PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Pennsylvania Republicans have worked very hard to be a thorn in the side of Gov. Tom Wolf, and with him on his way out of Harrisburg, there are many who think they can do better than the two-term Democrat.
The Republican primary is crowded, but recent polling shows four candidates have pulled ahead of the pack. Pa. Sen. Doug Mastriano, polling consistently around 25%, is trailed by former Lehigh Valley Rep. Lou Barletta, former U.S. Attorney Bill McSwain, and businessman and former Delaware County Councilman David White.
State party leaders are trying for a last-second Hail Mary to block Mastriano, who they believe to be too far to the right and too unpredictable, from grabbing the nomination. Just days before the primary, Jake Corman ended his candidacy and endorsed Lou Barletta, urging other candidates to do the same.
The primary election will determine who will go up against Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the lone Democratic candidate, in the Nov. 8 general election. To help voters prepare, we have broken down the contending Republicans below.
Important primary dates
May 2: Deadline to register to vote
May 10: Deadline to request a mail-in or absentee ballot
May 16: Military and overseas absentee ballots must be sent no later than 11:59 p.m. on May 16, to be received by the county Board of Elections by May 24.
Tuesday, May 17: Primary Election Day
Polls are open 7 a.m. - 8 p.m.
Your county Board of Elections must receive your mail-in and civilian absentee ballots by 8 p.m. on May 17.
The general election is on Nov. 8.
DEMOCRATS
Josh Shapiro
Running unopposed in the Democratic primary, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro is all but assured the nomination. The Pennsylvania Capital-Star reported that efforts to recruit a challenger to the political left of Shapiro had failed.
Shapiro served in the Pennsylvania House, flipping a red district blue to represent Montgomery County, Pennsylvania’s third-largest county, from 2005 to 2011. When he was elected as chair of the Board of Commissioners in Montgomery County, he was the first Democrat to do so since the Civil War. He served from 2011 to 2017.
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Shapiro was elected attorney general of Pennsylvania in 2016. In his first term, his office exposed a long-running cover-up of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, and he focused on arresting drug dealers and getting illegal guns off the street.
When Donald Trump lost his re-election bid in 2020, he turned to the courts dozens of times, trying to overturn the results. Shapiro argued all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court to ensure the result of the safe, fair and secure election was certified.
Key issues:
— Opioid epidemic
— Protections for seniors
— Student loan relief
— Criminal justice reform
Key endorsements:
— Gov. Tom Wolf
— Former Gov. Ed Rendell
— U.S. Sen. Bob Casey
— U.S. Reps. Matt Cartwright, Madeleine Dean, Dwight Evans, Susan Wild, Jessica Benham, Danilo Burgos, Michael B. Carroll,
— State Sen. Jay Costa
— State Reps. Austin Davis, Dave Delloso, Marty Flynn, Dan Frankel, Pat Harkins, Vincent Hughes, Tim Kearney, Patty Kim, Malcolm Kenyatta, Emily Kinkead, Joanna McClinton, Robert Merski, Gerald Mullery, Eddie Day Pashinski, Brian Sims, Sharif Street, Anthony H. Williams, Mike Zabel,
— Philadelphia City Council President Darrell Clarke
— Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner
— Mayors of Wilkes-Barre, Scranton, Pittsburgh
— More than a dozen labor unions throughout the state
— NARAL Pro-Choice America
— Planned Parenthood Action Fund
— Democratic Governors Association
— Democratic Jewish Outreach PA
— Pennsylvania Democratic Party
— Penn State College Democrats
— Tony Luke Jr., founder of the cheesesteak chain
— Mark Kelly Tyler, pastor of Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church
— Marc Zumoff, former play-by-play announcer for the Philadelphia 76ers
REPUBLICANS
Lou Barletta
Lou Barletta is a former Republican member of Congress, representing Pennsylvania's 11th District, from 2011 to 2019. He lost to Democrat Bob Casey in the 2018 U.S. Senate race.
After college, Barletta tried out unsuccessfully for the Cincinnati Reds, then in the '80s, he started up a road-marking company, which he sold in 2000.
His political career began in his hometown of Hazleton, Pa., where he served as a member of city council and three terms as mayor. As mayor, he gained national attention in 2006 when he signed a high-profile immigration ordinance — struck down the following year — that fined landlords for providing housing to undocumented immigrants.
Barletta endorsed Donald Trump's presidential campaign after previously endorsing Rick Santorum in 2012 and 2015. He was a member of Donald Trump's presidential transition team.
On May 12, 2022, rival candidate Jake Corman ended his campaign, telling his supporters to get behind former Congressman Lou Barletta, just days before the primary.
Take a deeper dive into Lou Barletta's candidacy.
