PENNSYLVANIA — The “Super MAGA” Republican primary for Governor is already packed with far-right candidates, but today, Jake Corman decided to join them, becoming the 10th announced candidate in the race. The Pennsylvania Senate President Pro Tempore has spent 23 years in the state legislature and has served over a decade within Pennsylvania Senate GOP leadership, but he has now undergone a politically convenient “MAGA makeover.”
In August, he kneecapped his potential gubernatorial rival — Doug Mastriano — reassigning his staff and taking over Harrisburg’s Republican fraudit, spending taxpayer money to prop up Donald Trump and MAGA supporters’ Big Lie. Since then, he has voted to issue subpoenas requesting nine million Pennsylvania voters’ private, personal information — a move cybersecurity experts have warned could lead to data leaks.
There are over a dozen GOP hopefuls either actively running or exploring a campaign, despite Corman’s unbelievable claim that he alone could clear the field — a claim he clearly couldn’t make due on.
“Jake Corman has sold out to the far-right of the Republican Party, and is desperately competing amongst a sea of MAGA hopefuls for Trump’s support,” said Pennsylvania Democratic Party spokesperson Marisa Nahem. “Corman vainly thought he could clear this messy field, but he’s getting quite the wakeup call joining a dozen other candidates. While the rest of the field has spent months embracing election conspiracies and MAGA litmus tests, Corman was maneuvering behind the scenes to take over the sham fraudit in Harrisburg. Pennsylvanians don’t want Corman to have their private, personal information — and they don’t want him anywhere near the Governor’s office either.”
Jake Corman hasn’t had a good few weeks ahead of his campaign’s launch. Check out recent coverage about GOP infighting and Corman’s embrace of Donald Trump and the far-right:
By Stephen Caruso and Marley Parish, 11/05/21
The highest-ranking Senate Republican will be jumping into the already crowded field to become Pennsylvania’s next chief executive.
[…]But as rumors swirled, and a link to his kick-off event began circulating, this week, Corman’s newfound opponent within the caucus, controversial conservative Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Franklin, announced an exploratory committee for governor in an email on Friday morning.
The two have openly feuded since August over how to conduct a legislative review of the 2020 general and 2021 primary elections.
Mastriano announced he’d conduct one in July, but Corman ousted Mastriano from a key committee chairmanship in August after Mastriano went on Facebook Live and told more than a 1,000 followers that the cause for a review was “weakened and diminished.”
Corman claimed Mastriano was only attempting to build his political brand with the probe; Mastriano claimed Corman slow-walked subpoenas to kick off the investigation.
Either way, the two now appear poised to bring their rivalry to a key 2022 statewide race, which is already stuffed with competitors, as Republicans attempt to find the right candidate to win back the governor’s mansion for the GOP.
First elected in 1998, Corman, 57, was picked to replace his father, Doyle Corman, to represent the 34th State Senate District that includes Penn State University and rural central Pennsylvania communities.
[…]Corman’s intentions have been clear for the last few weeks. He met with the Pennsylvania GOP congressional delegation last month to gauge support for his run, according to The Caucus.
But his entrance further complicates the Republican field for governor. The race is already double digits deep, including former GOP U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, Republican strategist and lobbyist Charlie Gerow, former federal prosecutor Bill McSwain, and at least two of Corman’s Senate Republican colleagues besides Mastriano.
On the Democratic side, just one candidate — Attorney General Josh Shapiro — has announced a gubernatorial run.
[…]However, despite the establishment credentials, Corman could face skepticism from Trump loyalists.
Weeks before the 2020 election, Corman released an op-ed with fellow Centre County Republican House Majority Leader Benninghoff, arguing the Legislature could not overturn the results of a presidential election, contrary to claims by Trump at the time.
He held firm in that conviction through the aftermath of now-President Joe Biden’s victory. However, the Senate Republican Caucus still waged expensive legal fights to challenge the Supreme Court’s election guidance. And in January, Corman signed a letter to Congress asking for Pennsylvania’s delegation to delay certification.
It’s unclear if that’s enough to satisfy Trump’s most loyal backers, and Mastriano has made clear in public remarks he views himself as the clear conservative choice in the race.
“I was compelled to run for office after retiring from the Army, because our state and nation were less prosperous, less free, less secure and less good than how we received it from our parent’s generation,” Mastriano said in his campaign announcement email Friday morning. “I could not stand aside as corrupt politicians stripped our country of all that is good and just.”
[…]After the 2020 election, he amplified baseless claims of voter fraud, passing off the wrong information about mail-in ballot totals and inviting Donald Trump’s campaign attorney Rudy Giuliani to a taxpayer-paid hearing on election fraud in Gettysburg last November.
Mastriano funded a bus trip to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 for the Trump rally that ended with rioters storming the complex in an attempt to derail result certification. Mastriano said he did not participate in violence or cross police lines, but subsequent footage shows him closer to the building than he stated — but not inside the Capitol complex.
As early as summer 2020, grassroots conservatives were pushing Mastriano to jump into the race on social media. Mastriano even fielded a question on a potential run from a QAnon- friendly podcaster in his Senate office.
Mastriano told the podcast that he had three conditions for a run: “God’s calling, the people … compel us to go forth, and we have the resources.”
[…]How closely Mastriano will hold himself to Trump is unclear. In May, he hinted he had Trump’s endorsement for governor in talk radio interviews, saying the former president promised to campaign for him. Sources close to Trump quickly shot down that claim.
Speaking to supporters at an event in Montgomery County this week, Mastriano — who was streaming live on Facebook — told attendees that an announcement, presumably the exploratory committee, about a gubernatorial run was coming “soon.” Though he cautioned that his run wasn’t official, he urged supporters to educate themselves on candidates before supporting them, blasting Corman in the process.
“It’s a big decision if you run for governor, and it’s going to be life-changing,” he said Wednesday night at the Rising Sun Inn. “We’re not afraid of the call, but if we do move forward, we need you to stand with us.”
He added: “The Republican establishment isn’t going to want me — they already don’t want me.”
In an emailed statement, Pennsylvania Democratic Party spokesperson Marisa Nahem pointed to Mastriano’s history, and claimed his announcement would “supercharge the race to the bottom” among GOP candidates competing to move right.
“His entry into the primary is the surest sign yet that Republicans are more interested in far-right litmus tests than addressing the challenges Pennsylvanians face every day,” Nahem said.
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