GREENCASTLE (TNS) — Doug Mastriano was back on the political stage in Pennsylvania over the weekend, hosting the first political rally under his “Walk As Free People” banner since a landslide defeat to Democrat Josh Shapiro in the 2022 governor’s race.
“The Walk as Free People movement is not over,” said Mastriano on Saturday, taking the stage at the Green Grove Gardens event center to a round of applause. “We’ve just begun.”
It was the clearest signal yet from the state senator from Franklin County that he still sees himself as smack in the middle of a viable political career that enjoyed both surprising success and, in the end, a crushing defeat last year.
For now, Mastriano needs to keep the grassroots army that rallied to his campaign in last year’s Republican primary interested and intact, first to try to influence the battery of school board, local government and judicial races that will fill the state’s ballot in 2023.
“We plan on doing these every few months or so in different parts of the state,” he said in a brief interview after the mainstage event featuring Newsmax personality Wendy Bell and Christina Bobb, an attorney who gained notoriety as a mouthpiece for former President Donald J. Trump’s unsubstantiated election fraud claims on One America News Network, and now works on Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.
“Messaging is important… and we had 2.2 million people which is the highest (vote count for a Republican governor candidate) in 60 years, since William Scranton. And the second-highest in the state’s history,” Mastriano said.
“Such momentum at the grassroots level, with no establishment support. So we’ve got to keep it alive. We’ve seen previous gubernatorial candidates walk away when they lose. I always wondered, even before I was in politics, why would you do that? Why would you leave behind people who had invested so much in you?”
DOWN THE TICKET
Mastriano clearly wants to help local candidates.
On Saturday, at least a third of the stage time at a venue near Greencastle was devoted to a slate of Franklin County candidates who Mastriano wanted to share some of his star power with. And the crowd of more than 300 was solid for the very start of the primary cycle in an off-year for politics.
But there’s some self-interest here, too.
If Mastriano can keep his political movement together in this off-year cycle, that gives the retired U.S. Army colonel a strong launch pad for whatever his next political act is.
Many of those in attendance made clear they hope there will be one.
“There’s a lot of us that are letting him know that we’d like him here in the state,” said one ardent supporter, Bobby Lawrence of Washington Township, Franklin County, who said he’d like to see Mastriano ultimately make another run for governor in 2026.
“This is where we need him. In our state,” Lawrence said.
LOOKING AHEAD TO 2024
But first, there are also some intriguing 2024 questions to consider, too.
The easiest path for Mastriano would be to seek re-election to a second full term as a state senator. Mastriano represents Franklin and Adams counties in the state Senate.
It’s considered a politically safe seat for Republicans, and Mastriano has already demonstrated an ability to be impactful in the Republican majority there, having last month led the first public hearing of any kind into the Norfolk Southern dertailment on the Ohio / Pennsylvania border.
Later this month, as chairman of the Senate’s Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee, Mastriano will preside over a follow-up hearing in Harrisburg where Norfolk Southern CEO Andrew Shaw is expected to testify.
There have also already been published reports speculating that Mastriano could take a crack at the U.S. Senate in 2024, when Democratic incumbent Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. is expected to seek a fourth term in office.
“I’m not saying no to anything right now,” Mastriano told PennLive Saturday.
“Obviously, I’m not going to primary (U.S. Rep.) John Joyce. He’s a friend. As far as the potential of two U.S. senate seats, maybe, depending what happens with John (Fetterman)… That’s still on the table. I haven’t ruled it out.”
Mastriano’s reference Saturday was to the possibility U.S. Sen. John Fetterman’s health problems could force him into an early retirement, as well as Casey’s seat. Fetterman’s staff, it’s important to note, has been resolute in their insistence that Fetterman will be able to complete his term.
Former Wall Street executive and George W. Bush-era U.S. Treasury official David McCormick is also testing the waters on a 2024 run; McCormick lost the 2022 Republican U.S. Senate nomination in an electoral photo-finish to Dr. Mehmet Oz, in part because Oz landed an endorsement from Trump.
Saturday’s event was part pep rally, part therapy session.
Lebanon County resident Joyce Massar, a pharmacist from North Londonderry Township, Lebanon County, was a canvassing coordinator in Lebanon County for Mastriano’s campaign, said she was finding comfort in seeing some old campaign friends.
“I had to be with my people,” said Massar, who said she’s been a fan of Mastriano since he started pushing back against then-Gov. Tom Wolf’s pandemic mitigation orders in 2020. “They’re like family to me now, after three years.”
There was some political altruism.
Attendees to Saturday’s rally were encouraged to bring paper products, canned goods, bottled water, diapers and bottled water for delivery to residents of Darlington Township, Beaver County, the community right over the line from the derailment. They filled a trailer.
“You have delivered more aid to western Pennsylvania than the Josh Shapiro administration,” Mastriano said. “And so I am thankful that although we don’t have the governor’s seat, we’re still acting as leaders in the state here and helping people in greatest need.”
And there was some political commerce, too.
A table at the back of the hall featured the full catalog of Walk as Free People / Mastriano merchandise, with price points ranging from $20 for a t-shirt or ball cap, to $50 for a signed portrait of the colonel-turned-senator. Proceeds to Friends of Doug Mastriano, the senator’s registered campaign committee.
When they looked beyond the local races, speakers exhorted their audience to keep the faith, acknowledging that even though the 2022 mid-term elections were not successful in Pennsylvania their continued engagement is essential if the conservative movement is to win in the future.
STRENGTHEN BALLOT GAME
Mastriano, in a break from his 2022 themes, mentioned that Republicans need to strengthen their mail-in ballot game as long as that is the law of the land.
“If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em right?… In the Army, we call it ‘embracing the suck,’” he joked.
“It is so easy to feel like you don’t matter,” said Bell, a onetime Pittsburgh television news anchor who lost a series of mainstream media jobs for making controversial statements on air or in social media posts before landing at the conservative-leaning Newsmax last year.
“That there’s no way you’re going to win. No way you’re going to beat the Democratic machine. but look around you,” Bell continued, raising her arms to take in the crowd. “You’ve got this on your side.”
Message received, said BIll West, a 74-year-old real estate agent from Washington, Pa.
“Discouraged is not the right for me, because I never lose hope. You know it’s a long game,” said West who drove three hours with his wife Betsy to see Mastriano.
“We’re trying to do everything we can to support candidates who really want to regain the state of Pennsylvania,” West continued.
“It makes me crazy when I hear people calling Florida a free state, because it makes me think: What are we? You know, if they’re free, what are we? We all live in the same country. We all have the same rights. And we need to regain those that we’ve either lost or willfully given away.”
©2023 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit pennlive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
