HARRISBURG (TNS) — Melissa Hart, the only woman in Pennsylvania’s Republican gubernatorial primary race, announced Friday she has decided to bow out of the contest and throw her support to Lou Barletta.
Her decision comes on the heels of Jake Corman’s exit from the race on Thursday. He too is endorsing Barletta to be the party’s nominee for the open governor’s seat.
Hart, an Allegheny County lawyer and former congresswoman, said it was a difficult decision but it came down to giving her party the best chance of beating unopposed Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro in the fall.
She believes at this point, Barletta, a former Hazelton mayor and U.S. congressman, is the candidate who can do that.
“He’s done right by the people,” Hart said. “He’s a guy who like me is a conservative, who wins in Democratic registered areas, and Pennsylvania is still a Democratic state. So a person who shares my values, who I know can win in November is important to me.”
As recent polls began to show far-right conservative Doug Mastriano emerging as the frontrunner in what until this week was a nine-person field, Republican Party insiders began to urge the other eight in the race to coalesce around one candidate who they felt is more electable in November than Mastriano.
However, that request received a cool reception from Dave White, a millionaire Delaware County businessman, and Bill McSwain, a former federal prosecutor. Neither indicated a willingness to bow out.
A check on Friday with other candidates in the GOP race — Nche Zama, a retired heart and lung surgeon, and Charlie Gerow, a political strategist and Harrisburg businessman — found that they plan to remain in the race. Joe Gale, a Montgomery County commissioner, did not respond to a request for comment. None of those three have risen above single digits in the polls.
Barletta, who was in Harrisburg with Hart on Friday, said he was honored to have her support.
“I know how hard she’s fought for the people of Pennsylvania,” he said. “We believe that together we can unite the Republican Party and give us the best chance to beat Josh Shapiro in November.”
Mastriano could not be reached for comment on Friday.
While some may say Hart’s departure from the race just three days before the polls open and after tens of thousands of mailed ballots have already been returned to county election offices is too late to make a difference for Barletta, Hart disagrees even though her name, like Corman’s, will still appear on the ballot.
“As people start to look at this race and they see that those of us who’ve been running and a number of us have decided to support one of the candidates, that means he’s a guy we’ve seen and know, and that we believe in him. So yes, I do believe that is helpful,” Hart said.
State Attorney General Josh Shapiro is unopposed in the Democratic primary for governor.
TRUMP: BARNETTE CAN’T WIN IN NOVEMBER
Former President Donald Trump jumped back into Pennsylvania’s Republican Senate primary, warning that surging underdog Kathy Barnette “will never be able to win the General Election against the Radical Left Democrats.”
However, in the same statement, Trump, who has endorsed Mehmet Oz for Senate, said Barnette could have “a wonderful future” in the GOP and that he would back her if she’s properly vetted, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
”She has many things in her past which have not been properly explained or vetted, but if she is able to do so, she will have a wonderful future in the Republican Party — and I will be behind her all the way,” he said.
Trump concluded with another nod to Oz.
His statement comes as Barnette has rocketed into contention with Oz and David McCormick, seemingly gaining momentum in the campaign’s final days, with her rivals scrambling to do even basic research to to try to stop her.
”Dr. Oz is the only one who will be able to easily defeat the Crazed, Lunatic Democrat in Pennsylvania. A vote for anyone else in the Primary is a vote against Victory in the Fall!” Trump wrote.
