Editorial: Let’s change the tone of elections in 2025
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With the Thursday concession of U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, Pennsylvania’s 2024 election season effectively comes to a close.
Republican businessman Dave McCormick has already gone to Washington for new-senator orientation. The sliver of difference between the two candidates — McCormick’s 48.8% to Casey’s 48.6% — triggered an automatic recount. Casey’s concession saw that called off.
“This race was one of the closest in our Commonwealth’s history, decided by less than a quarter of a point. I am grateful to the thousands of people who worked to make sure every eligible vote cast could be counted, including election officials in all 67 counties,” Casey said.
And McCormick has accepted Casey’s bow-out with grace.
“Sen. Bob Casey dedicated his career to bettering our commonwealth. Dina and I want to extend our sincere gratitude to Sen. Casey, Terese and their family for their decades of service, hard work and personal sacrifice,” McCormick said.
So now what?
This year’s U.S. Senate campaign was omnipresent and ugly. It could not be avoided. It was in your mailbox, your inbox, your text messages, your television and crawling across your computer screen. It represented everything people hate about elections.
There was plenty of mud being slung. Both candidates were accused by the other side of being to blame for Pennsylvania’s opioid crisis. Casey was painted as a proponent of open borders and the enemy of girls sports. McCormick was branded a greedy Connecticut money-man masquerading as a Pennsylvanian.
But as the ballots are counted and the end comes, the two shake metaphorical hands and move on.
What has to be recognized is the way the unsavory attacks of a campaign not only damage the candidates running. They hurt the process — and, ultimately, they fracture the voters.
Candidates — in all races — cannot continue to tell the electorate the other person on the ballot is the devil and then be shocked at the level of partisanship and hateful rhetoric suddenly woven into our elections.
Right now, with the next primary still half a year away and few people declared for the municipal races it will feature, let’s make an effort to raise the tone.
Let’s make 2025 a year where no one runs an opponent into the ground. Instead, let’s see candidates run on their merits, on their strengths and on the reasons they are the best choice.
It will seem strange, yes, but in a year where the people running are the same people we see at the grocery store and church and while mowing the lawn, it’s the perfect time to remember our candidates are not only people. They are our neighbors.