Lou Barletta

Lou Barletta is trying to wake up Pennsylvania's sleepy U.S. Senate race.

Barletta, a four-term Republican congressman, began airing his first TV attack ad of the general election campaign Friday, accusing two-term Democratic Sen. Bob Casey of being ineffective and asleep on the job.

The first TV ad of this year's low-key U.S. Senate campaign in Pennsylvania is now on screens in the state's biggest media market of Philadelphia.

Senate hearings began Tuesday on the U.S. Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh. And while Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey was well out of the spotlight, he echoed many of the concerns that his fellow Democrats were expressing on Capitol Hill.

“It’s gonna be a critical week,” Casey said of the hearings during a Tuesday interview with 90.5 WESA. “The big issue out of the box is not even a review of his views – that will come obviously as part of the hearing. But the big issue now is the access to information and documents.”

Democratic Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey and his Republican challenger, Congressman Lou Barletta, each touted their support of blue-collar workers in Pittsburgh Tuesday.

In a new campaign ad, Pennsylvania U.S. Senator Bob Casey attacks his opponent, Republican U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta for his vote seven years ago to restructure the Medicare program. Barletta's campaign says the ad is repeating a proven lie.

U.S. Senator Bob Casey was in suburban Pittsburgh Wednesday morning to advocate for protecting health care coverage for people with pre-existing conditions. Casey was joined by health care providers and patients with pre-existing conditions at the Squirrel Hill Health Center in Brentwood, Pa.

In an effort to shift his U.S. Senate campaign into a higher gear, Congressman Lou Barletta is in Pittsburgh Tuesday and Wednesday, with a bus sojourn his campaign calls the “Red, White and Lou” tour. And as he sought to raise his profile just three months from the election, he answered questions from 90.5 WESA about the campaign, Donald Trump's economic policies, and his ties to a controversial Trump ally.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Lou Barletta is on a bus tour across the commonwealth with his golden retriever, Reilly.

The Luzerne County congressman is hoping it turns the tide of his disappointing fundraising numbers.

As of their most recent campaign filings from late June, Barletta has about $1.5 million on-hand, while opponent Bob Casey has nearly $10 million.

With three months until midterm elections, Republican Congressman and U.S. Senate hopeful Lou Barletta has found himself trailing his incumbent opponent—both in polls and in dollars.

Now, the Luzerne County representative is leaning into one resource he can count on: the support of President Donald Trump.

On Thursday night, Trump rolled through northeast Pennsylvania to lend his voice to the cause.

President Donald Trump will visit Northeastern Pennsylvania Thursday, set to speak to an audience in Luzerne County, which helped deliver the state to Trump in 2016.

A day before his appearance, Republicans in the small, working-class community of Wilkes-Barre said their support of the president has not wavered over the last 18 months.

Trump will be stumping for former Hazletown mayor and current U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, who is trying to unseat U.S. Sen. Bob Casey in the November election.

President Donald Trump will hold a Make America Great Again rally in Wilkes-Barre next week and urge voters to support Republican U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta's campaign to unseat Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey.

The Republican president is to discuss the economy, including jobs for Pennsylvanians, and his efforts to protect American manufacturing jobs. The rally is at 7 p.m. Aug. 2 at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza.

Vice President Mike Pence visited Philadelphia Monday to support fellow Republican, U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta — and to tout how the Trump administration’s tax cuts are working in Pennsylvania.

Speaking in front of a crowd of about 300 people at the Sheraton Hotel, Pence praised the Trump administration’s policies on immigration, the canceled Iran nuclear deal, and low unemployment.

“Confidence is back. Jobs are coming back. In a word, America is back,” said Pence, to a room full of applause. “And we’re just getting started.”

As President Donald Trump found himself under pressure from his own party this past week, Republican U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta of Pennsylvania reached for his shield.

Barletta, who is running for Senate with the expectation of substantial support from Trump, hails from a northeastern Pennsylvania congressional district that strongly backed Trump in 2016. He was one of Trump's earliest backers in Congress in the presidential primary, co-chaired Trump's campaign in Pennsylvania and served on Trump's transition team.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania continues to hold a big advantage in fundraising over Republican challenger Lou Barletta with four months until November's general election.

Vice President Mike Pence will be in Philadelphia later this month to host a fundraiser for Republican Congressman and U.S. Senate candidate Lou Barletta.

