WASHINGTON – In two years, Sen. Bob Casey may be among those senators targeted by Republicans. He is, after all, a Democrat from a state won by Donald Trump.

However, in an interview this week, the second-term senator from Pennsylvania said he won’t parrot the president-elect’s policies. He rejected the idea that Trump’s election victory and that of Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pennsylvania, are mandates for their policies — particularly repealing Obamacare.

Instead, Casey charged Republicans with lying about their ability to improve upon President Barack Obama’s signature health care law.

He predicts that Republicans could face the wrath of voters upset about problems sure to arise — including, he says, the loss of health care jobs in rural communities.

He said “significant” numbers of voters “when they see what the repeal entails, won’t be as supportive and may actually be opposed.”

Whether that comes to pass remains to be seen. Republicans still buoyed by their November victories said Casey’s opposition to getting rid of the controversial Affordable Care Act will come back to hurt him when he runs for reelection in two years.

Casey “will have to answer to Pennsylvania voters for his unwavering support of Obamacare and other job-killing Obama-era policies,” said National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesman Bob Salera in a statement.

“Pennsylvanians made clear in November that they want a new direction in Washington,” he said.

Casey did not directly discuss the next election during a Thursday interview at his congressional office, where he is prohibited from electioneering.

But describing his mindset in light of the election, he said Trump’s and Toomey’s victories were not “a victory of the agenda or the priorities of one party or another.

“It was a unique election, with a candidate who won who represented his message in a unique and, unfortunately I think, effective way,” Casey said, “even if it was not appealing to people’s better angels, as Lincoln said a long time ago.”

Casey declined to say where he thinks Democrats went wrong in the election. Noting the Pennsylvania electorate is nearly evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, he said his party needs to go to “places where people aren’t necessarily going to vote for you” and “be responsive the best that we can, even if there is disagreement.”

On Obamacare, Casey’s comments reflect those of other congressional Democrats, who met with Obama on Wednesday to talk about strategies to protect the law.

As they began the process of repealing the law this week, Republican leaders acknowledged it may be months before they figure out how to replace it.

Casey, a member of the Senate health committee, said they’ll be hard-pressed to find a better system.

Republicans promised a “whiz bang replacement that you would just be amazed at,” he mocked. “You’d be so blinded by the brilliance of it, you wouldn’t be able to see.”

To improve on the Affordable Care Act, he said, a replacement has to do more than insure the 21 million people newly covered under the law. It also must preserve protections such as barring insurance companies from refusing coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.

“I wish I could find the private investigator who could find this replacement bill, go through Washington and open each drawer and find it. But no one has been able to find it,” he said.

Casey also echoed concerns that repealing the Affordable Care Act will lead rural hospitals to close and eliminate “hundreds or thousands” of health care jobs in their communities.

The national Rural Hospital Association also worries about losing an aspect of the law that allows members to buy drugs more cheaply, saying the loss could further endanger hospitals that are barely surviving.

Lisa Davis, director of the Pennsylvania Office of Rural Health, said it’s possible that Congress and the White House will come up with a plan that improves upon the Affordable Care Act, but the lack of a replacement worries rural health advocates.

First elected to the Senate in 2006, Casey in some ways contrasts with another Democratic senator facing re-election from a state that supported Trump.

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin has also opposed repealing Obamacare without a replacement.

However, he skipped the Democrats’ meeting with Obama. Casey attended.

Manchin, who met with Trump about a position in his administration, has spoken highly of the president-elect’s choice to head the Environmental Protection Agency, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt

Manchin has also called for repealing the Clean Power Plan, which sets carbon emissions targets for states.

Trump says it has cost jobs.

Casey has opposed repealing the plan after the Obama administration agreed to changes he suggested.

He called Pruitt’s nomination “very troubling.”

In a statement, Casey has said, “We have an abiding obligation to ensure all communities have clean air and clean water, and at the same time ensure the regulations we do have make sense.”

Berwood Yost, director of the Center for Opinion Research at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, said opposing Trump’s policies may not hurt Casey in 2018 even though Trump narrowly won the state, with 44,292 votes more than Democrat Hillary Clinton, out of 6.1 million cast.

Minority party candidates tend to do better in the mid-term elections, Yost noted.

Casey has also easily won his last two elections, he said, and has the ability to appeal to the white, working-class voters who elected Trump.

“He’s not from Philly,” Yost said. “He’s from Scranton.”

Kery Murakami is the Washington, D.C. reporter for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Contact him at kmurakami@cnhi.com.

###