Doug Mastriano, the far-right state senator who was defeated in the Pennsylvania gubernatorial race last fall, announced Thursday that he will not run for the Senate in 2024.
«At this time we have decided not to run for the Senate, but to continue to serve in Harrisburg,» Mastriano said in a statement. video posted on Facebook on Thursday.
“So I know for some it will be disappointing. For others, it won’t be disappointing, because you think: ‘Who will take their seat? Who will be our voice in Harrisburg?’ … Whoever the candidate is, I will support him,” she added.
Mastriano had been openly considering a Senate run, to the dismay of some party leaders who did not want a repeat of the losses in 2022.
Republicans are trying to defeat Sen. Bob Casey, whose re-election bid in the disputed state will play a key role in Democrats’ effort to maintain their slim majority in the Senate next year.
Many Republicans are looking to Dave McCormick, a businessman who narrowly lost last year’s Republican Senate primary to celebrity physician Mehmet Oz.
After Mastriano’s announcement, McCormick released a statement saying he was still keeping the door open to run.
«I am seriously considering running for the US Senate because Bob Casey has consistently made life worse for Pennsylvania families for the past 18 years, and our state deserves better,» he said.
Mastriano was first elected to the state Senate in 2019, but only rose to prominence after the 2020 election when former President Donald Trump sought allies in the state legislatures to help him reverse his loss.
On Jan. 6, 2021, Mastriano was outside the Capitol when Trump supporters stormed Congress in hopes of keeping the then-president in office, though Mastriano said he did not enter the building. His state senate campaign also paid for people to ride buses to the rally that preceded the riot.
Mastriano, a former Army colonel, sought to capitalize on his growing profile and launched a gubernatorial bid, during which he emerged victorious in a deep primary field, helped across the finish line by Trump’s endorsement.
Throughout his career, Mastriano focused on culture warfare issues and wove themes of Christian nationalism into his campaign. He also took a hardline stance against abortion rights. (In 2019, she said that women who violated a proposed six-week ban should be charged with murder, NBC News reported.)
Democrat Josh Shapiro, then the state’s attorney general, was able to capitalize on Mastriano’s history and positions, framing him as the most extreme candidate running nationally last fall and scoring a 14-plus point victory that was the largest margin victory for any non-incumbent governor in Pennsylvania since 1946.