Mastriano wins GOP governor race in Pa.
HARRISBURG, PA. » Doug Mastriano, a state senator who secured a late endorsement from Donald Trump and has trumpeted the former president’s lies about nonexistent, widespread voter fraud costing him the 2020 election, won the Republican nomination for Pennsylvania’s open governor’s office on Tuesday.
Mastriano’s victory boosts Trump’s winning record in major Republican primaries around the country. But it also raises questions about whether Mastriano, who was outside the U.S. Capitol in January 2021 when a mob overran it in a deadly insurrection, can attract enough moderate swing voters to prevail in November’s general election.
Trump scored an easier victory early in the night when U.S. Rep. Ted Budd clinched the GOP nomination for Senate in North Carolina. Trump’s surprise endorsement last year lifted Budd, a little-known congressman, over better-known rivals, including a former governor. He quickly pivoted to a general election message focused on breaking Democratic control of Washington.
“Under Joe Biden, America is woke and broke,” he said at a victory rally. “We need to put the brakes on this agenda for the sake of hardworking North Carolinians.”
Budd will face Democratic former state Supreme Court Justice Cheri Beasley, who is aiming to become North Carolina’s first Black senator. She told supporters “this is our moment.”
“We have the power to restore our values to our government in Washington,” she said. “In this moment, we have the power to protect our rights.”
Mastriano, a retired Army colonel, will face Democratic state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who was unopposed in his primary.
“They like to call people who stand on the Constitution far and extreme. I repudiate that. That is crap. That is absolutely not true,” Mastrano said. “Actually, their party ... they’ve gone extreme.”
In another of the night’s closely watched races, John Fetterman, days after a stroke sent him to the hospital, easily won Pennsylvania’s Democratic Senate primary — notching a major victory for his party’s left flank.
Fetterman’s opponent in the fall wasn’t yet clear as Pennsylvania’s GOP Senate contest was too early to call. Celebrity heart surgeon Mehmet Oz, former hedge fund CEO David Mccormick and commentator Kathy Barnette were all vying for the party’s nomination. Oz is the preferred candidate of Trump, who has sought to wield the power of his endorsement to lift his loyalists and reshape the GOP.
Tuesday marked the busiest night of the nascent primary season, with contests also being waged in Kentucky, Oregon and Idaho. Both parties are choosing candidates to enter the fall general election, when control of Congress, governor’s mansions and key elections posts are up for grabs.
Still, much of the attention was focused on Pennsylvania, a perennial political battleground that could decide control of the Senate.
The 52-year-old Fetterman is known for his hulking, 6-foot, 8inch stature frame, and tattoos that helped him build a political persona as an outsider. That, combined with his support of top progressive causes such as universal, government-funded health care, helped him easily dispatch Democratic rival U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb, a moderate in the mold of President Joe Biden.
“Fetterman’s victory shows that voters are fed up and want fighters. This should be a wake up call to the entire Democratic Party establishment to fight harder against the fascists and those who obstruct a popular agenda,” Stephanie Taylor, cofounder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said in a statement.
Fetterman, who is Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, could enter the general election campaign facing questions about his health. Following his stroke, he cast an emergency ballot from the hospital and tweeted Tuesday that he’d undergone surgery to install a pacemaker.
Meanwhile, in North Carolina, first-term U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn conceded his Republican primary race Tuesday to state Sen. Chuck Edwards, ousting the pro-trump firebrand from Congress after his personal and political blunders translated into constituent unhappiness. The AP late Tuesday had not called the race; Edwards was leading Cawthorn and six other Republican candidates with nearly all the votes counted.