Michael Torres: The second coming of Trump in Pa.?

Despite facing rivals who outspent him by well over $20 million and a whirlwind of negative media, state Sen. Doug Mastriano has won the Republican nomination for governor in Pennsylvania. His ascension can be largely credited to an undercurrent of grassroots supporters who act and vote as though they’ve found a new Donald Trump — a champion to combat the political and cultural powers-that-be.

These voters neither cared about the state GOP’s last-minute panic over Mastriano’s rise in the polls nor gave credence to the disapproving coverage blanketing national media in the campaign’s final days. Instead, an unexpected 44% of Pennsylvania Republican voters backed Mastriano, with a flood of Election Day ballots outdoing every pre-election poll.

Many of Mastriano’s voters say that he captured their attention during the pandemic. When Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, and his health secretary at the time, Dr. Rachel Levine, issued orders to shut down the state economy, Mastriano got busy on Facebook.

“One of the first things that enticed me to get to know Mastriano was his fireside chats opening and closing with prayer,” said Rhonda Anderson of Fairchance .

“I never paid much attention to politics until (Mastriano’s) fireside chats starting March 2020! My eyes are wide open!” one of thousands of commenters said in reaction to one of Mastriano’s near-daily Facebook live videos, echoing a common sentiment.

In these videos, Mastriano championed his legislation aimed at countering the lockdowns and framed himself as a truth-teller. While GOP gubernatorial primary rivals pointed to his early hardline positions on covid — he had even called for patient privacy protections to be suspended — voters instead focused on his constant presence in the later battles over reopening.

“Time after time he’d put forth good bills that would open up PA,” said Carolyn Oppenheimer of Grove City. “And so, what I concluded was that Mastriano was the senator that was the most active — head and shoulders above the rest of the Legislature.”

“He didn’t hide during the pandemic,” said Kirby Smith of Akron. “A lot of the Republicans sort of stayed away despite saying they were for reopening. It’s important that someone would say that I’m essential and he did that.”

Constant contact with Pennsylvanians through Facebook evolved into anti-covid mandate rallies in Harrisburg. After the 2020 election, Mastriano stayed at the forefront of the MAGA movement by organizing a hearing in Gettysburg over alleged voting fraud, trying to audit the election and calling for the state Legislature to overturn the election outright — all vain efforts based on misinterpreted mail-ballot tallies and hearsay.

The state’s well-funded conservative groups never supported Mastriano’s covid rallies, and he was eventually ostracized. In August 2021, his colleagues, believing that he was using the election-fraud issue for publicity, stripped him of his position as chair of the Pennsylvania Senate Intergovernmental Committee.

“It is deeply disappointing that Sen. Mastriano has retreated from conducting a forensic investigation of the election in Pennsylvania, and it is discouraging to realize that he was only ever interested in politics and showmanship and not actually getting things done,” Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman said at the time. Corman would end up as a rival candidate for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, though he dropped out before Election Day.

Opposition from high-ranking Republican officials bolstered Mastriano’s self-styled image as the people’s sole defender.

“These clowns hid in their foxholes while we were fighting alone,” he told a group of supporters in April, referring to conservative political organizations and party officials.

The media, meanwhile, portrays Mastriano as a threatening peculiarity capitalizing on the religious and “authoritarian” zeal of the MAGA right. In May 2021, for instance, The New Yorker published a profile of him quoting historians and sociologists who labeled him a “Christian nationalist,” a phrase often repeated by national and state media.

Yet negative media stories, like establishment Republican opposition, inadvertently deepen the loyalty of Mastriano’s enthusiasts.

“Every time they mock us, our movement grows,” Mastriano said at his April campaign event.

His supporters agree.

“Christian nationalist, is that scary?” asked Oppenheimer in reaction to a question about the media coverage. “I don’t know. I wasn’t aware that that’s a thing liberals are using to vilify him.” She continued: “When I went to a rally, there was a lot of Christian rhetoric from him, which to a Christian would not seem abnormal.”

“That just kind of speaks to how the media is,” said Smith. “Where to me sharing your faith is natural. He does it naturally. Being a Christian myself, I appreciate how he speaks.”

Mastriano rejects accusations of radicalism, including those coming from conservative outlets. In a May 4 podcast interview, Mastriano reacted angrily to questions from editors at the right-leaning Delaware Valley Journal about his attending a QAnon rally and being in Washington on Jan. 6. Obviously indignant, he couldn’t let the issue go, even after the editors attempted to move on from the subject — instead, he equated them with the East German Stasi and eventually hung up. He reacted similarly to an interview with Breitbart in December.

In these and other instances, Mastriano’s impulse is to redirect shame.

“I was there to hear my president speak and I was invited to speak at two locations, exercising my constitutional rights,” he said in April at the GOP gubernatorial debate in reaction to a question about his presence in Washington on Jan. 6. “Shame on the media and the Democrats for painting anyone down there as a villain.”

“If I read any articles where you’re attacking Christians or attacking them as hateful or intolerant, we won’t have the time of day for you,” Mastriano announced to reporters during his primary election victory celebration.

To his base, this kind of rhetoric underscores his authenticity as a defender of their beliefs. He speaks with a reassuring tone even when making grave accusations, like mass election fraud. He sees himself as merely taking the side of the average, unheard Pennsylvanian. The ire of journalists and even other Republicans is, therefore, proof to his supporters that they’re right to be attracted to this candidate who wears his Christianity, patriotism, and antagonism toward “the establishment” on his casual sleeves.

“He’s such a real guy and wanted to help people like us,” Smith said. “He’s so genuine. A real servant.”

“Mastriano actually listens to the people,” said Anderson. “He sincerely takes the time to hear what you have to say and engages in the conversation.”

After months of hesitation, Trump endorsed Mastriano the weekend prior to Election Day. Given Mastriano’s strong support, however, it appears that the endorsement was never needed, and that Trump was merely giving a tardy thumbs up to the inevitable.

Still, Mastriano faces a tough road in the November election, where he’ll square off against well-known, well-funded and well-organized state Attorney General Josh Shapiro. To beat Shapiro, Mastriano must overcome polls showing swing voters, including 23% of swing Republicans, preferring the Democrat.

Whether Pennsylvania’s new populist champion and his fervent army of grassroots advocates can convince suburban swing voters that he’s not the radical he’s often portrayed to be is now the biggest question in Pennsylvania politics. For now, though, Mastriano supporters are undoubtedly taking heart in their victory over at least one enemy: the remnants of the state Republican Party.

Michael Torres is deputy editor of RealClearPennsylvania. Follow him on Twitter at @MindofTorres.