Pennsylvania's governor race could pave the way for Trump's return in 2024

In the weeks that followed the 2020 presidential election, Josh Shapiro and Doug Mastriano were on opposing sides of former president Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the presidential election in Pennsylvania.

- ERIC GARCIA

As a state senator, Mastriano was one of the biggest promoters of the lie that the election was stolen. He requested and organised a public hearing into nonexistent voter fraud in the days that featured Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani. He also spent $3,354 busing people to Washington for Trump’s Jan 6 rally and went to the US Capitol, though he claimed to have left before the violent riot started. In the days leading up to the certification of election results, he was part of a group of Republican state senators who asked for Congress to delay the certification of election results.

Conversely, as Pennsylvania’s attorney general, Shapiro was responsible for fighting the multiple lawsuits that Trump’s team brought to challenge the election results. At an event in Scranton last Saturday, Shapiro talked about how he pushed back against Trump, noting how Trump “sued me” 43 times. “I don’t mind getting sued, but understand why he sued,” Shapiro told supporters at a Democratic office opening on Biden street. He sued me to make sure that your vote wouldn’t count.”

The two men one of who sought to overturn the 2020 presidential election results and sent buses of people to Washington, and one who pushed back are now the respective Republican and Democratic nominees to replace term-limited Governor Tom Wolf. But Mastriano’s extremism means that if he wins, he could use his power as governor to subvert the results of a future presidential election.