Trump’s guy in the Pennsylvania governor’s race is losing by 12 percent in a new poll from Echelon Insights that the pollster shared on Twitter.
GOP candidate Doug Mastriano, who is currently a state Senator, had only 38 percent of the support, while Democratic nominee and current state Attorney General Josh Shapiro nabbed 50 percent. In these numbers, the state’s ongoing Senate race was somewhat closer, with Democratic candidate and current Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman at 46 percent while Trump-backed Republican Mehmet Oz, aka Dr. Oz, had 43 percent. Whoever wins either race could be in a position to exert significant control over the direction of at least some of American democracy for the next four or six years. If the presidential election results are again systematically challenged, who could reasonably say that Oz, as Senator, wouldn’t be ready to ditch the facts and back the Trump or GOP line? At the state level, Mastriano could use his position as governor to help impose suppressive new rules around elections and potentially upend presidential election results, at least for a time.
Mastriano has already closely aligned himself with election-related conspiracy theories. After the 2020 presidential race concluded, he hosted a hearing in Pennsylvania where Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, and Trump himself (via speakerphone) spread lies about the election, and he also got directly in touch with then-top Justice Department official Richard Donoghue to push his false claims. Trump cited Mastriano to the then-head of the Justice Department, an ex-official told Congressional investigators. Doug also sponsored a controversial piece of legislation that would have allowed otherwise eligible Pennsylvanians to serve as an election observer anywhere in the state instead of only near where they live, as current rules demand. Mastriano’s plan could have allowed intrepid conspiracy theorists to engage in essentially targeted harassment of far-flung and potentially marginalized communities targeted by those pushing lies. The potential chaos was staggering. Tom Wolf, the outgoing Dem governor, vetoed the bill.
Mastriano’s issues extend from there. He was in D.C. January 6. He has also raised the prospect of charging women with murder if they have an abortion after fetal cardiac activity is detectable, which is usually around six weeks. Even in Texas, where authorities imposed a felony ban on abortion throughout the entirety of pregnancy punishable by up to life in prison and massive fines, it’s medical personnel — not those who are or may become pregnant — facing the potentially criminal consequences. “Okay, let’s go back to the basic question there,” Mastriano said back in 2019. “Is that a human being? Is that a little boy or girl? If it is, it deserves equal protection under the law.” He replied in the affirmative when subsequently asked if he was saying those obtaining abortions in these time periods during pregnancy should face murder charges.
