Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) declared in a campaign ad this week that he will “always stand up to China” on behalf of American workers while donning a steelworker’s hard hat. But in recent months the three-term Democrat voted twice for a bill that even one of his fellow Democrats said will put “our foreign adversaries ahead of American-made manufacturing.”
The ad released this week features several Pittsburgh steelworkers touting Casey’s support for American-made steel. “Our own government turned their backs on us,” workers say in the ad. “Using Chinese steel to build our infrastructure, we were getting screwed.”
“I’ll always stand up to China to protect American workers,” Casey says in the ad.
“Take that China,” says a worker.
But Casey’s recent voting record calls that bold claim into question. Casey, who faces the toughest reelection campaign of his career, voted in November and February in favor of President Joe Biden’s proposal to temporarily relax “Buy America” requirements “for steel iron manufactured products and construction materials in electric vehicle (EV) chargers.” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), who introduced bills to nullify Biden’s waiver, said the Biden proposal would allow American infrastructure dollars to flow “into the hands of Chinese companies to build electric vehicle charging stations.”
