Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) came to Pittsburgh this weekend to argue that his success governing Florida needs to be replicated in Pennsylvania and that state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-PA-Gettysburg) is the man to do it.
The Adams County lawmaker is running against Democratic state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, someone who Mastriano and DeSantis believe will intensify the liberal governance the Keystone State has underwent during Tom Wolf’s eight-year administration.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do in Pennsylvania and Florida and all throughout this country over the next — now — less than three months…,” the Sunshine State governor said to an audience at the Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh. “So put on the full armor of God, take a stand against the left’s schemes, stand your ground, stand firm [and] don’t back down; we can do this. I’m going to be working to keep the state of Florida free and you guys have an opportunity to make Pennsylvania free.”
At the event hosted by the national committee Turning Point Action, DeSantis and his would-be Pennsylvania counterpart blasted Shapiro for his record as Pennsylvania’s top prosecutor at a time when urban environments, especially Philadelphia, have seen violent crime skyrocket.
“My opponent, he’s been an attorney general, a senior law enforcement official for six years and he can’t run on his record,” Mastriano said. “He doesn’t want to talk about… that he’s weak on crime. They don’t want to talk about crime going up 37 percent since he’s been the attorney general. This guy’s a failure; we need to fire him.”
While Shapiro’s office does not ordinarily have jurisdiction over most of the violent criminals blighting the City of Brotherly Love and other communities, state legislators in 2019 passed a policy allowing Shapiro to handle illegal-firearm cases. Lawmakers lamented that District Attorney Larry Krasner (D-Philadelphia) declined to prosecute too many cases to the detriment of his city. Shapiro never used the new authority that the commonwealth bestowed on him and it expired.
Mastriano outlined a comprehensive policy vision contrasting with Shapiro’s — one allowing school choice for Pennsylvania families, rejecting transfers of illegal aliens from the border into Pennsylvania, declining participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and forbidding biological males from participating in women’s sports.
That last issue was among the issues the candidate’s wife Rebecca addressed in a speech preceding her husband’s oration. The Democrats have underscored Mastriano’s opposition to abortion in an attempt to win women’s votes. Pennsylvania’s aspiring second lady explained how she and her husband believe he is the true women’s-rights candidate.
“We believe in protecting the woman’s right to be born,” she said. “We believe in the woman’s right to have a say in her child’s education. And a woman has a right to access baby formula as well as affordable food for her family. A woman has a right to raise her child in a safe community where she can see that the government is enforcing the law and prosecuting crime. A woman has a right to compete in sports not dominated by a man. And as Republicans, we actually know how to define a woman.”
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Bradley Vasoli is managing editor of The Pennsylvania Daily Star. Follow Brad on Twitter at @BVasoli. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Ron DeSantis and Doug Mastriano” by Luc Doolittle.
