PHILADELPHIA — GOP leaders rushed to stop him in the primary. When he won anyway, some polls unexpectedly showed him within reach of his Democratic rival, and the Republican establishment began to warm to him.
But then he was engulfed by controversy — exactly the kind that GOP insiders had previously worried could sink his chances.
The candidate is Pennsylvania governor hopeful Doug Mastriano — but this year, he’s following a path Republicans recognize from their see-saw first months getting used to Donald Trump as the party’s leader back in 2016.
In an election season in which inflation and high gas prices have given most Republicans an edge, Mastriano has spent the past few weeks under fire for his ties to a far-right social media platform. He had an account this year on Gab, the site where Robert Bowers made violent antisemitic comments before the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. Mastriano also told Gab CEO Andrew Torba in an interview, “Thank God for what you’ve done,” and paid the site $5,000 for “consulting” services.
“People that were not happy with his nomination — this is why,” said Josh Novotney, a GOP consultant in Pennsylvania. “Because it’s like, ‘When’s the other shoe going to drop too? What else is out there?’ is what I think more people are saying and thinking.”
The response to the episode within the Republican Party has taken on a Trump-esque quality. Some party insiders are grumbling about what they see as Mastriano’s unforced error, largely privately, and a small handful of Republican candidates in competitive districts are distancing themselves from him. But most GOP leaders, at least publicly, appear to be sticking by Mastriano’s side.
“The guy spent $5,000 — $5,000 — consulting or trying to advertise on a social media platform. How much does Josh Shapiro spend on Twitter, or how much does Josh Shapiro spend on Facebook, which has been used by any number of recent mass murderers?” said Sam DeMarco, chair of the Republican Party in Allegheny County, one of the most populous areas in the state. “I thought Sen. Mastriano did the right thing and said, ‘Hey, these people don’t speak for me.'”
Josh Shapiro speaks with members of the media during a news conference, in Philadelphia, March 15, 2022.