Why 2020 keeps coming up in the Pa. gov race | Election Newsletter

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It’s the final two days of Women’s History Month, Pennsylvania. We’re a state of many impressive firsts, though 235 years in, we’re still awaiting a female governor or Senator. Here’s our latest rundown of this week in (male-dominated) campaign news.

There are 48 days left until the Pennsylvania primary.

— Jonathan Tamari, Julia Terruso, (@JonathanTamari, @JuliaTerruso, election@inquirer.com)

They’re running in the 2022 primary, but GOP candidates for governor are still talking a lot about 2020.

Jake Corman enlisted longtime Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway to vouch for his efforts to investigate the 2020 election in Pennsylvania. Doug Mastriano’s campaign is capitalizing on the notice he gained as a “Stop the Steal” proponent. Dave White has criticized Bill McSwain for not actually doing enough on voter fraud, while McSwain’s ads tell you he prosecuted election crimes (they don’t mention that the case had nothing to do with 2020). And Lou Barletta has joked that while dead people have long voted, they can now “mail in their ballots.”

While the 2020 election has been repeatedly upheld as valid and lawful, our colleague Andrew Seidman is tracking how the GOP candidates for governor are trying to show who’s toughest on the virtually nonexistent problem of voter fraud.

That’s not all they’re talking about. But it’s almost like there are two parallel primaries: a traditional campaign about issues like inflation, energy policy, gas prices, and crime — and the jockeying over “election integrity” and the 2020 election.

Some of it seems aimed at a segment of GOP voters who genuinely believe in the “stolen election” myth, and some seems rooted in real disagreements over the scope of voting laws and election security.

But some also appear tailored to one voter in particular: Donald Trump.

As his potential endorsement looms, that was underscored last week when Conway promoted Corman’s efforts to investigate an election that has been validated numerous times.

“The President recognizes that Senator Corman picked up where Mastriano failed,” Conway said, per Seidman.

That brought a Twitter rebuke from Bernie Kerik, the Rudy Giuliani ally and former New York police commissioner, who argued Mastriano “led the charge” while Corman was “ABSENT.”

The Twitter beef shows just how invested GOP candidates are in showing their election rejection credentials.

And it sets up a sharp general election contrast: As Republicans pledge to roll back mail voting, the presumptive Democratic nominee, Josh Shapiro, vows to block any such move. In contrast, Shapiro is running unopposed in his primary and is talking up how he defended Pennsylvania’s vote in 2020 as Republicans tried to throw out the state’s result.

For the Republicans running to lead the entire state, questioning the votes of millions of their constituents may seem like an odd stance. But they know the big guy is watching.

Mehmet Oz: “You should all ask yourselves, ‘Why is everyone attacking me?’”

Kathy Barnette: “Because he’s a liberal.”

—One of several fiery exchanges between the Republican Senate candidates at the Manufacturer & Business Association forum Wednesday morning

🗣️ Debate season has started, giving us more chances to see the candidates side by side. Republican Senate front-runners McCormick and Oz shared a public stage for the first time at Wednesday morning’s forum, joining Bartos and Barnette in Erie. We’ve got our early write up here.

The short version: the GOP candidates largely agreed on policy, calling for expanding fracking, cutting spending, and lowering taxes, but clashed over who’s a real Pennsylvanian and true conservative. As we wrote here a couple weeks back, in primaries, when candidates largely agree, the race often comes down to who defines themselves best.

Several Republican Senate and gov candidates will also join forums hosted by the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference Friday and Saturday. The gubernatorial event Friday will be broken into two sessions, at 12:45 and 1:45 p.m., and will include Barletta, Corman, Joe Gale, Charlie Gerow, Melissa Hart, Mastriano, McSwain, White, and Nche Zama. Senate candidates Barnette, Bartos, Bochetto, Sean Gale, Oz, and Carla Sands will be on stage at noon Saturday. Both forums will be on PCN and streamed via its website.

At least two Democratic Senate candidates – U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb and State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta — will debate Sunday afternoon at Muhlenberg College, but the big question is whether the front-runner, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, will show, as his opponents accuse him of dodging scrutiny. After weeks of waiting for him to commit or not, organizers have asked him to give a final answer by 5 p.m. Thursday. They say there’ll be three lecterns on stage, whether they’re all filled. Fetterman has committed to two debates in late April.

📺 Ad Watch: The super PAC supporting Oz, quiet for a long stretch, got back into the fight this week with a new ad targeting McCormick. GOP insiders have been watching to see how much the group, American Leadership Action, can spend, and whether it can help bring down McCormick, whose own super PAC and big money buys have made him the front-runner. The question is whether Oz’s group is getting in too late.

🏀 Hoops: A couple weeks back we mentioned Oz’s men’s college hoops bracket and, well, it’s not the best. He only picked two of the Elite Eight teams correctly, and one of the Final Four. But that one? Villanova, which of course the Pa. Senate candidate picked to win it all. Sometimes they say good policy makes good politics. In this case, good politics led to (one) good pick. Go Cats.

🙊 Oops: Last week, we broke down how a candidates’ hometown might help them in the primary. But due to a formatting glitch, none of the cool maps we made showed up in the newsletter. You can find them, along with last week’s rundown, online.

Signing off until next week!