WASHINGTON (TNS) — U.S. Sen. Bob Casey paid tribute to the people of Pennsylvania — and to public service — as he bid farewell to the Senate Wednesday, thanking the commonwealth, staff and family for enabling his work for families, the disabled and veterans over 18 years in Washington. He urged the next Congress to support struggling Americans and freedom-loving people facing dictators worldwide.

“When I was growing up in Scranton, Pa., my mother, Ellen Harding Casey, would often say to my brothers and sisters, ‘Count your blessings,'” Casey said before expressing a “deep and abiding gratitude to the people of Pennsylvania,” whom he’s served for almost 40 years in Harrisburg and Washington.

With almost every Democratic senator in attendance, including his Pennsylvania colleague, Sen. John Fetterman, Casey said he stood on the Senate floor with “a heart full of gratitude.” The Senate gallery was jammed with dozens of supporters, including his wife, Terese, and four daughters and extended family.

The outgoing senator, who has not ruled out another run for office, also spoke of the importance of public service. He mentioned that an inscription over the finance building in Harrisburg, where both he and his father once worked, says, “All public service is a trust given in faith and accepted in honor.”

“Everyone can be great because everyone can serve,” he said, citing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “King taught us in that simple statement that the word ‘great’ in this context isn’t about fame or acclaim or notoriety or riches. ‘Great’ is about something much more valuable — the opportunity to help others. I will continue to do my part to serve as a citizen and as a Pennsylvanian. And serving in the United States Senate has been the honor of a lifetime.”

Casey served in the Senate longer than any other Pennsylvanian.

Dozens of standing and applauding senators, led by his friend Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, lined up to greet Casey after his speech.

One of a handful of Democratic Senate casualties after a rousing comeback for President-elect Donald Trump, Casey conceded to former hedge fund CEO and Army veteran Dave McCormick last month while a state-mandated recount was underway. McCormick will be sworn in the first week in January, following one of the most expensive and bitter battleground races this year.

A former state treasurer and auditor general and the son of the late Gov. Bob Casey Sr., Casey is one of Pennsylvania’s best-known politicians along with his fellow Scranton native, President Joe Biden.

“He loved and breathed Pennsylvania,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the majority leader, said of Casey during an emotional address in the chamber Wednesday morning. “It’s a big, diverse state. He knew every corner of it. He was loved and respected in every corner of it.”

Schumer described Casey as a “distinguished” champion of Keystone State workers, middle-class families, children, seniors, clean energy and the environment, and the fight against corporate gouging. He added that Mr. Casey took on the mantle of fighting for disability rights after the retirement of Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who wrote the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“He will go down as one of the Senate’s greatest champions ever, in all of history, when it comes to … passing legislation to advance the rights of people with disabilities and help them live free from discrimination,” Schumer said.

“He didn’t have any personal connections to the disability community, nor was he trying to score political points. He did it simply because it was the right thing to do. No one ever said a bad word about Bob Casey. Why? Because he cared so much, was so hardworking, was so effective, and was one of the most genuine people that we have ever seen in this Senate.”

Casey had won each of his prior Senate races by at least 9 percentage points. He had taken office as a moderate (and, like his father, anti-abortion) Democrat in 2007 after defeating Republican Sen. Rick Santorum.

“His leadership, his spirit of service and his work on behalf of our communities has inspired many and led to meaningful progress for Pennsylvania,” Gov. Josh Shapiro told the Post-Gazette earlier this month.

McCormick, a treasury and national security official under former President George W. Bush, consistently linked Casey to an unpopular Biden-Harris administration and rode a wave of support for Trump.

But he and other Republicans since the election have frequently described Casey as a dedicated and honorable public servant.

“Bob Casey is a good man, and I don’t think any Pennsylvanian ever doubted that,” Charlie Gerow, a GOP strategist based in Harrisburg, told the Post-Gazette. “At his core, he’s a man of integrity and has a commitment to serve … and you can’t say that about a lot of people.”

Gerow said Casey’s brand of steady, somewhat stoic and historically moderate politics is not out of place in today’s combative climate, as there are “many senators in the mold of the early-2000s Casey. We just don’t know them as well because they don’t attract national media coverage.”

