Mastriano concedes defeat to Shapiro in governor race

State Sen. Doug Mastriano has formally conceded his defeat to Attorney General Josh Shapiro in the Pennsylvania governor’s race.

“Difficult to accept as the results are, there is no right course but to concede, which I do, and I look to the challenges ahead,” Mastriano wrote in a statement released Sunday evening. “Josh Shapiro will be our next Governor, and I ask everyone to give him the opportunity to lead and pray that he leads well.”

The tone of the concession statement brought a conventional end to a campaign that was marked by the unconventional from the start, and was often marked by a steady diet of barbed taunts from Mastriano about everything from Shapiro’s height to upbringing as the son of an accomplished physician.

Shapiro, in his turn, had lashed out at Mastriano as representing the kind of election-denying extremist whose election would pose an existential threat to democracy.

Shapiro’s campaign overwhelmed Mastriano’s underfunded and strategically flawed effort, resulting in a landslide 56.1% to 42.1% margin that is the largest in an open-seat gubernatorial election in the state since 1946.

Mastriano, a retired Army colonel who rose to prominence as an opponent of coronavirus mitigation orders and then grabbed headlines as a state-level leader in former President Donald Trump’s push to contest the 2020 presidential election, said Sunday he is accepting the results.

But Mastriano also continued to argue that more reforms are needed to election administration in Pennsylvania, and pledged to try to be a part of that solution.

“In my role as a State Senator, I will do my very best to help Josh Shapiro deliver that to Pennsylvanians and, if he does, I will be the first to acknowledge and applaud his achievement,” he said.