Philadelphia Inquirer: “As he tours the Commonwealth, Mastriano has essentially walled himself off from the general public, traveling within a bubble of security guards and jittery aides who aim to not only keep him safe, but ensure he only comes into contact with true believers.”
Trumpier Than Trump
“Some GOP candidates are softening their rhetoric and scrubbing their campaign websites of hardline positions as the midterms get closer. But Doug Mastriano is running a much different playbook in the Pennsylvania governor’s race, one of the most important contests in the nation,” Axios reports.
“He has doubled down on false claims about the 2020 election. He’s ghosting the mainstream media and spending nothing on TV advertising, relying instead on Facebook livestreams and far-right media.”
“He has a small staff largely unknown to Pennsylvania politicos. And he may tap a woman who has described QAnon as ‘a very valuable resource’ to be the state’s top election official.”
Trump’s Rallies Are Still Mostly About Trump
“While the speech was billed as a rally to help Pennsylvania’s top GOP candidates, Mehmet Oz, for Senate, and State Sen. Doug Mastriano, for governor, Trump spent most of his two-hour address airing his old personal grievances, and some new ones,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
“He briefly mentioned Oz and Mastriano, before immediately pivoting to his anger at Biden, and the recent FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago home as they tried to recover classified documents. He called it an ‘evil and demented persecution of you and me.’ It took about 80 minutes for Trump to return to the GOP candidates on the ballot this year.”
Doug Mastriano Wore Confederate Uniform in Faculty Photo
“Doug Mastriano, the far-right Republican nominee for governor of Pennsylvania, wore a Confederate uniform for a faculty photo at the Army War College that surfaced on Friday,” the New York Times reports.
Democrats Up Big In Pennsylvania
A new Franklin & Marshall College finds in Pennsylvania finds John Fetterman (D) leading Mehmet Oz by double digits, 43% to 30%.
In the gubernatorial race, Josh Shapiro (D) leads Doug Mastriano (R), 44% to 33%.
A new Emerson College poll shows Fetterman up by just four points, 48% to 44%, and Shapiro up by three points, 47% to 44%.
Doug Mastriano Has Security Tied to Militia Group
Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano (R) “has surrounded himself with a non-professional, armed security team whose members include at least one person with direct ties to a militia group,” Lancaster Online reports.
“Mastriano’s detail includes several members of a relatively new evangelical church near Elizabethtown, LifeGate, whose leaders have spoken openly about electing Christians to office to advance biblical principles in government.”
Pennsylvania Republicans Unite Around Doug Mastriano
New York Times: “Pennsylvania Republican officials who had warned that Mr. Mastriano was unelectable have largely closed ranks behind him, after he proved to be the overwhelming choice of base Republicans.”
Doug Mastriano Expected to Testify Tuesday
“Doug Mastriano, the Trump-endorsed GOP nominee for governor in Pennsylvania, is expected to appear virtually on Tuesday before the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection but might not end up answering any questions due to a dispute over his testimony,” CNN reports.
“The committee has been negotiating the terms of Mastriano’s deposition for weeks but the two sides still have not reached an agreement over whether his attorney would be allowed to videotape the deposition or be given access to the committee’s own full recording after the fact.”
Mastriano’s Relationship with GOP Mirrors Trump’s Rise
“GOP leaders rushed to stop him in the primary. When he won anyway, some polls unexpectedly showed him within reach of his Democratic rival, and the Republican establishment began to warm to him,” Politico reports.
“But then he was engulfed by controversy — exactly the kind that GOP insiders had previously worried could sink his chances.”
“The candidate is Pennsylvania governor hopeful Doug Mastriano — but this year, he’s following a path Republicans recognize from their see-saw first months getting used to Donald Trump as the party’s leader back in 2016.”
Doug Mastriano Is Keeping a Big Secret From Voters
HuffPost: “Doug Mastriano has a secret. The Republican nominee for Pennsylvania governor says he’s chosen someone to serve as the commonwealth’s next secretary of state — a position that will hold enormous power over the 2024 presidential election. But he won’t tell voters who it is.”
