In January 2015, Casey said he would consider running as a candidate at the
next Irish general election, though he expressed uncertainty about which constituency he might choose. When pressed to name a constituency he thought he might select
Donegal, where he had recently purchased a home, or somewhere in Dublin, where he intended to set up his latest business. "Realistically I'm going to be spending a lot of time in Dublin", Casey said at the time. Casey gave his opinion on the
Fine Gael−
Labour coalition to
The Irish Times. "In fairness to the current Government I think they have performed fairly well", he said. "Some things they have done badly but overall I'd probably give them a B [grade]." In the count, Casey received 14 votes; 113 were required to secure a seat.
2018 presidential election On 30 August 2018, Casey announced his intention to seek a nomination for
that year's Irish presidential election. He became the third 'dragon' from the Irish version of ''
Dragons' Den'' to seek a nomination after
Gavin Duffy and
Seán Gallagher. Casey uploaded a promotional video entitled "Platform for President of Ireland" to YouTube. He secured the nominations of four local authorities;
Kerry County Council,
Clare County Council,
Limerick City and County Council and
Tipperary County Council. He criticised incumbent President
Michael D. Higgins for "extolling the virtues" of
Fidel Castro and
Hugo Chávez. On 17 October, Casey attracted a mixture of criticism and praise when he made comments on the
Irish Independents
Floating Voter podcast regarding social housing that was offered to, and refused by,
Irish Travellers in
Thurles, County Tipperary. Casey described Irish Travellers as "basically people camping in someone else's land" who are "not paying their fair share of taxes in society". There were calls for Casey to withdraw from the race, including from Traveller activist group
Pavee Point. Other candidates condemned Casey's comments. In the
Dáil,
Tánaiste Simon Coveney referred to Casey's comments as the "lowest common denominator politics" and defended the Government's decision to recognise Irish Travellers as an
ethnic minority in 2017, in contrast to Casey's belief that Irish Travellers share their ethnicity with the general Irish population. Casey visited the Thurles housing development for himself on 18 October, under
Garda protection, and faced demonstrations by Traveller activist groups. On 19 October, Casey released a statement announcing he was "taking the weekend off from the campaign to think carefully about whether to continue in the race", adding that "I do not want the people of Ireland to elect me as President of Ireland just based on one statement I made". He stated, "there is not a racist bone in my body." He announced that he was staying in the presidential election. Before the traveler comments Casey was polling last of the six candidates with 2 percent of support, he rose in support after the comments. He also said that in his opinion that Ireland is a "welfare-dependent state" which has led to a "sense of entitlement that's become unaffordable". Casey finished second to incumbent
Michael D. Higgins, securing 342,727 (23.3%) votes. A day after the election, Casey indicated that he planned to join
Fianna Fáil and run for one of the seats in the Donegal constituency in the
next general election. Fianna Fáil TD
Niall Collins later stated on
The Week in Politics that the Fianna Fáil ticket for the constituency was full, saying that Casey should "realise that you can't just rock up to political parties and think that you can get your way". Casey responded by saying "I'm 100% serious. If the consensus after talking to them is they don't want me, I’ll form a new party and I’ll call it the new Fianna Fáil." In February 2019 Casey said that he would run as an independent in the next general election.
2019 European Parliament election In April 2019 he announced he had handed in his nomination papers to contest the
2019 European Parliament election in the
Midlands–North-West constituency. In May 2019 while making a speech in Dunboyne, County Meath during the campaign, Casey was filmed declaring "The face of Ireland is changing. People say 'you’re racist'. Of course I'm racist, I'm a very proud Irish man". When questioned about this statement on The Floating Voter Podcast, a series run by the
Irish Independent he said that he makes “no apologies” for describing himself as a racist and continued to criticise the EU's policies on migration. He failed to win a seat, finishing fifth in a four-seat constituency.
2020 general election He contested the
2020 general election as an independent candidate for
Donegal, and also contested
Dublin West, the constituency of incumbent Taoiseach
Leo Varadkar. He received 213 first preference votes in Dublin West and was eliminated on the second count. In Donegal, he received 1,142 first preference votes and did not win a seat.
2024 European Parliament election Casey was a candidate in the
2024 European Parliament election for the
Midlands–North-West constituency. He received 21,102 (3.1%) first preference votes and was not elected.
2025 presidential election On 2 March 2025, Casey declared his intention to seek nomination from
city and county councils to run in the
2025 Irish presidential election. ==Publications==