PHILADELPHIA — State Sen. Doug Mastriano told a crowd in North Philadelphia on Friday, that Latinos were the future of the Republican Party and encouraged them to support his campaign for governor, which he said was all about “Dios, patria, familia.”
“Now it’s up to the Republican Party to get off of our seat and get out into the community,” he said. ”We are at a crossroads between tyranny and freedom.”
The event, dubbed Philadelphia’s 1st Hispanic Town Hall, was sponsored by the Small Business Union, whose founder Fernando Suarez, said he and other business leaders were concerned about crime, the economy and frustrated with decades of Democratic leadership in Philadelphia, leading to their support for Mastriano.
About 75 people attended, with seats for at least double that. The appearance prompted about 30 people, including surrogates for Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s gubernatorial campaign, to protest Mastriano’s visit outside the venue, the Deja Vu Social Club on Erie Avenue. The Philadelphia appearance follows a slew of bad news for his campaign in recent days, as strategists and GOP operatives have started questioning his chances, given a widening gap in the polls and little money. And as his floundering campaign has become the butt of late-night TV jokes.
“We’re out here today because Doug Mastriano has picked our community to push his extremist, extremist conservative views on education, on housing, on women’s reproductive health,” said Sage Cruz, co-executive director of Philadelphia’s One Pennsylvania chapter.
Republican city committee members who attended the event included former City Councilmember Al Taubenberger and at-large GOP candidate Drew Murray. Suarez had said about 15 clergy members would attend. It seemed as if far fewer did.
During the town hall, Mastriano was interviewed by Lourdes Ubieta, a Latino conservative media personality, who read submitted questions, which overwhelmingly focused on crime, drugs, and their impact on small businesses. Gun violence in the city has continued at near-record levels this year, with 401 people killed in homicides in 2022.
“Lawlessness is killing Philadelphia,” Mastriano said. “Philadelphia is where this nation was birthed in 1776. It should be a hallowed place. It should be a place where people come to enjoy the heart and soul of the nation. But now it’s a place of danger. And your kids are condemned to these dangerous areas. You’re not sure your babies are coming home safe because of the lawlessness out there.”
He said that he and his wife, Rebbie, who appeared with him at the event, had walked around Kensington earlier on Friday and called the open-air drug market there “heartbreaking.” (Mehmet Oz, the GOP nominee for Senate, toured Kensington earlier this month as Republicans running in Pennsylvania and elsewhere have blamed Democrats for rising crime.)
Shapiro on Friday met with community leaders at the Pennsylvania Latino Convention in Allentown. His campaign has taken to calling Mastriano’s “the no comment express,” and said the visit comes as “his flailing campaign is under fire for his toxic extremism and dangerous agenda.
The attendees were a mix of fervent Mastriano supporters, curious members of the community and some who said they were there to network or because their organizations have worked with the Small Business Union.
Mastriano’s outreach to Latino voters isn’t all that surprising. The Republican Party has continued to make inroads with Latino voters, a trend accelerated by former President Donald Trump. And Latinos in the state have frequently lamented a lack of political engagement in their communities from Democrats running for office.
Democratic Latino leaders expressed outrage ahead of his visit, pointing to Mastriano’s anti-immigration stances as out of touch with a community that includes many undocumented immigrants.
Mastriano cosponsored legislation in Harrisburg that would put a fee on undocumented immigrants’ money transfers to their homelands. He says on his campaign website that he would ban the use of public benefits for illegal immigrants and sign legislation that strengthens and expands the ‘E-Verify’ law, to ensure employers cannot hire illegal immigrants.
At the event, Mastriano called Pennsylvania “a border state,” and pledged to make it the “Florida of the North,” to some of the loudest applause of the day.
In a “tele-rally” with Trump on Tuesday Mastriano pledged to send undocumented people coming to Pennsylvania to Delaware. ”We have no place for illegal so when Joe Biden sends those planes of illegals up to our state and, as a pile on the buses, our law enforcement will escort those buses down to Joe Biden’s house in Delaware,” he said. “He can have them since he’s the one that brought them in the first place.”
Jorge Garcia, who lives in Northeast Philadelphia and is originally from Colombia, said he supports Mastriano’s antiabortion stance and likes that he is up front about his ultraconservative positions.
“I think we’re living in a world that we have to define clearly, our purpose, our objectives, and our intentions,” Garcia said. “So I like that. In the interviews, you can see that he is an authentic man, authentic human being. I like it. I like him.”
Several other attendees said they appreciated Mastriano’s antiabortion stance. Chino Aponte, who runs Small Philly Business, a local business news website, said he doesn’t see Mastriano’s abortion position as extreme because of his faith. “What does the Bible say about killing people?” he asked.
Mastriano has said he believes in banning the procedure, without exception, and once said women who illegally receive abortions should be charged with murder.
Outside, Arletha Pickens of North Philadelphia called Mastriano the exact opposite of what she as a voter wants.
“He’s extreme about taking over women’s bodies and we don’t have a choice in the matter,” she said.
Before the hour-long Q&A with Mastriano had finished, the audience had thinned. Mastriano posed for photos and then left without taking questions from reporters.
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(Philadelphia Inquirer Staff writer Chris Brennan contributed to this article.)
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