Evaluate the candidates on his or her own merits
I’ve only met Kathy Barnette once in person, at a debate I helped moderate in Radnor last month. She was tiny in only one respect: Her petite physical stature. Everything else about the GOP Senate candidate is large, from her personality, to her mannerisms, to her full-throated delivery, to her backstory. Regardless of anything else you might say about her, this woman is a force of nature.
I was particularly drawn to her position on abortion. Barnette, the product of a rape, is unabashedly, unapologetically prolife. And the ferocity with which she defends life, especially in this climate and given her own origin story, is impressive to someone like me. This was how she responded to my question on abortion at the debate: “Based on my experience, I truly believe that life begins at conception, and I will make sure to fight for that when I’m in the Senate.” She’s not afraid to say she doesn’t support an exception for any reason. Whatever you think, that takes courage in this climate.
On the other hand, she’s pretty much a “close the border” type when it comes to immigration. Given my own experience over the past two and a half decades dealing with asylum seekers, we are worlds apart on this issue. But she reflects a majority of GOP voters when she notes that “We are not a sovereign nation if we do not have control of our borders.”
Barnette is a fairly accurate representation of a significant demographic
in Pennsylvania: Pro 2A rights, pro-life, and antiimmigration (I think most would say they are anti “illegal immigration” but my years in this field have taught me that this is just a matter of semantics when you don’t have a workable “legal” way to immigrate).
And because of that, she’s always been a viable and attractive candidate, even though until quite recently, only the conservative media have paid much attention (that and PCN which is the non-partisan local equivalent of CSPAN).
But as the civil war is erupting in the GOP on the eve of the primary, Barnette is getting a lot more attention, and it’s rocketed her into the heady frontrunner ranks. She now polls neck and neck with the two candidates who’ve been sucking all of the air
out of the room (and taking punches at each other), millionaires Dave McCormick and Mehmet Oz.
I’m not a political insider and I have very little experience with competitive campaigns, but I don’t think it takes a James Carville to see what’s going on. The GOP is nervous that it won’t be able to beat Democrat John Fetterman, the guy who held a young Black man at gunpoint, supports the legalization of drugs and thinks abortion should be legal until the head appears.
I’m particularly disgusted with the attacks on Barnette’s military service. She’s a veteran, and served honorably in the Army Reserves for many years. There’s some confusion about her active duty, and that confusion was initially fed by Barnette’s opaque answers to some of the
questions about those military forms that confirm where you served, when you served and how long you served. Salena Zito, a native of Pittsburgh and the woman once called the “Trump Whisperer” has written about her own inability to get answers out of Barnette for a profile. All of that was cleared up in a radio interview with my friend Chris Stigall, as well as a recent National Review column by Jim Geraghty. Barnette is a legitimate veteran.
But that’s hardly the worst of it. Newsmax anchor Greg Kelley tweeted out a misleading video which makes it seem as if Barnette supports Black Lives Matter, which is laughable if you’ve actually heard her speak about the Second Amendment, and critical race theory. In fact, this is what she’s publicly said on the issue of telling minority children that they should feel like victims: “No one ever told me I was a victim. No one ever said ‘Kathy, because you’re Black, because you’re a woman, because you’re poor — all the odds are against you.’ Fox News host Sean Hannity has also gone on the offensive, ever since Trump endorsed Dr. Oz.
Most recently, there were the tweets about Muslims and the LGBTQ community, which at the very least show a lack of respect and judgment. As someone who has worked with and has a profound respect for her Muslim clients, they troubled me, and should absolutely be considered when assessing Barnette’s fitness for office. However, the claims of “racism” are ridiculous since there is no indication that Barnette has ever attacked anyone because of their race, and the claims of bigotry are the usual 11th hour sniper attack that reflect more poorly on the GOP’s ability to vet candidates than it does upon the candidate herself.
The people who are attacking Barnette seem to fall into one of two categories: Those who are acting as Trump proxies, and those who think she can’t beat the Democrat. Trump endorsed Oz, which is his right. But Oz, while a wellknown name, is not a slam dunk victor against either Fetterman or his primary opponents. And even if he were, Donald Trump should not be able to pick the next Senator of Pennsylvania.
As far as picking the “candidate most likely to win,” I’ve always believed that the vote is a right, not a chess piece we move strategically around the game board. My vote is my voice, even if you don’t like it’s sound. My clients from countries where you cannot even cast a vote would agree.
Dick Morris, the legendary wizard of politics who has morphed from Clinton-Whisperer to Newsmax host, just wrote a column entitled, “We Need Oz, Not Barnette for Senate.” I’m not sure who the “we” is, because I don’t know if Morris is a Pennsylvanian. I thought he lived in Connecticut. But even if he actually is part of “we,” his perspective is a bit skewed. Morris notes that “there are even reports that the Democrats are helping her campaign. The liberal Pennsylvania media are pumping her up, knowing she would be the easiest for them to beat in the general election.”
I’ve scoured the internet, and haven’t found any fawning profiles of Barnette in, say, the New York Times. Quite the contrary.
But all of that is irrelevant. The point is this: Each candidate should be evaluated on his or her own merits, not based on whether some famous person endorsed them, or whether they haven’t made themselves available to some conservative journalists, or whether they aren’t establishmolumnent enough, or whether someone dug up some old, bigoted tweets.
I’m not telling you to vote for Barnette. I’m telling you to acknowledge what’s being done to her. Because if it can be done to her, it can be done to your candidate, too.