State Sen. Doug Mastriano aired his grievances about Republicans endorsing Treasurer Stacy Garrity for governor at their state committee meeting this weekend.
What do former Vice President Kamala Harris and Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity have in common?
It may not be much, but if you’re State Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Franklin), then they might as well be political twins.. Upon learning that leaders from the Pennsylvania GOP have endorsed Garrity before the primary election, he voiced his opinion about it being no different from the Democrats during the 2024 presidential election.
“We criticize the Democrats for what they did with Harris, elevating her without a fair and honest primary, but are we any different in Pennsylvania?” Mastriano asked while appearing on the John Fredericks Show earlier this month.
“ I don’t know what kind of stupid strategies are going on here when you have a guy polling at about 40%, [Stacy Garrity] at 18%, Dan Meuser at 6%, it’s a no-brainer.”
Mastriano, who lost to Gov. Josh Shapiro by 15% in 2022 and most likely cost his party a US Senate seat and control of the Pennsylvania House, is upset that the Pennsylvania Republican Party is endorsing Garrity at its state committee meeting this weekend.
The party is trying to prevent a repeat of the 2022 cycle when they were unable to unify behind a candidate.
According to Mastriano, this early endorsement is a “recipe for defeat.”
“By endorsing before the petition drive in January and February, you’re going to alienate the base, and there’s going to be no way that whatever candidate is left standing is gonna win the general election when you piss off the people by doing a coronation 14 months before the general election,” Mastriano proclaimed.
Mastriano quickly gained notoriety as a conspiracy theorist and extremist after getting elected to the Pennsylvania Senate via special election in 2019.
In 2020, Mastriano played a big role in spreading disinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 presidential election results, and he was present for the attack on the US Capitol in Washington DC on Jan. 6, 2021.
More recently, he’s introduced legislation banning “cloud seeding” and other weather modification practices caused by chemtrails, which is wholly unfounded.
However Mastriano is still undecided as to whether he will actually take another run at the governor’s mansion.
“[Republicans] are going to lose again to Shapiro who’s going to be positioned to be their candidate for president in two years.” Mastriano said.
