One month into the general election, Doug Mastriano has made perfectly clear that he is “absolutely of the fringe” and “has little interest in moderating.”
PENNSYLVANIA — It’s almost a month into the general election and Doug Mastriano is all-in on his dangerous agenda — and he’s now doubling down on his extremism. While Mastriano spent the month appearing on right-wing shows, he’s refused to respond to mainstream media, even ducking into his office to avoid an NBC10 reporter’s questions in Harrisburg. Mastriano’s extremism is clearly showing through, a point Marc Levy from the Associated Press emphasized, simply saying, he “has little interest in moderating his gubernatorial campaign.”
The decision to bring on Ellis indicates Mastriano, who was endorsed by Trump, has little interest in moderating his gubernatorial campaign ahead of the general election in Pennsylvania. If Mastriano were to win in the fall, he would shape how elections are conducted in the pivotal battleground state — where the governor appoints the secretary of state, who oversees how elections are run. Mastriano has pledged to take the extraordinary step of requiring people to “re-register” to vote — a move that flatly violates federal law, constitutional law scholars say — and decertifying certain voting machines.
Just this week, Mastriano appointed a leading election conspiracy theorist as his “senior legal adviser” and made a new Nazi anology about the January 6th attack on right-wing show, The World According to Ben Stein. A recent column in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette noted Mastriano’s focus on an agenda that is “wildly out of touch with the things voters are concerned about:”
But the things Mr. Mastriano is serious about — like re-litigating the 2020 election — are wildly out of touch with the things voters are concerned about, like education, inflation, taxes, roads and bridges and economic opportunity. People rarely vote for the past; they are always living and looking in the moment and towards the future.
While Mastriano doubles down on his extremism, even Republicans have called him “absolutely of the fringe” and a “cult guy,” who is a “complete catastrophe.” Republicans have even said publicly that Mastriano is “out of step with where Pennsylvania Republican voters traditionally have been.”
Meanwhile, Pennsylvanians of all political stripes are uniting around Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s positive vision to get results on the issues that matter most to Pennsylvanians like protecting rights, lowering costs, improving education, and keeping our communities safe.
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