Pa. midterm candidates campaign till sundown on eve of critical election

A tumultuous and hugely consequential campaign season closed Monday in Pennsylvania with candidates racing across the state to make their final pitches to voters whose decisions could reverberate nationwide.

When Pennsylvanians vote Tuesday, they’ll decide on a U.S. Senate race that could determine control of the chamber, at least three key U.S. House races, and control of the governor’s mansion, and with it sweeping influence over laws affecting people across Pennsylvania.

With Republicans favored to hold the state legislature, the choice of governor could decide if they are confronted with a Democratic governor, who has vowed to veto any attempts to curtail abortions rights or voting access, or a Republican who would sign those moves into law.

Democrat Josh Shapiro is favored against Republican Doug Mastriano in the governor’s race. The Senate contest pits Democrat John Fetterman against Republican Mehmet Oz, in an expensive race that appeared so close insiders in both parties said Monday it could still tilt either way.

Critical House contests will conclude Tuesday in districts in Northeastern Pennsylvania, the Lehigh Valley, and the Pittsburgh suburbs.

» READ MORE: Who’s going to win in Pennsylvania? Here are 7 things to watch on Election Day.

Both gubernatorial candidates made their final appeals Monday in the populous southeastern region of the state.

Democratic nominee Josh Shapiro — whose voice was left hoarse by a final campaign sprint — made several stops in Philadelphia, including at two rallies with labor unions running get-out-the-vote drives.

His last-ditch effort to turn out voters in the city — where Democrats hold a 7-1 voter registration advantage — included framing the election in near-existential terms.

”We have to meet this moment,” he told a room of mostly Black women — among them nearly a dozen elected officials — at a breakfast in North Philadelphia. “We have a responsibility to lift everyone up, and we have a responsibility to do what our ancestors did and ensure that our democracy continues on.”

He said only he could achieve “forward progress” for Pennsylvania, saying he’d ensure fair funding for public schools.

Shapiro stood in front of a sign that read “stop killing each other,” an advertisement for gun violence-prevention group Mothers in Charge, which advocates for stronger gun legislation. Touching on public safety, he said “people have a right to both be safe and feel safe.”

» READ MORE: ‘There’s a lot on the line’: Pa. voters on what Tuesday’s election means to them

His supporters said boosting turnout in Philadelphia would be key for Democrats up and down the ballot.

”This election will come through Philadelphia,” said State Rep. Morgan Cephas (D., Philadelphia). “The entire country is looking to see what we do, and if we turn out here in Philly, we can get this done.”

Shapiro’s Republican opponent, state Sen. Doug Mastriano, held a rally Monday afternoon at a restaurant in Telford, Montgomery County — noting for a crowd of more than 600 supporters that he was proud to hold his final event before Election Day in Shapiro’s home county.

”We’re going to show him what the people of Pennsylvania believe,” Mastriano said.

The state senator from Franklin County focused his message on pandemic-related business closures, the economy, and public safety, saying Shapiro has failed to control rising rates of crime during his time as attorney general.

”Two weeks ago he says we need to do something about crime. Like dude, where the heck have you been?” he said.

Charlie Gerow, a Republican strategist who ran against Mastriano in the gubernatorial primary but now supports him, said during the rally that the race is about “a professional politician versus a true patriot.”

Fetterman spent his final day on the trail kicking off get-out-the-vote efforts with labor leaders. He did an event in Coatesville with the United Steelworkers union and joined Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.) and U.S. Rep. Susan Wild (D., Pa.) at an electrical workers’ union hall in Allentown. And then he continued on to Pittsburgh for a nighttime rally at the Carpenters’ union hall.

As he finished his standard stump speech around 9 p.m., Fetterman realized polls would open in just about 10 hours.

“Make sure you vote tomorrow,” Fetterman said. “Everyone in your networks, on social media, everyone, get out and vote tomorrow because we know that there is a stark choice about tomorrow.”

Oz went to Central Pennsylvania, greeted supporters at Heisey’s Diner in Lebanon County ahead of a stop in Hazleton, in the Northeastern section of the state. He focused on the issues that helped him close ground on Fetterman and set up a photo finish: crime and immigration. He finished his day with a large rally in Pennsburg in Montgomery County.

Separately, Oz released a video claiming he would unite Pennsylvanians, and calling to “reinvigorate America.”

With the shadow of the last election still looming, Pennsylvania’s four living former governors — Republicans Tom Ridge, Tom Corbett, and Mark Schweiker, and Democrat Ed Rendell — wrote to Shapiro and Mastriano Monday urging them to accept the results of Tuesday’s election, no matter who wins.

» READ MORE: The whole country will be watching Pa. on election night. Again.

And Fetterman’s team sent a memo to reporters reminding them of how the mail ballot count will alter the initial snapshot that emerges from in-person votes, which tend to favor Republicans.

The letter from the governors came two years after former President Donald Trump prematurely and falsely claimed victory in Pennsylvania after the 2020 election, and then tried to overturn the lawful results. Mastriano has vocally echoed Trump’s false claims about election fraud.

On Monday on Steve Bannon’s podcast, Mastriano dismissed calls for patience as votes are counted.

“Democrats are already setting the conditions for people to brace of days and days of counting,” he said. “No. We can put a man on the moon 53 years ago, are you freakin’ kidding me?”

Pennsylvania law doesn’t allow for elections officials to begin counting mail ballots until Election Day, delaying the start of the process despite pleas from elections officials to change the rules.

Counting votes always takes time, which is why certification takes nearly three weeks. Military and overseas ballots, for example, can continue to arrive until one week after Election Day.

» READ MORE: Pennsylvania election day 2022: Hours, polling places, voter intimidation, ballot status and more

The former governors noted that the state has a transparent process for counting votes, recounting if necessary and resolving disputes, a process, they wrote, “overseen by thousands of Pennsylvanians who care deeply about fairness.”

“We are asking you, as the leaders of the Pennsylvania Republican and Democratic parties, to pledge to honor that process, respect the law, abide the peoples’ will and support a peaceful transfer of power,” the former governors wrote. “In doing so you will demonstrate to all Pennsylvania candidates who will be looking to you for leadership that love of Commonwealth and Country must come above all.”

Fetterman’s memo emphasized that, as in 2020, the early vote counts will shift as mail ballots are counted, something that’s typical because it takes longer to open and scan mail ballots than to count in-person votes. Early tallies will only reflect the order of the votes counted, not the full picture of all votes cast on time. Democrats now use mail ballots far more than Republicans, in part because Trump has discouraged their use.

“We should expect one of the most dramatic shifts in the country from initial GOP support in early results to stronger Democratic gains as more votes are processed,” the Fetterman memo read.

After a campaign event in North Philadelphia, Shapiro said he “of course” committed to accepting the results of the election, saying the governors sent the letter “given who my opponent is, the fact that he’s still trying to overturn the last election and has not pledged to accept the results of this one.”

“I have tremendous faith in the Republican and Democratic clerks of elections all across Pennsylvania to do their jobs in the 67 counties, and I will not only trust their work, I’ll trust the will of the people of Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said. “[Mastriano] doesn’t get to pick the winner, as much as he’d like to.”