It looks like cult politics are the new norm in the GOP
There are several states in which abortion rights will be hanging in the balance depending on who wins the Governor’s races this year. This article is about Pennsylvania:
Jan Downey, who calls herself “a Catholic Republican,” is so unhappy about the Supreme Court’s likely reversal of abortion rights that she is leaning toward voting for a Democrat for Pennsylvania governor this year.
“Absolutely,” she said. “On that issue alone.”
Linda Ward, also a Republican, said the state’s current law allowing abortion up to 24 weeks was “reasonable.”
But Ms. Ward said she would vote for a Republican for governor, even though all the leading candidates vowed to sign legislation sharply restricting abortion. She is disgusted with inflation, mask mandates and “woke philosophy,” she said.
“After what’s happened this past year, I will never vote for a Democrat,” said Ms. Ward, a retired church employee. “Never!”
Pennsylvania, one of a handful of states where abortion access hangs in the balance with midterm elections this year, is a test case of the political power of the issue in a post-Roe world, offering a look at whether it will motivate party bases or can be a wedge for suburban independents. […]
In four states with politically divided governments and elections for governor this year — Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Kansas — the issue is expected to be a fulcrum of campaigns. In Michigan and Wisconsin, which have anti-abortion laws on the books predating Roe, Democratic governors and attorneys general have vowed to block their implementation. Kansas voters face a referendum in August on codifying that the state constitution does not protect abortion.
Pennsylvania, which has a conservative Republican-led legislature and a term-limited Democratic governor, is the only one of the four states with an open seat for governor.
“The legislature is going to put a bill on the desk of the next governor to ban abortion,’’ said Josh Shapiro, a Democrat running unopposed for the party’s nomination for governor. “Every one of my opponents would sign it into law, and I would veto it.”
All four of the top Republicans heading into the primary on May 17 have said they favor strict abortion bans. Lou Barletta, a former congressman and one of two frontrunners in the race, has said he would sign “any bill that comes to my desk that would protect the life of the unborn.”
Another top candidate, Doug Mastriano, said in a recent debate that he was opposed to any exceptions — for rape, incest or the health of the mother — in an abortion ban. Mr. Mastriano, a state senator, has introduced a bill in Harrisburg to ban abortions after a “fetal heartbeat” is detected, at about six weeks of pregnancy. Another Republican bill would require death certificates and a burial or cremation after miscarriages or abortions.
Here’s what Pennsylvania Trump whisperer Selena Zito has to say about it. I actually laughed out loud when I read it:
If Mastriano wins the Republican primary in Pennsylvania, he may well cost Republicans the Senate race that will share the ballot this fall, a couple of congressional races, and perhaps even majorities in the state House and state Senate. That would be a pretty remarkable feat in a year when Republicans are expected to succeed throughout the country.
Mastriano is that bad. Yet everywhere you go across rural Pennsylvania, there are Mastriano campaign signs for governor. They are in yards, parking lots, along the sides of highways, and along the side of buildings. Try telling any of these voters who has amassed a cultish following that Mastriano has a lot of issues, and they dig in and support him more.
Imagine that. Did she think Trump was the only one who could amass a cult following among these people? Why? The whole party has devolved into nothing more than performative “own the libs” “fuck your feelings” political cultism.
Mastriano is known for wearing spurs everywhere he goes and giving elaborate and often uncomfortable speeches. This week, he became agitated and abruptly ended a podcast interview when asked about his attendance at a QAnon-linked event in Gettysburg, as well as the rally he attended just before the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack subpoenaed him in March about his involvement.
Mastriano, a retired Army colonel elected to the state Senate in 2019, has emerged as a front-runner with a small core group of supporters. He could get the nomination just because there are so many people in the race; the latest Franklin and Marshall College polling shows that a whopping 40% of Pennsylvania Republican primary voters are undecided.
Pollsters for multiple campaigns in the state say Mastriano is the only one out of the nine who has been leading in their internal polling outside of “undecided.”
As one grassroots activist said: “I am certainly no mainline insider committee person, but I understand how bad he would impact races up and down the ticket. If there was one race I would have wished Trump endorsed in in the state, it would be this one, except then, you worry he would have endorsed Mastriano.”
Who knows if this guy can win the nomination? But unless the party decides to go after him the way they’re going after Madison Cawthorne, it looks like he has a good chance. The Republican base apparently loves flamboyant assholes. In swing states that doesn’t play as well as it does in Dixie.