Doug Mastriano, PA State Senator who secured former President Trump’s endorsement late in the race, is projected to win the state’s GOP gubernatorial primary. Mastriano — who has made election integrity the main focus of his campaign — is projected to secure a strong percentage of the vote in a crowded field. He will now face current PA Attorney General Josh Shapiro in November, who ran unopposed.
Mastriano is projected to emerge victorious among a crowded field that included former U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, former U.S. Attorney Bill McSwain and former Delaware County Commissioner Dave White. Barletta, who was one of the first members of Congress to endorse Donald Trump in 2016, is projected to finish second.
Decision Desk HQ projects Doug Mastriano (@SenMastriano) is the winner of the Republican nomination for Governor in Pennsylvania.
Race call: 9:37pm EDT
More results here: https://t.co/4prVQOLzzB
— Decision Desk HQ (@DecisionDeskHQ) May 18, 2022
Mastriano, who served as a Colonel in the U.S. Army prior to starting his political career, has built his campaign around election integrity. He has held several rallies in support of a full forensic audit of the state’s 2020 election and called for numerous election security measures, including mandatory voter I.D.
On November 25, 2020, Mastriano was instrumental in organizing a hearing where numerous Pennsylvania election irregularities were laid out. The committee heard from poll watchers from both Delaware and Philadelphia counties, statistics experts and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani. “I don’t even know how this happened in America,” Mastriano said after hearing from the witnesses. “We can send, 50 years ago men to the moon, but we can’t have a safe, secure election in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania? What’s going on here…… We move heaven and earth to secure elections in Iraq and Afghanistan, but we can’t secure elections in Pennsylvania?”
Former President Trump ultimately went with Mastriano and his commitment to election integrity over Barletta, much to the dismay of establishment figures in the state. Trump’s choice in the GOP senate primary, Dr. Mehmet Oz, is awaiting results in a tightly contested race against Kathy Barnette and David McCormick.
As for Mastriano, he is set to take on PA Attorney General Josh Shapiro in the fall. Shapiro, a noted Russian collusion conspiracy theorist, ran unopposed.