Doug Mastriano is 'inducing panic' among Republicans — including Trump — over possible PA Senate run: report

20 April 2023

In the 2022 midterms, Republicans suffered a major humiliation in Pennsylvania when Democratic now-Gov. Josh Shapiro defeated the far-right GOP nominee, State Sen. Doug Mastriano, by around 15 percent. Shapiro ran a series of blistering attack ads that painted the QAnon-friendly Mastriano as a theocratic Christian nationalist, conspiracy theorist and election denialist who opposed abortion even in cases of rape or incest — and he didn't exaggerate.

In the consummate swing state, Shapiro won by a landslide. Never Trump conservatives hoped that Mastriano would never run another statewide race again in Pennsylvania, but he appears to be seriously considering a U.S. Senate run in 2024. And according to Politico reporters Holly Otterbein and Meridith McGraw, some GOP strategists fear that if Mastriano runs, three-term incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, Jr. would crush him in the general election.

But fears about Mastriano running for the U.S. Senate aren't limited to Never Trumpers and non-MAGA Republicans — even former President Donald Trump himself, Otterbein and McGraw report in an article published on April 20, is worried.

"MAGA firebrand Doug Mastriano is inducing panic among GOP officials as he inches closer toward a 2024 bid for the Senate after a disastrous showing in his Pennsylvania governor run in 2022," the Politico journalists explain. "Among the concerned is none other than Donald Trump. The former president has privately told Republicans he fears that Mastriano, a far-right state lawmaker in a critical battleground, would hurt him in a general election if they were on the top of the ticket together next year, according to three people familiar with the conversations."

Casey, the centrist son of the late Pennsylvania Gov. Bob Casey, Sr., has a major track record in Pennsylvania politics. In 2006, he famously unseated former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pennsylvania) before winning reelection in 2012 and 2018 (when he defeated GOP nominee Lou Barletta by 13 percent).

Over the years, the liberal/progressive wing of the Democratic Party has had its reservations about the younger Casey — a Catholic who has been open about his anti-abortion views but nonetheless has a reputation for being pro-choice. And his pro-choice views have drawn criticism from anti-choice Republicans, including Mastriano.

Mastriano's "tease of a comeback," according to Otterbein and McGraw, has "sparked panic within GOP circles that he would cost the party any conceivable chance they had of unseating Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) in 2024." And GOP sources told Politico that Trump, who carried Pennsylvania in 2016 but lost it in 2020, plans to distance himself from Mastriano in 2024 if he runs for the Senate.

A Republican donor, interviewed on condition of anonymity, told Politico, "Trump's not dumb. He knows Mastriano will hurt him in Pennsylvania."

And a Trump adviser, also quoted anonymously, told Politico, "He regrets endorsing him in (2022). He says, 'Doug blew it.'"

Pennsylvania-based Republican consultant Josh Novotney was equally critical of Mastriano when interviewed by Politico, saying, "Republicans are scared to death of Mastriano being on the ballot again. He tanked the entire ticket last year."

Read Politico's full report at this link.

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