Key issues:
— Rebuilding the coronavirus-damaged economy
— Support of coal, oil, and natural gas
— Opposition to reform of police funding
— Election integrity
— Transportation infrastructure
— High-quality public schools; school choice
— Curbing state spending
— Pro-life
— Second amendment
Key endorsements:
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Jake Corman — OUT
As Senate President Pro Tempore, representing the 34th District since 1998, Jake Corman is the top Republican in the Pa. Senate. He went all in on the governor’s race, not seeking re-election for his senate seat, but his campaign never really got off the ground, polling in the single digits.
On May 12, 2022, Corman ended his campaign, telling his supporters to get behind former Congressman Lou Barletta, just days before the primary, with ballots are printed and tens of thousands of mail-in ballots already returned.
“Putting the party first, it's time for me to step aside and support someone who can win in the fall,” he said, making his exit from the race official.
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Republican insiders have expressed concerns over front-runner Doug Mastriano’s chances of winning in the fall, saying he is too far right and too unpredictable.
“I think the right thing is to coalesce. It should have probably happened, maybe, a little sooner, but nonetheless there’s still time, and that’s why I encourage other candidates to do the same,” Corman said.
Joe Gale
In 2015, at the age of 26, Joe Gale ran unendorsed for the minority seat on the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners. He won and became the youngest Montgomery County commissioner in history.
In 2016, he was the first elected official in Pennsylvania to endorse Trump for President, expressing a kinship as "a genuine conservative outsider" and disrupter.
Since then, the second-term commissioner has become well known for disruption. At the height of the protests and riots sparked by the murder of George Floyd, he called Black Lives Matter a “left-wing hate group” on county letterhead, earning himself a censure from his fellow commissioners.
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Gale said at the time he was being bullied for exercising his First Amendment rights. Then, weeks later, he was sued for violating the First Amendment rights of his constituents by blocking people who wrote negative comments on his Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts — and deleting their comments.
According to an agreement in federal court, Gale was required to restore access to the people he blocked, he was forbidden from blocking any other users on those accounts, and he was not allowed to delete or edit any future comments posted on his pages. Gale called it a bad ruling and expressed sympathy with then-President Donald Trump, who he said was "screwed by federal courts on this very same issue."
Gale filed briefly to run for lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania in the 2018 election but was found to not meet the office's age requirement.
Key issues:
— Election integrity, specifically an end to mail-in voting
— Opposition to COVID-19 restrictions
— Pro-life
— Support of Second Amendment
— Small business protections
— Support of natural gas fracking the the pipelines used to carry it
— Reducing the gasoline tax
Key endorsements:
KYW Newsradio was unable to verify any key endorsements for Joe Gale.
Charlie Gerow
A high-profile Republican political consultant, Charlie Gerow has a history in Harrisburg and has been involved in state and national campaigns for decades. He runs a communications and marketing firm near the Capitol, and he has years of appearances on Central Pennsylvania public affairs shows as a political commentator under his belt.
He began his career of political activism working for former President Ronald Reagan.
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Key issues:
— Allowing voters to sponsor ballot initiatives
— Allowing voters to recall a governor
— Pro-life
— School choice
— Supports Pennsylvania energy production.
Key endorsements:
— Pa. Congressman Glenn Thompson
— Michael Reagan, son of former President Ronald Reagan
— Newt Gingrich
— American Conservative Union
— Conservative Political Action Conference
— Former Congressman Bob Walker
— State Rep. Jerry Knowles
— Former Maryland Gov. Bob Ehrlich
Melissa Hart — OUT
An attorney, born in Pittsburgh, Melissa Hart got her start in politics, in 1990 when she was 28 years old, as the first Republican woman elected to a full term in the state Senate. She chaired the finance committee in the state Senate.
She served the suburbs of western Pennsylvania in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2001 to 2007 — the first Republican woman from the commonwealth elected to federal office.
She was the only woman running for governor in a crowded Republican field until she dropped out of the race on May 13 and endorsed Lou Barletta.
After losing re-election to a Democratic challenger in 2007, she says she returned to her legal work in Pittsburgh rather than “turning [her] reputation over to D.C. special interests.” For the last 14 years, she has worked in a small law office; she serves on the board of a small-business lender, where she says the entrepreneurs realizing their dreams is “where the real Pennsylvania shines through.”
Key issues:
— Cutting corporate taxes
— Easing business regulations
— Support education that prepares students for the job market
— Expanding opportunity zones in struggling towns
— Rolling back Pennsylvania’s gas tax
— School choice
— Property tax relief
— Pro-life
— Transparency in state government
— Election integrity
Key endorsements:
KYW Newsradio was unable to verify any key endorsements for Melissa Hart.