Along with helping to bring substantial federal funding to Pennsylvania, including many infrastructure projects, Casey’s legislative accomplishments include several bipartisan bills, such as the Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act, which helps Americans with disabilities save money without risking federal benefits, and the Campus SaVE Act to bolster reporting, transparency and prevention of sexual assault on college campuses.

A longtime supporter of unions and steelworkers, Casey worked for a decade to pass a bill in 2022 that bolstered protections and accommodations for pregnant women often working until the last day they possibly can. He also fought to reduce improvised explosive devices to help protect armed services members, and helped get the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act signed into law in 2022, expanding access to health care for veterans exposed to burn pits and other toxic substances.

In his speech, Casey also highlighted his efforts to expand high speed internet in rural areas; to help secure almost $1 billion to improve the Montgomery Locks and Dam in Beaver County and other waterway improvements; to combat China’s trade cheating; to help secure funding to boost nonprofits that help the most vulnerable; to fund police and fire departments; and “to lift up families during the pandemic.”

Schumer applauded Casey’s efforts to help Pennsylvania coal miners suffering from black lung disease get their benefits and medical help, as well as his work to expand early childhood health care, child nutrition, family tax benefits and extending the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

Casey also worked closely with former Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Pat Toomey for several years including on the Combat Online Predators Act, a damning investigation on underperforming nursing homes, and confirming federal judges.

The senator said Congress faces a critical choice next year: support lower-income Americans striving to reach the middle class or back the incoming Trump administration’s push for corporate tax cuts.

He urged lawmakers to continue combating China on economic issues, to make the child tax credit fully refundable to help reduce child poverty, and to help create “a healthier society if we invest in our children.” If every child had the freedom to be healthy, to learn, to have economic security, to be safe from harm and from hunger, “they would have the opportunity to succeed in life,” he said.

Casey also said the Senate and American people must choose “in the years ahead between dictators and democracy.”

“We must continue to support, not just in the Senate and House, the people of Ukraine” against the “murderous dictator Vladimir Putin,” he said. “We cannot stop. Abandoning them undermines freedom-loving people all over the world.”

Last week, as he chaired his final hearing of the Senate’s Special Committee on Aging, a witness — Pittsburgh-native Ai-Jen Poo, president of the National Domestic Workers Alliance — read a letter from Dr. Amy Houtrow of the University of Pittsburgh.

“In a world where people with disabilities are marginalized, disregarded, dehumanized and discarded, Sen. Casey has used his authority, time and efforts to elevate issues faced by disabled people,” Houtrow wrote. “Pennsylvanians, especially disabled Pennsylvanians and all disabled Americans, have a champion in Sen. Casey.”

Jeff Brauer, a political scientist at Keystone College in northeast Pennsylvania, told the Post-Gazette that Mr. Casey’s “soft-spoken, yet very strong advocacy for the state” may not have seen its last day. He could make another run for the governor’s mansion, with Shapiro widely believed to be eyeing the White House in 2028, Brauer said.

“I am not convinced this loss will be his final hurrah in politics,” he said.

Casey, who practiced law in Scranton before entering politics, handily won each of his races except for one primary run for governor in 2002 that he lost to Ed Rendell. He recently told NBC News that he’s not ruling out a return to public office, and that he’ll need a job and income as he doesn’t have a trust fund — a dig at wealthier lawmakers such as his successor.

“I never say never,” he said. “I think every public official and everyone who goes before the voters and asks for their vote has a period of time when they’re in office and a period of time when they’re out. This will be a break from public service, but you never know.”

During last week’s Aging Committee hearing, Casey praised a pair of witnesses, North Wales, Pa., Mayor Neil McDevitt, believed to be the first deaf person elected mayor in the U.S., and Erin Willman, founder and CEO of White Cane Coffee who lost her sight as a teenager and ran an unsuccessful write-in campaign for a seat in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. He encouraged Ms. Willman to take another crack at public service.

With a shake of his head and a measured chortle, a grinning Casey said, “If I know anything about politics, you can run again.”