PITTSBURGH (TNS) — Allies of Republican gubernatorial contender Doug Mastriano say they’d gladly welcome U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney to town to campaign against their candidate, insisting that she’s not in touch with the GOP’s base anyway.
Indicative of the fervent distrust that Mastriano’s base has with establishment types, Cheney’s comments this past weekend — that “we have to make sure Mastriano doesn’t win” the Pennsylvania governor’s race — were quickly dismissed by the state senator’s loyal backers.
Consider it the latest front in the battle between Republicans who support former President Donald Trump’s claims of a fraudulent 2020 election and Republicans who push back against that narrative. The latter, including Cheney, hope to usher in a new era of GOP politics that dismisses election denialism and the “Make America Great Again” types.
It’s a theme that could be crucial in the 2024 presidential race, but for now, this November, Pennsylvania could be one of the first tests as Mastriano faces Democrat Josh Shapiro, the sitting attorney general.
In an interview with The Texas Tribune on Saturday, Cheney, the Wyoming Republican who bucked her party’s leadership to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, expressed her opposition to Mastriano and other candidates who have adamantly denied the results of the 2020 election.
”We have to have leaders who understand that this isn’t a game,” Cheney said. “That means you have to elect the right people in Pennsylvania and you’ve also got to elect the right people at the national level — and to federal office representing Pennsylvania.”
Supporters of Trump — who’s been a focal point of the House Jan. 6 committee’s investigation — have repeatedly labeled Cheney an out-of-touch RINO (Republican-In-Name-Only) who is trying to leverage her newfound adoration by anti-Trumpers into a 2024 presidential run.
Val Finnell, Pennsylvania director for Gun Owners of America and a Mastriano backer, told the Post-Gazette Monday that Cheney is a sore loser, not a true Republican. He noted that Cheney encouraged Democrats in Wyoming to switch parties and vote for her in the GOP primary earlier this year, which she eventually lost to Trump-backed lawyer Harriet Hageman.
”Things didn’t go her way, so Liz has turned into the political ‘mean girl’ of 2022 and is attacking other Republican candidates endorsed by Trump like Doug Mastriano,” Finnell hypothesized.
Cheney has framed herself as a true Republican who stands up for the party’s core values, for democracy and for the U.S. Constitution, and said the reason she was ostracized by the GOP caucus was because she spoke openly that “any president who crosses the lines that Donald Trump crossed can never be anywhere near the Oval Office again.”
She was a main sponsor on a bill that recently passed the House — with the support of all House Democrats and eight other Republicans — that would make it harder for political actors to object to the presidential certification process. It also would make it so a state secretary of state or governor couldn’t simply refuse to send a certified slate of electors to Congress because they don’t like the outcome, she told The Texas Tribune.
Cheney has floated the idea of running for president in 2024, saying that if Trump pursues the GOP’s nomination, her priority would be “doing whatever it takes to keep [him] out of the Oval Office.”
Finnell said Cheney’s presence on the campaign trail would help Mastriano — she was born into the establishment and does not resonate with the grassroots of the Republican Party, he said.
Mastriano shared a post on his Facebook page Monday, from Finnell’s group, encouraging Cheney to switch her party registration to Democrat.
”We decided to give you a head start if you want to come to Pennsylvania to campaign against Doug Mastriano,” the post read, linking an image of a new Wyoming voter registration form.
Mastriano, who was involved in Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and was at the U.S. Capitol during the insurrection, has sparred with the Jan. 6 committee and Cheney in particular. He sued the committee recently, saying they don’t have the legal ability to force him to answer questions about Jan. 6.
On his website, Mastriano lists electoral reform as one of his main priorities. He will partner with the state Legislature to “eliminate ‘no excuse’ mail-in voting, get rid of drop boxes and pass universal voter ID,” his platform reads.
Key to 2024, though, is his insistence on appointing a secretary of state — in charge of elections in Pennsylvania — “who will secure our elections from fraud,” his site reads.
In a recent interview posted to his Facebook, he said as governor, he gets to “appoint the Secretary of State and then, of course, I have direct control over the elections and how they’re executed.” A first priority, he said, would be to work with the Legislature to implement voter ID provisions.
Shapiro’s team has warned that a Mastriano-chosen elections administrator would roll back voting rights, cast doubt on the outcome or simply ignore the results in 2024.
