an issue with social security, assisting a veteran as he navigates with the complexities of Veterans Affairs, or guiding a municipality with a grant for stormwater management. These quotidian tasks, however, allow our experiment in self-government to grind forward. Ordinary Pennsylvanians do notice, and Casey’s demonstrated these efforts translate to votes.

There is also a lesson for McCormick in Casey’s defeat: leadership matters. 

I respect Casey’s service to Pennsylvania, but as I’ve written before, Casey is a follower, not a leader. Casey worked quietly but consistently to stay in the good graces of his party. When the party moved left, he happily followed suit. This works for politicians when political forces are moving in their direction. However, if the ground shifts back – as it inevitably does – politicians like Casey can find themselves exposed. This is what ultimately led to Casey’s undoing. He had no brand of his own, no voice or political positions that made him distinct in the minds of voters.

Senator John Fetterman and Governor Josh Shapiro owe their continued popularity to their ability to cut across partisan lines, speak candidly to Pennsylvanians, and distinguish themselves from their party when necessary. This maverick mentality inevitably angers highly engaged partisans, but in a closely divided electorate like Pennsylvania, service to one’s political base is insufficient. Beyond that, pandering to the most partisan voters violates the principle that politicians are supposed to serve all their constituents, not just the loudest voices online.

This doesn’t mean McCormick should be itching for a fight with the MAGA faithful in the Republican party. However, given Trump’s love of crisscrossing Rubicons, this time will come. If McCormick doesn’t have a spine, he should invest in one now. His political future depends on it.

Cynicism in politics, as in life, is easy. The cynic sacrifices nothing and asks for everything. For this reason, I’m not cynical about Casey’s time in the Senate despite my political differences with him. Casey and his congressional aides over the years served us well. We owe them all a sincere farewell. But we also owe Casey our honest judgment. His inability to stand on his own cost him when he was at his most politically vulnerable. Yet our appreciation and judgement offer lessons that are free of charge. Let us hope McCormick learns them.

Seth Higgins, a native of Saint Marys, Pennsylvania, specializes in bringing conservative thought to local government. Seth is a former Tablet Magazine Fellow and a former Krauthammer Fellow with The Tikvah Fund.