Robert Patrick Casey Jr. (born April 13, 1960) is an American lawyer and politician who served from 2007 to 2025 as a United States senator from Pennsylvania.

After graduating from the College of the Holy Cross and the Catholic University of America, he practiced law in Scranton before beginning his political career as Pennsylvania Auditor General, a position he was elected to in 1996 and held until 2005.

He graduated from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1982, and received a Juris Doctor from the Columbus School of Law at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., in 1988.

[8] In a bitter primary, classified as the then-most expensive in Pennsylvania's history,[9] Rendell won the nomination by winning only 10 out of 67 counties: Philadelphia and its Delaware Valley suburbs (Bucks, Chester, Montgomery, and Delaware), its Lehigh Valley exurbs (Berks, Lehigh, and Northampton), Lancaster, and Centre, the home of Penn State University.

His two challengers, college professor Chuck Pennacchio and pension lawyer Alan Sandals, argued that Casey's views on abortion and other social issues were too conservative for most Pennsylvania Democrats.

[20] Casey easily defeated challenger Joseph Vodvarka in the Democratic primary, and faced the Republican nominee, former coal company owner Tom Smith, in the general election.

[27] The Pennsylvania Report said he "struck gold" by endorsing Obama early in the primary, a move that gave him "inside access to the halls of the White House".

[28] Casey campaigned across Pennsylvania in support of Obama's candidacy in the months leading up to the primary in that state; they bowled together at Pleasant Valley Lanes in Altoona.

[32] In 2014, Casey released a report on income inequality in Pennsylvania and urged Congress to raise the minimum wage, extend unemployment insurance, and increase funding for early education.

He asked DeVos to "fully explain whether she supports the radical view that it should be more difficult for campus sexual-assault victims to receive justice".

In an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, FIRE co-founder Harvey Silverglate wrote that "FIRE vigorously defends the free-speech and due-process rights of college students and faculty" and that the organization "is nonpartisan and has defended students and faculty members on the left and right", making "common cause with politically diverse organizations ranging from the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers to The Heritage Foundation, Young Americans for Liberty and the Cato Institute".

Casey voted for the Protect and Preserve International Cultural Property Act, which was designed to ensure that the U.S. is not a market for antiquities looted from Syria and was signed into law by Obama.

[58] Casey voted against a resolution in 2024 proposed by Senator Bernie Sanders to apply the human rights provisions of the Foreign Assistance Act to U.S. aid to Israel's military.

[60] In 2016, Casey joined a group of Senate Democrats led by Joe Manchin of West Virginia who wanted to extend expiring benefits for retired coal workers.

[61] Described as "unusually animated", Casey said he would "vote against a must-pass spending bill needed to keep the government running" if the coal miners' benefits were not extended.

After the Sandy Hook school massacre in 2012, he had "completely flipped his views" on several gun issues, largely as a result of having been "accosted" by his wife and daughter.

He said he had never really thought about the gun issue until Sandy Hook, "coasting along with Pennsylvania's traditional pro-gun views in a state where the National Rifle Association has held sway for decades".

Casey said his switch had been a result of "thinking of the enormity of it, what happened to those children, which was indescribably horrific, and then having my wife and daughter say to me, 'You're going to vote on this at some point.

[67] Casey was one of six Democratic senators to introduce the American Miners Act of 2019, a bill that would amend the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 to swap funds in excess of the amounts needed to meet existing obligations under the Abandoned Mine Land fund to the 1974 Pension Plan as part of an effort to prevent its insolvency as a result of coal company bankruptcies and the 2008 financial crisis.

It also increased the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund tax and ensured that miners affected by the 2018 coal company bankruptcies would not lose their health care.

[69] Amid discussions to prevent a government shutdown in September 2019, Casey was one of six Democratic senators to sign a letter to congressional leadership advocating the passage of legislation that would permanently fund health care and pension benefits for retired coal miners as "families in Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming, Alabama, Colorado, North Dakota and New Mexico" would start to receive notifications of health care termination by the end of the following month.

[76] In 2010, during a debate on the Affordable Care Act, Casey was heckled for his handling of the abortion provisions in the bill and for not taking an uncompromising anti-abortion stance.

He was the primary sponsor of an amendment to prevent government funds from being used for abortion services, but when he tried to organize a compromise that appealed to the party's lone Senate holdout, Ben Nelson, he angered some religious groups.

[77][78] In 2011, Casey voted against defunding Planned Parenthood and cutting funding for contraception, and for cloture for the nomination of Goodwin Liu, earning him a 100% rating from NARAL.

[84] The National Right to Life Committee criticized Casey for his 2017 vote against the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Politico acknowledged that scorecards "are an imperfect calculation of a lawmaker's position", adding that Casey asserted that he had voted anti-abortion on 13 of the 15 abortion-related measures during his career.

[91] Casey supported the Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act of 2007 (S. 1348), a bill voted down in the 110th United States Congress, which would have provided a path to legal citizenship for undocumented persons living in the U.S.

"[95] In May, Casey, nine other senators, and 13 U.S. representatives requested in a letter to the Homeland Security Secretary that they stop the detention of four children and their mothers at the Berks County Residential Center.

Casey also personally took to social media with impassioned appeals to the White House on behalf of a Honduran 5-year-old and his 25-year-old mother being held at the facility who were facing deportation.

[98] Casey expressed support for the confirmation of both John Roberts in 2005[99] and Samuel Alito in 2006[100] to the Supreme Court of the United States; both were believed to be in favor of overturning Roe v. Wade.