Did Casey's old brand strength make any difference?

[Blair]

I'm curious for thoughts on this- preferably with either some of the limited/early data we have, or takes from those in and around PA politics.

One of the reasons I didn't expect Casey to do as badly was because of the historic strength in his brand; he was genuinely a strong historic incumbent based on his past results and his name and family's brand was often touted as a reason why he would outperform.

Is it a case that a lot of these voters are frankly not with us anymore, partisanship has basically melted it away etc?

[MT Treasurer]

His "family name" was used against him in that the McCormick camp portrayed him as no longer being a Casey, but a useless, do-nothing rubber stamp for national party bosses. A family name like that can be a burden when your opponent effectively makes the case that you’ve abandoned everything that name once stood for.

[Averroës]

It's hard to look at the other close races without wondering. I think that Democrats could have won this seat had they nominated someone with stronger pro-choice bona fides. Casey's brand was a burden.

[Trump v. Wong Kim Ark]

It's hard to look at the other close races without wondering. I think that Democrats could have won this seat had they nominated someone with stronger pro-choice bona fides. Casey's brand was a burden.

Yeah looking at the Rust Belt Trio: Baldwin kept her seat, Slotkin won, but Casey lost, all three of which have the common denominator of Trump winning at the top of the ticket. I think it’s clear that Casey was a weak link for one reason or another. I’d be interested in how many undervotes there were for each of the three senate races.

[For Trump, everything. For immigrants, the law]

It did in the past, and maybe he was assuming that it would this year, and that's part of the reason why he was caught sleeping.

[Spectator]

His overperformance of Obama in 2012 was fairly lackluster compared to other Democratic incumbents in other states. I think there was always some hint he was just coasting on his name. In hindsight, his 2018 victory isn't that impressive when Wolf was winning by a 5-point wider margin.

[Progressive Pessimist]

In the same way Nella Domenici's name did.

As the years go on political dynasties lose their luster as less and less people remember their relatives or their initial ascent.