PENNSYLVANIA, USA — Far-right candidate Doug Mastriano has won the Republican nomination for governor in Pennsylvania's primary election. He will face off against Democratic nominee Attorney General Josh Shapiro in the November general election.
Mastriano was outside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection and has worked to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
“There is no one in Pennsylvania who has done more, or fought harder, for election integrity than State Senator Doug Mastriano,” former President Trump wrote on May 14. “He has revealed the deceit, corruption, and outright theft of the 2020 Presidential Election, and will do something about it.”
Mastriano has helped spread Trump’s lies that widespread fraud marred the last White House race and resulted in his loss in Pennsylvania.
Mastriano has also said he would take the extraordinary step of requiring voters to “re-register” to vote.
Such a move is barred by the National Voter Registration Act and likely runs into significant protections under the federal — and possibly state — constitution and laws, constitutional law scholars say. Mastriano's embrace of such a concept is a significant breach of democratic norms respecting the results of a free and fair election.
A former colonel who served in the U.S. Army from 1988 to 2017, Mastriano has represented District 33 in the Pennsylvania Senate since 2019, when he defeated Democrat Sarah Hammond in a special election to fill the vacancy left by Richard Alloway's resignation.
Mastriano was re-elected to his position in 2020, defeating Democrat Richard Sterner.
District 33 covers all of Adams County and portions of Franklin, Cumberland, and York counties.