Pennsylvania State Sen. Doug Mastriano won’t run for U.S. Senate, after all

After weeks of flirting with a U.S. Senate run, State Sen. Doug Mastriano said Thursday he would not seek the Republican nomination in 2024.

Mastriano (R., Franklin), a far-right state senator who lost his 2022 gubernatorial bid by nearly 15 points and 800,000 votes to Democrat Josh Shapiro, had hinted at a run last week when he told The Inquirer he had “crazy good news.”

But his announcement on Facebook Live was that he will stay in the state Senate — at least for now.

“We have decided not to run for the U.S. Senate, but to continue to serve in Harrisburg,” Mastriano said to 624 live viewers during the stream with his wife, Rebbie.

“I know for some it’ll be disappointing, and for others, it won’t be disappointing because you’re like, ‘Who’s going to fill his seat? Who’s going to be our voice in Harrisburg?’ So at this time, at this moment, the way things currently are, I am not running for the U.S. Senate seat.”

Mastriano said he needed to stay in Harrisburg, but didn’t lay out any specific policies he plans to work on, except that his grassroots organizing will continue.

Unlike last year’s open Senate race, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.) is running for reelection in 2024. At least one other Republican, former hedge fund CEO Dave McCormick, who lost the GOP nomination to Mehmet Oz in last year’s Senate primary by less than 1,000 votes, could enter the race.

McCormick thanked Mastriano in a statement Thursday night for his dedication to Pennsylvania.

“I am seriously considering a run for the U.S. Senate because Bob Casey has consistently made life worse for Pennsylvania families over the past 18 years, and our state deserves better,” he said. “We need a Republican nominee who can build a broad coalition of Pennsylvanians to defeat Bob Casey and improve the lives of Pennsylvania families.”

Republicans in Pennsylvania and nationwide — including former President Donald Trump — had expressed fear that Mastriano could be a drag on the GOP ticket in 2024, Politico reported last month.

“That wasn’t a close race. He was beat pretty badly,” Samuel Chen, a Republican consultant who has worked on statewide campaigns in Pennsylvania, said of Mastriano’s loss to Shapiro. “The odds do not look good that he could win in 2024.”

Mastriano also vowed to stand behind whoever wins the nomination.

“Whoever is that nominee, I will support them,” Mastriano said. “And we hope you will, too. Because I don’t want any other Republican candidates to go through what we went through last year when our own party betrayed us.”

The Pennsylvania Democratic Party said in a statement that Mastriano and his base “will loom large over this primary.”

“Any candidate who gets in will now be saddled with his extreme agenda, including David McCormick,” Democrats’ spokesperson Maddy McDaniel said.

Instead of a U.S. Senate run, Mastriano said he and his wife would continue organizing their grassroots support. They will launch the Freedom Conference in the fall, an event Rebbie Mastriano described as “for the grassroots to gather to be inspired.”

“The ‘Walk as Free People’ movement is not going anywhere,” Rebbie Mastriano said. “I think we showed we’re here to stay.”

Doug Mastriano and his wife started their Facebook Live on Thursday with a 30-minute trip down memory lane: They rehashed their opposition to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, Mastriano winning the Republican primary for governor, and how some fellow Republicans criticized him.

“The sad thing was before the Democrats took the first shot, we were taking fire from the Republican Party,” Mastriano said. “Do remember those who fought harder than the Democrats. Do mark them and avoid them.”

Mastriano was first elected to the state Senate in a 2019 special election, following a 30-year career in the U.S. Army during which he rose to the rank of colonel. He first gained popularity outside his state Senate district at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, when former Gov. Tom Wolf ordered many businesses to shut down. He then started a grassroots movement in the state to push back against government overreach and have Pennsylvanians “walk as free people.”

He rose to a larger profile during the 2020 presidential election as one of the main election deniers fighting to overturn Pennsylvania’s vote. He was in contact with Trump and his allies, and pressured his GOP colleagues in Harrisburg to reject the state’s election results and send a separate slate of electors to Congress.

He was at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but says he left the grounds once the attack became violent.

Mastriano launched his bid for governor in early 2022 and ran a campaign infused with Christian nationalism in a crowded field of Republicans. The Pennsylvania GOP declined to endorse in the race, which members regretted once a Mastriano primary win looked inevitable. Just before the election, Republican insiders tried to get Mastriano’s rivals to drop out and rally around former U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta.

Throughout his gubernatorial campaign, Mastriano refused to talk to reporters, except those from right-wing news outlets. He has introduced legislation to ban abortion at about six weeks gestation, and campaigned during the primary on abortion being his “No. 1 issue.” He also campaigned with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and vowed to make Pennsylvania the “Florida of the North.”

Mastriano has built his grassroots following using social media — particularly Facebook Live. However, he deleted some of his most controversial — and sometimes conspiratorial — views from his campaign pages after winning the Republican nomination for governor.

Mastriano’s base had quickly rallied around the possibility of a Senate run. A Facebook group with 18,000 members that originally asked Mastriano to run for governor changed its name earlier this week to “Senator Mastriano, We The People Ask You to Run for U.S. Senator!”

However, even some of his closest supporters said they were unsure whether he should enter the race, saying they believe they still need him in Harrisburg.

Mastriano told The Inquirer last week that he’s spent time with McCormick and his wife, former Trump adviser Dina Powell. He said he likes McCormick’s military experience and Powell’s life story.

“I like his background, but for us, and I hate to say it this way, but no one else is gonna beat my drum. It’s going to have to be myself,” Mastriano added.