HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A far-right Pennsylvania state lawmaker said Thursday night he will not challenge Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, leaving the GOP field wide open as Republican Party officials try to recruit a candidate strong in the moderate state of the battlefield. to help secure a Senate majority in 2024.
Doug Mastriano, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump in last year’s gubernatorial race but lost in a landslide, said in a live appearance with his wife that he will not run in the Senate “at this moment as things currently stand”.
Former hedge fund CEO David McCormick is a favorite among party leaders and has received promises of financial support from top Republicans, should he decide to run.
McCormick, however, faces a difficult decision, with Trump seeking the party’s nomination for president. A Mastriano candidacy could have further complicated McCormick’s path and was causing heartburn in some Republican circles.
At the very least, it could have forced McCormick “to spend millions on defense when that money would be better used in a general election or to help other candidates across the state,” said Sam DeMarco, a McCormick ally and president of the Allegheny County. GOP.
Mastriano, a state senator, did not explicitly endorse McCormick or any other candidate, but said he hoped an eventual GOP nominee would follow through on his campaign promises.
For Republicans, Pennsylvania is a key target in their quest to regain the Senate majority, while Democrats face a tough Senate map in 2024.
Of the 34 seats up for election, Democrats must defend incumbents in red states (Montana, Ohio and West Virginia) and several swing states, including Pennsylvania, if they want to keep their 51-seat majority.
The prospect of a Mastriano victory in a primary had caused some Republicans to write.
Mastriano had spent the past few months saying he could win a Senate primary “without hesitation” and blaming the party establishment for his 15-point loss in the November gubernatorial election.
But many Republican officials say Mastriano’s inferior political skills, inability to raise money and extreme positions on abortion, among other issues, would ensure a Casey victory in a state that has long embraced more moderate voices.
Republican hopes of victory may rest on McCormick, who narrowly lost the 2022 GOP Senate nomination to Dr. Mehmet Oz.
McCormick has pledges of support from across the party, including a super PAC linked to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
McCormick also has deep pockets and connections in the spheres of politics, business and government from which to draw endorsements and campaign contributions, none of which were enough to prevail over Oz, the Trump-backed candidate who lost the general election to Democrat John. Fetterman.
If he runs, McCormick may have to share a ticket with Trump, who chastised McCormick in last year’s primaries and continues to tell the lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
In a book he published in March, McCormick recounted an exchange with Trump in which the former president told him that in order to win last year’s Senate primary, McCormick would have to say the 2020 election would be stolen
“I made it clear to him that he could not do that. Three days later, Trump endorsed Mehmet Oz,” McCormick wrote.
Trump continued to campaign against McCormick, at one point deriding him as the “candidate of special interests and globalists and the Washington establishment.”
McCormick lost to Oz by less than 1,000 votes.
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