For Democrats, Bob Casey said, the uptick in grassroots energy is “inspiring them to do more and think about things they probably wouldn’t be doing.” | AP Photo Democrats' Mr. Nice Guy finds his inner firebrand Sen. Bob Casey promised to 'fight like hell' against Obamacare repeal at a Philadelphia town hall.

PHILADELPHIA — Sen. Bob Casey is known as easygoing and open to bipartisanship. But as the liberal base grows increasingly restive, the Pennsylvania Democrat is discovering his inner firebrand.

Casey never raised his voice before the 700 constituents who turned out Sunday for his first in a series of town hall meetings — but he didn’t need to in order to send a message to the largely liberal audience. From fights over health care to the Supreme Court, Casey signaled that he’s allying with the millions of protesters who have flooded the streets to resist President Donald Trump.


Trump narrowly carried Pennsylvania in November, and Senate Republicans are eagerly targeting Casey in the 2018 midterms. But Casey embraced the anti-Trump sentiment in the crowd at the University of Pennsylvania, which represents the base of support he’ll need to turn out if he hopes win a third term and turn the Keystone State back to blue.

Casey's approach suggests even vulnerable Senate Democrats who hail from swing states that backed Trump are prepared to align with the party's rising grassroots.

The mostly friendly group was pleased with his promise to “fight like hell” against the GOP’s Obamacare repeal legislation. And the crowd cheered his vow to support multiple investigations into Trump’s ties to Russia.

When one man said he wanted to see Trump resign, Casey gently responded, “I don’t think that’s going to happen,” before adding, “But here’s what I do know — this kind of activism and engagement is having an impact already on both parties.”

For Democrats, Casey said, the uptick in grassroots energy is “inspiring them to do more and think about things they probably wouldn’t be doing.”

The 56-year-old, who followed his father Gov. Robert Casey Sr. into politics, may have been talking about himself.

“He always has been a little bit bland in the past, since he’s been in office,” said Colleen Frank, who traveled to Casey’s Philadelphia town hall with fellow members of the Upper Buxmont Rising activist group. “But he is stepping up now. He’s much more animated.”

Casey didn’t commit to supporting a filibuster of Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Neil Gorsuch. But he outlined “real, significant, major concerns” with Gorsuch and added that even if his review of the judge’s record goes well, he’s still worried the nominee would move the high court in a “more corporate direction.”

Frank didn’t mind that Casey stopped short of pledging a filibuster of Gorsuch before the nominee’s hearing begins this month, as many inside-the-Beltway liberals are demanding. “He practically said he was going to vote against cloture,” she pointed out.

Casey’s responsiveness to the nascent wave of liberal activism hasn’t escaped GOP notice. The National Republican Senatorial Committee last week slammed “Casey’s new fiery left wing rhetoric” as a sign that “he is angling to join Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders as a voice for the far left, instead of working for Pennsylvanians in the Senate.”

Casey’s first Republican challenger for 2018, pro-Trump state legislator Rick Saccone, jumped into the race last month and is likely to take note of the incumbent’s new tone.

But Casey appeared energized by the rising grassroots participation. He pledged to oppose GOP attempts to defund Planned Parenthood, a stance that has put him at odds with anti-abortion activists who question how he can personally oppose abortion while voting in support of the group.

“I recognize the cap you have on,” he told a questioner wearing the hot pink knitted cat’s ears that have become a uniform of anti-Trump liberal activists — and then blasted the “horrific and upsetting” viewpoints espoused by Breitbart News, the website that was previously led by Trump advisor Steve Bannon and which has promoted the “alt-right” white nationalist movement.

In response to a gay man who asked about fighting the Trump administration on LGBTQ rights and referenced Gorsuch’s “horrendous record” on the issue, Casey posed a question for himself and other lawmakers: “What are we going to do to hold them accountable?” He touted his support last year for the so-called Equality Act, which would expand federal civil rights protections to people discriminated against based on sexual orientation.

Amid his resistance to Trump, however, Casey showed flashes of the moderate bridge-builder persona he has cultivated over the years. Responding to a voter who asked him to consider reaching out to “the few Republican representatives who haven’t lost their souls,” Casey agreed that his party isn’t doing enough on that front.

Bipartisanship on Obamacare is even possible if Republicans can open “a different chapter here, down the road,” Casey suggested. In order to do that, he said, the GOP would have to abandon its current quest to axe Obamacare without Democratic votes.

“If they move off repeal and get onto a serious discussion about preserving what works” about the health care law, Casey said, “then we’ll have a discussion with them.”

He also clashed with the crowd at one point when he insisted that the United States should pursue natural gas and clean energy expansions at the same time.

While the public was mostly on Casey’s side, not everyone in Sunday’s deep-blue audience found him persuasive.

Ryan O’Hara of Philadelphia took the microphone to warn the senator that Democrats had yet to fully reckon with their devastating loss to Trump, whom he called an “orange orangutan.” Mounting a successful comeback, O’Hara insisted to Casey, won’t be possible with “an establishment strategy.”

Casey told O’Hara that “you’re right — we didn’t, as a party,” offer an agenda that successfully spoke to independent voters. And the problem existed before Hillary Clinton lost to Trump, Casey added.

The mild-mannered senator followed with the kind of broad policy prescriptions that Democratic leaders have already seized on, appealing to voters’ economic struggles and calling for “more engagement by Democratic officials in small towns and rural areas.”

That didn’t impress O’Hara, who said he voted for Sanders in the Democratic primary last year but Clinton in the general election.

“He doesn’t know what he wants to do, it seems,” O’Hara said after the meeting about the “evasive” Casey. When a nearby attendee suggested that Casey might change “if we push him hard enough,” O’Hara opened his cell phone to show off Casey — and Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) — in his most frequent contacts.

“That’s why I call him four times a week,” O’Hara said.