Republican U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta says separating adults from children is one of many bad things that come from illegal immigration, and supports changing the law to let the government keep children and families in custody longer.

Four-term U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump who first got national notice as a small-city mayor for his attempted crackdown on illegal immigration, on Tuesday won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania.

Barletta had paid little attention to his Republican rival, state Rep. Jim Christiana, during the primary campaign. Instead, he focused his attacks on the candidate he hopes to unseat in the fall, two-term Democratic Sen. Bob Casey.

Tuesday's primary elections will begin to settle swing state Pennsylvania's chaotic congressional landscape after a court fight ended with redrawn districts just three months ago.

Pennsylvania primary voters will also decide the fate of President Donald Trump's pick for U.S. Senate. Idaho voters are set to pick their Republican gubernatorial nominee, while heavily Republican Nebraska and Democratic-leaning Oregon are also holding primaries Tuesday.

A look at some of the key races:

PENNSYLVANIA SCRAMBLE

Pennsylvania's thus-far sleepy U.S. Senate race this year could nonetheless play a key role in determining whether Republicans hang onto control of the chamber.

Republican U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta raised nearly $1.3 million in the first three months of 2018 for his campaign to contest Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey's re-election bid in Pennsylvania.

Barletta's campaign said Monday it had about $1.6 million in the bank as of March 31. That compares with the $10 million-plus that Casey's campaign said it had after raising $2.2 million in the period.

Barletta spent about half of the amount he raised during the quarter, while Casey spent about 40 percent of what he raised.

Pennsylvania's two Republican U.S. Senate candidates came as close to each other as they've been in public, speaking separately at the state's largest annual gathering of conservatives.

State elections officials say Democrat Bob Casey and three Republicans filed petitions before Pennsylvania's deadline to get on the primary ballot for U.S. Senate.

The Republicans who filed by Tuesday night's deadline were U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta of Hazleton, state Rep. Jim Christiana of Beaver County and perennial candidate Joe Vodvarka of suburban Pittsburgh.

At its annual winter meeting Saturday, the Pennsylvania Republican Party endorsed York County state Senator Scott Wagner for governor.

The hat-tip gives Wagner a powerful new talking-point as he attempts to unseat Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf.

Wagner had a strong lead in straw votes leading up to the endorsement—pulling 175 out of 317 nods from around the state.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey reports that he's heading into his re-election year with $8.6 million in campaign cash, easily leading his rivals.

A former drug prosecutor who once ran for state attorney general is entering the field vying to succeed Republican U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta in 2019.

Joe Peters announced Monday that he'll seek the Republican Party's nomination to run for Pennsylvania's 11th District seat in Congress. The district stretches from Shippensburg in southcentral Pennsylvania some 140 miles to rural northeastern Pennsylvania. The primary election is May 15.

Congressman Bill Shuster, a southwestern Pennsylvania Republican, has announced he’s not seeking reelection after 17 years in office.

His seat now joins a lengthening list of vacancies that could help make Pennsylvania one of the most important states in November’s congressional elections.

With Shuster’s departure, four of the commonwealth’s 13 Republican-held seats stand open.

One candidate is leaving the Republican field seeking the nomination to challenge Pennsylvania's two-term Democrat Sen. Bob Casey, and one candidate is getting in.

Fourth-time candidate Joe Vodvarka said Thursday that he's running as a Republican, after losing three straight primaries as a Democrat.

Vodvarka is a semiretired owner of a Pittsburgh-area spring manufacturing shop. Also running are Republican U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, state Rep. Jim Christiana and Libertarian Dale Kerns.

There are two more people entering the field vying to succeed Republican U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta in 2019.

Former state Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff will seek the Democratic Party's nomination, and U.S. Army veteran Andrew Lewis will seek the Republican nomination.

The 66-year-old Wolff is also a fifth-generation dairy farmer in Columbia County and served on the World Trade Organization's agriculture technical committee. The 30-year-old Lewis helps run a family construction services firm in Dauphin County and ran unsuccessfully for state Senate last year.

Statewide political party leaders are starting to hone their messaging for—and against—candidates, more than a year before the midterm elections

Particular attention is already being paid to Pennsylvania's U.S. Senate race, between incumbent Democrat Bob Casey and one of several Republican challengers.

The emails have been coming steadily for a few months now.

Salvos from the state Republican Party criticize Casey’s votes against cutting funds to sanctuary cities, or his shifts to the left on abortion and gun control.

Messages from the Democrats are similar.