Josh Shapiro is the clear choice for Pennsylvania governor | Endorsement

In the history of political endorsements for statewide office in Pennsylvania, it’s hard to remember when there has ever been a more straightforward choice than in the 2022 race for governor.

That is not just because Josh Shapiro is an experienced and highly qualified candidate with a track record of taking on powerful interests and working across the aisle. That is largely because Doug Mastriano, his Republican opponent, is so utterly unfit for public office.

Shapiro, the Democratic nominee, has dedicated his life to public service. He grew up in Montgomery County and worked on Capitol Hill while attending law school at Georgetown University.

Shapiro served as a state representative for seven years where he brokered a bipartisan agreement to make Republican Dennis O’Brien the speaker of the House. In 2011, Shapiro was elected to the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners, winning bipartisan support in what was then a largely Republican county. In 2016, Shapiro was elected state attorney general, where he cleaned up the scandal-plagued office of Kathleen Kane.

As attorney general, Shapiro took on major institutions. A 2018 grand jury report detailed child sexual abuse by more than 300 Catholic priests. He worked with other attorneys general to crack down on pharmaceutical firms and the consulting giant McKinsey & Co. for promoting opioids. Shapiro’s office worked with the U.S. Justice Department to stop abusive redlining practices by a major mortgage lender.

Shapiro stood up to his own party, filing corruption charges against two Democratic lawmakers in Harrisburg. Shapiro also clashed — and collaborated — with Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner. Shapiro’s independence and ability to work across the aisle explains why many Republican officials endorsed him for governor.

Shapiro is on the right side of history on big issues.

Shapiro is on the right side of history on big issues, including education funding and gun safety. Most important, as governor, Shapiro would serve as a firewall to stop the unraveling of voting and abortion rights in Pennsylvania.

Mastriano, in contrast, is the Chevy Corvair of candidates: unsafe at any speed. His candidacy for governor should be a nonstarter, except he won the Republican primary in a landslide. It is a national embarrassment for the Grand Old Party that Mastriano, a backbench state senator with virtually no legislative record, is the face of Republicanism in Pennsylvania.

There are several editorials’ worth of arguments to be made against voting for Mastriano, but there is one reason he is not qualified to hold public office: He participated in a coup attempt.

» READ MORE: In Mastriano’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, a chilling template for future races | Editorial

Mastriano’s efforts to subvert the 2020 presidential election began as Joe Biden’s victory became clear, and continued even after Inauguration Day. After Pennsylvania formally certified its election results, Mastriano introduced a resolution calling on the General Assembly to direct the secretary of the commonwealth to withdraw the certification and appoint new electors.

Despite taking an oath to support, obey, and defend the Constitution, Mastriano became Donald Trump’s “point person” in Pennsylvania in a fake-elector scheme to overturn the election results, emails obtained by the New York Times showed.

Mastriano — who was in regular contact with Trump after the election — pressured the Justice Department to investigate bogus claims of fraud, writing a letter to acting Deputy U.S. Attorney General Richard Donoghue claiming “election fraud is real and prevalent in Pennsylvania.”

On Jan. 6, 2021, Mastriano spent campaign funds to bus protesters to Washington and marched in a rally that became a deadly insurrection.

» READ MORE: As GOP extremists seek office, the cancer of election denial threatens to spread | Editorial

Mastriano — like other Trump acolytes — promoted the former president’s election lies but never produced any credible evidence of widespread fraud. That’s because there was none. Federal and state judges — including in Pennsylvania — dismissed more than 50 lawsuits by Trump and his associates challenging the election outcome. Officials at Trump’s Homeland Security Department said the 2020 election was “the most secure in U.S. history.” Even U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr said that he could not find any widespread election fraud.

Mastriano’s prominent role as an election denier is damning enough. But if he is elected governor, his plans to subvert future elections would effectively end democracy in Pennsylvania. Mastriano boasted that his handpicked secretary of state would enable him to “decertify every [voting] machine in the state.” For good measure, he wants to suppress votes by eliminating no-excuse mail-in voting, banning drop boxes, and requiring voters to reregister.

A person who does not believe in democracy cannot be the head of a democratic state. Full stop.

What’s more, Mastriano’s vision for the state is dystopian. He basically wants to defund public education by slashing per-pupil funding from $19,000 to around $9,000 per student.

Mastriano wants to eliminate property taxes, which sounds nice until there is no money to pay for basic services. He has compared gun safety efforts to Nazi Germany and called climate change “pop science.”

» READ MORE: At stake in Mastriano vs. Shapiro, the fate of abortion rights in Pennsylvania | Editorial

But Mastriano’s “No. 1 issue” is banning abortion — even in cases of rape or incest. He arrogantly dismissed an individual’s personal decision involving a pregnancy by saying: “My body, my choice is ridiculous nonsense.” He called Roe v. Wade “worse than the Holocaust.” He supports murder charges for women who defy abortion bans.

Women would not be the only second-class citizens in a Mastriano administration. African Americans, Jews, Muslims, and gays also need not apply.

Mastriano opposes same-sex marriage. He contracted with a far-right social media platform that spews antisemitic, racist, and neo-Nazi hate speech. His Facebook page contained anti-Muslim memes. He has said “not all religions are created equal.” In 2014, Mastriano posed for a photo wearing a Confederate uniform.

Mastriano is an aspiring autocrat whose worldview is fueled by hate and QAnon conspiracy theories. Sadly, this is the standard-bearer for the GOP in Pennsylvania. Where is the next Dick Thornburgh?

Unlike Mastriano, Shapiro was a rock in preserving democracy in 2020. He successfully defended dozens of bogus election fraud cases.

The stakes are high in this race: The next governor will determine if Trump and his allies can steal the presidential election in 2024, and if Republican lawmakers in Harrisburg will be able to ban abortion in the state.

Fortunately, the choice is straightforward. The Inquirer endorses Josh Shapiro as the next governor of Pennsylvania.