PHILADELPHIA — State Sen. Doug Mastriano says he won’t run for U.S. Senate.
Mastriano, R.-Franklin, a far-right state senator who lost his 2022 gubernatorial bid by 15 points and 800,000 votes to Democrat Josh Shapiro, told The Philadelphia Inquirer last week he’d announce “crazy good news” about whether he would enter the primary race for U.S. Senate.
“We have decided not to run for the U.S. Senate, but to continue to serve in Harrisburg,” Mastriano said during a Facebook Live video with his wife, Rebbie.
Republicans in Pennsylvania and nationwide — including former President Donald Trump — had expressed fear that Mastriano could be a drag on the GOP ticket in 2024, Politico reported last month.
“That wasn’t a close race. He was beat pretty badly,” Samuel Chen, a Republican consultant who has worked on statewide campaigns in Pennsylvania, said of Mastriano’s loss to Shapiro. “The odds do not look good that he could win in 2024.”
On TikTok, Mastriano appeared to try to buck these concerns by listing former President Abraham Lincoln’s failures throughout his political career until his election as president in 1860.
Mastriano was first elected to the state Senate in a 2019 special election, following a 30-year career in the U.S. Army during which he rose to the rank of colonel. He first gained popularity outside his state Senate district at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, when former Gov. Tom Wolf ordered many businesses to shut down. He then started a grassroots movement in the state to push back against government overreach and have Pennsylvanians “walk as free people.”
He rose to a larger profile during the 2020 presidential election as one of the main election deniers fighting to overturn Pennsylvania’s vote. He was in contact with Trump and his allies, and pressured his GOP colleagues in Harrisburg to reject the state’s election results and send a separate slate of electors to Congress. He was at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but says he left the grounds once the attack became violent.
Mastriano launched his bid for governor in early 2022 and ran in a crowded field of Republicans. The Pennsylvania GOP declined to endorse in the race, which members regretted once a Mastriano primary win looked inevitable. Just before the election, Republican insiders tried to get Mastriano’s rivals to drop out and rally around former U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta.
Throughout his gubernatorial campaign, Mastriano refused to talk to reporters, except those from right-wing news outlets. He has introduced legislation to ban abortion at about six weeks gestation, and campaigned during the primary on abortion being his “No. 1 issue.” He also campaigned with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and vowed to make Pennsylvania the “Florida of the North.”
Mastriano has built his grassroots following using social media — particularly Facebook Live. However, he deleted some of his most controversial — and sometimes conspiratorial — views from his campaign pages after winning the Republican nomination for governor.
The race ahead
Unlike last year’s open Senate race, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D.-Pa., is running for reelection in 2024. At least one other Republican, financier Dave McCormick, who lost the GOP nomination to Mehmet Oz by less than 1,000 votes, could enter the race.
Mastriano’s base has quickly rallied around his potential U.S. Senate run. A Facebook group with 18,000 members that originally asked Mastriano to run for governor changed its name earlier this week to “Senator Mastriano, We The People Ask You to Run for U.S. Senator!”
However, even some of his closest supporters said they’re unsure whether he should run for U.S. Senate, saying they believe they still need him in Harrisburg, but will support his decision.
Still, Mastriano told The Inquirer he’s a “once-in-a-lifetime candidate for this.”
Mastriano said he’s spent time with McCormick and his wife, former Trump adviser Dina Powell. He likes McCormick’s military experience and Powell’s life story.
“I like his background, but for us, and I hate to say it this way, but no one else is gonna beat my drum. It’s going to have to be myself,” Mastriano added.
“If we do run for U.S. Senate, it’s ours to lose in the primary,” Mastriano said in an Inquirer interview at an event in Lebanon County last week. “I don’t think we can be stopped,” noting his grassroots support around the state.
