Mastriano touts 'two big announcements' amid speculation he'll run for U.S. Senate

Apr. 21—HARRISBURG — State Sen. Doug Mastriano teased a big reveal for his plans concerning a U.S. Senate run and what he intends for Pennsylvania, and said he and his wife, Rebbie, arrived at the decisions weeks ago.

Mastriano urged his followers to stay tuned for two announcements. He spoke during a 10-minute Facebook Live video Thursday morning. The video came hours after Politico reported high-ranking Republican officials including Donald Trump fear a Mastriano campaign could negatively impact the former president's own candidacy for the White House in 2024.

"We'll talk about this U.S. Senate seat that so many are speculating about me running for. The polls do have me walking away with it, hands down," Mastriano said in a video highlighted by PoliticsPA.com.

The Franklin County lawmaker twice tweeted polls in the past four months that showed him leading in the 2024 Senate election, but those polls ultimately proved to be fake — similar to some social media shares he made during his gubernatorial campaign in 2022.

The latest Franklin & Marshall College Poll has incumbent U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, Democrat, leading Mastriano by 16 points. The poll also has Casey outpacing potential Republican challenger Dave McCormick by 7 points. Casey announced on April 10 that he would seek his fourth Senate term. Like Mastriano, McCormick hasn't yet formalized his intention.

The Franklin & Marshall poll showed low favorability ratings for Casey with 9% of respondents rating his job performance as excellent, 20% as good and 24% each as fair or poor. The remaining 22% were unsure.

Casey is the general election candidate Mastriano would face if he were to win his party's nomination. But it was Pennsylvania's other U.S. senator who held Mastriano's attention Thursday.

The Republican swiped at Sen. John Fetterman, questioning his fitness to serve. The first-year Senate Democrat is in recovery from a near-fatal stroke last May and returned to the upper chamber this week after a two-month absence that included inpatient treatment for depression.

Mastriano didn't mention Casey at all.

He did have words for the Republican establishment and its "establishment media," predicting internal party resistance. That's hardly unfamiliar. Republicans had misgivings about Mastriano's statewide electability last year because of his political views intertwined with fierce religious conviction.

"Whatever. I don't really care about their opinion. They cannot win a primary or a general election without the base. We are the base. They need to learn how to play well with the base," Mastriano said, urging his followers to get involved in elections including in the 2023 cycle.

Sen. Michele Brooks

Despite collecting 2.2 million votes last November, the fourth-most in a governor's election since at least 1970, Mastriano's total also turned out to be the most for a losing gubernatorial candidate.

Gov. Josh Shapiro received 3 million votes in a historic landslide, an all-time high for governor.

Fetterman beat Republican candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz last fall, receiving 2.7 million votes compared to 2.4 million for his opponent. In 2018, nearly 2.8 million voters cast ballots for Casey compared to 2.1 million for Republican Lou Barletta.

Mastriano noted during the video a recent visit he made to Mercer County where he met with state Sen. Michele Brooks, R-Crawford/Lawrence/Mercer. He spoke of a tour of a housing unit for military veterans at SCI Mercer, calling it an honor to meet inmates held there and that he hoped the visit gave them a little bit of hope.

He also spoke of a roundtable at Grove City College where state senators met with fire chiefs.

"I think we'll have a few bills that we'll advance and advocate for," Mastriano said with respect to support for first responders.

Mastriano credited Brooks as perhaps the strongest advocate for first responders in state office.

Brooks' bills introduced this session include a proposal to reduce an oft-bemoaned mileage requirement ambulance providers must meet for reimbursement and another that would require insurance providers to reimburse out-of-network ambulance companies for emergency medical service.

She also proposed state tax credits of $500 and $1,000 for volunteer firefighters and put forward a bill seeking to establish a firefighter training pilot program for high school students.