Doug Mastriano
A nearly-30-year veteran of the U.S. Army, state Sen. Doug Mastriano, representing Franklin County, unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018. He won a special election for the 33rd senatorial district in 2019. Since then, Mastriano has courted national prominence by pushing former President Donald Trump's conspiracy theories and lies about election fraud to overturn certified results.
He says Trump asked him to run for governor, saying that he would support Mastriano’s campaign. Mastriano attended the Jan. 6, 2021, Trump rally in Washington, D.C., and even helped organize bus rides for supporters to join him there, but he denies any participation in the deadly insurrection that day.
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Mastriano has a big public beef with fellow gubernatorial candidate Pa. Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, accusing him and other GOP leadership of “stonewalling” efforts to investigate the 2020 general and 2021 primary elections. In response, Corman stripped Mastriano of a committee chairman assignment and barred him from the closed-door Republican caucus meetings in which lawmakers discuss positions on bills and strategy.
Speaking of election fraud, the Jan. 6 Committee subpoenaed Mastriano in their investigation into a plot that would have sent fake electors to cast their electoral votes for former President Donald Trump in states that President Joe Biden won.
Polling steadily around 25%, Mastriano has become the race's clear frontrunner. However, viewing him as too far right and too unpredictable, leaders in Pennsylvania’s Republican Party are pushing the candidates trailing Mastriano to unify behind another candidate in an effort to get past him.
Take a deeper dive into Doug Mastriano's candidacy.
Key issues:
— Pro-life
— Lower taxes
— Support for Second Amendment
— Religious freedom
— School choice
Key endorsements:
— Retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, former national security advisor for Donald Trump
— Jenna Ellis, legal advisor to former President Donald Trump
Bill McSwain
Serving as the Trump-appointed federal prosecutor in the Philadelphia region, Bill McSwain resigned as U.S. Attorney for Eastern Pennsylvania just before President Joe Biden’s inauguration.
McSwain often clashed with District Attorney Larry Krasner over matters of criminal justice reform and with Mayor Jim Kenney, accusing both of being soft on crime. His run for governor is his first campaign for public office, but he is no stranger to political ambition, having spent public money on billboards in Philadelphia, Allentown and Lancaster touting his tough stance on gun crime.
McSwain blocked the opening of a supervised injection site in South Philadelphia, a controversial plan that would have made the city the first in the country to do so. And he pursued federal charges against Black Lives Matter protesters who clashed with police in the civil unrest that followed the murder of George Floyd.
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The 2020 election and pandemic response are likely to be major talking points for McSwain. He has repeatedly criticized Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf for his response to the COVID-19 pandemic. And In a letter made public, he told Trump that then-Attorney General Bill Barr had advised him not to investigate the claims of voter fraud and irregularities — which, by then, had been widely discredited. Barr bristled at the characterization, saying McSwain was just trying to court Trump's endorsement.
Take a deeper dive into Bill McSwain's candidacy.
Key issues:
— Reducing taxes
— Lowering gas prices
— Reducing burdens on corporations
— Unleashing Pennsylvania’s energy resources
— Election integrity
— Protecting the Second Amendment
— Opioid crisis
— Opposing critical race theory
Key endorsements:
KYW Newsradio was unable to verify any key endorsements for Bill McSwain.
Dave White
Dave White, a third-generation union steamfitter who runs a plumbing and HVAC company in suburban Philadelphia, has previously served on the Delaware County Council. He lost a re-election bid in 2017.
He is expected to use his blue-collar bona fides and labor union connections to differentiate himself among his Republican opponents. White says Pennsylvania needs a businessman to fix its problems and that many of his opponents have had their chance.
Take a deeper dive into Dave White's candidacy.
Key issues:
— Pro-life
— Broad protection of the Second Amendment
— Expanding vocational education
— School choice
— Banning critical race theory
Key endorsements:
— State Sen. Dan Laughlin
Nche Zama
The second of six children, Dr. Nche Zama immigrated to the United States from Cameroon on a student visa. He says he had $20 in his pocket at the time and was homeless for a while.
Now recognized as one of the best heart surgeons in the country, Lehigh Valley-based Zama is portraying himself as an outsider candidate.
Zama counts education as one of his core values, and he has financially supported more than two-dozen nieces and nephews through college. On a mission for a humanitarian organization he founded, he performed the first heart surgery on a kid in his native country.
He says Pennsylvania has been “sick,” that Harrisburg is too broken to heal, and that he has the compassion to bring a similar focus to fix the state's economy, and education and health care systems.
Key issues:
— Fighting political polarization
— Making Pennsylvania an education leader
— Reducing state business regulations
— Supporting minority-owned businesses and small businesses
— Reversing health care inequities revealed by pandemic
Key endorsements:
KYW Newsradio was unable to verify any key endorsements for Nche Zama.