Republicans Warm Up to Doug Mastriano
Associated Press: “When he crushed a nine-person field to win the GOP nomination for Pennsylvania governor in May, some in the party warned that Mastriano’s far-right views on everything from abortion to the 2020 presidential election would squander an otherwise attainable seat in a critical battleground state.”
“But now, as the general election season intensifies, the GOP machinery is cranking up to back Mastriano’s campaign and attack his Democratic rival, Josh Shapiro.”
Pennsylvania Governor’s Race Is Suddenly Competitive
Politico: “In the immediate aftermath of Pennsylvania’s messy gubernatorial primary — which included an ill-fated, last-minute attempt by the GOP establishment to stop Mastriano — many Democrats and Republicans in Pennsylvania thought the race was all but over. Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the Democratic nominee, is a first-class fundraiser with a record of winning tough statewide races. He emerged unscathed from the Democratic primary after clearing the field.”
“Mastriano, on the other hand, has a shoestring campaign, regularly antagonizes members of his own party, and is known for his far-right views on hot-button issues. He chartered buses to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, where he appears to have been part of a crowd that crossed barricades. He believes in no exceptions for an abortion ban. He has said that the state legislature has the power to appoint presidential electors, and as governor, he would have the power to ‘decertify’ election machines. When Mastriano pulled out a win in the primary, many national Republicans kept their distance and, privately, assumed Shapiro would waltz to the governor’s mansion.”
“But as the political environment has worsened for Democrats across the country, the gubernatorial race in Pennsylvania has begun to look more competitive than either party expected.”
Doug Mastriano Is Deleting Videos from Facebook
Philadelphia Inquirer: “The removed videos include freewheeling discussions in which Mastriano predicts that this November’s election will be marred by Democratic voter fraud; accuses Republicans who don’t support him of looking down on veterans; and calls the fight against abortion ‘the most important issue of our lifetime.'”
“This has become somewhat of a pattern for Mastriano, 58, a retired Army colonel who bills himself as a plainspoken populist. He communicates directly with voters online, yet sometimes covers his tracks.”
“Before this latest batch of deletions, Mastriano removed potentially problematic or controversial posts, including tweets promoting the Qanon conspiracy theory, as well as videos in which he called local faith leaders ‘cowards’; acknowledged his Covid diagnosis while visiting the White House; and feuded with GOP lawmakers in Harrisburg.”
Democrats Keep Leads In Pennsylvania
A new AARP poll in Pennsylvania finds John Fetterman (D) leading Mehmet Oz (R) in the U.S. Senate race, 50% to 44%.
Key takeaway: Oz’s favorability rating is an incredibly dismal 30% to 63%.
In the race for governor, Josh Shapiro (D) leads Doug Mastriano (R), 49% to 46%.
Unlikely Duo in Pennsylvania
“One candidate is unabashedly blunt, willing to embrace progressive positions, doing little to build rapport with party leaders and dominating rooms with a 6-foot-8-inch frame. The other crafts a more moderate image, a deliberate public speaker who became a congressional aide out of college and has carefully cultivated relationships within the party ever since,” the AP reports.
“In both style and substance, John Fetterman and Josh Shapiro strike dramatically different profiles.”
“Yet their fate — and that of the Democratic Party — is intertwined in a pair of Pennsylvania elections that will be among the most closely watched in the U.S.”
Democrats Lead In Pennsylvania
A new USA Today Network/Suffolk University poll in Pennsylvania finds John Fetterman (D) leading Mehmet Oz (R) by nine points in the U.S. Senate race, 46% to 37%.
In the race for governor, Josh Shapiro (D) has a 4-point advantage over Doug Mastriano (R), 44% to 40%.
Doug Mastriano Sees Parallels with Hitler’s Rise
Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano (R), who was at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, compared the riot that day “to historical events staged by the Nazis, saying that he saw ‘parallels’ between the criticism of the Jan. 6 attack and the 1933 Reichstag fire, which Hitler used to seize more power,” NBC News reports.
Doug Mastriano Hires Ex-Trump Legal Adviser
“Jenna Ellis, who was among the most high-profile attorneys involved in the Trump campaign’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, has joined Pennsylvania Republican Doug Mastriano’s gubernatorial campaign as a senior legal adviser,” Reuters reports.