In Pennsylvania, Will the 2022 Gubernatorial Election Just Be about the 2020 Presidential Election?

Instead of real debates on current issues facing Pennsylvanians — about education and parental rights, energy and fracking, abortion and the future after Roe v. Wade — the 2022 election agenda is likely to be hijacked in the Keystone State by disputes about the 2020 election. Yesterday’s gubernatorial primary elections — won by Doug Mastriano for the GOP and Josh Shapiro for the Democrats — only made this clearer. The Pennsylvania governor’s race this election cycle will probably minimize genuine concerns as Mastriano and Shapiro relitigate whether Donald Trump really won the state in 2020 (he didn’t) and what “election integrity” measures should come next.

Just look at the candidates. Mastriano, a state senator, tried to overturn Pennsylvania’s Electoral College votes in 2020. Not only did he claim the election was stolen, but he was also in the vanguard — organizing a meeting of the state party to legitimize the falsehood, leading delegations to Trump’s White House to strategize, and sponsoring a bill in the state legislature to replace lawful electors. He even sent a busload of supporters to the U.S. Capitol on January 6 and breached the perimeter as other Trump supporters stormed the building (he claims that he didn’t enter). Of all questionable aspects of Mastriano’s character — also including indulging the QAnon conspiracy theory and past anxieties about Muslims running for public office — his role in the 2020 election dispute is the most notable and egregious.

Democratic nominee Josh Shapiro did not indulge Trump’s lies. As Pennsylvania attorney general during the election dispute, Shapiro was the lead defendant in Texas v. Pennsylvania, the major Supreme Court case contesting the election in the state. After spending December of that year doing back-to-back TV talk-show appearances attacking Trump and Mastriano’s efforts, Shapiro gained a national profile for his advocacy, which has been the basis for his unopposed gubernatorial primary run and soaring fundraising. In 15 months, he’s raised nearly $20 million, more than all Republican candidates combined. And now, nearly two years later, he is still running on these achievements. Emblazoned on Shapiro’s website, in boldface text, is “JOSH DEFENDS PENNSYLVANIA VOTERS AND THE RESULTS OF THE 2020 ELECTION,” against “extremist Republicans.” Shapiro’s record is hardly comparable to Mastriano’s. But their weird symbiosis causes Shapiro to require and elevate Mastriano as a threat, hence his perversely strategic support of Mastriano’s primary campaign.

With candidates like these, whose claim to fame is the 2020 election, voters can expect less discussion on the future of the state, and more broadsides regarding that past. Already, the attack ads are rolling in; messaging about “election audits” and “vote by mail” is getting more airtime than anything else. Two years after that saga, as Pennsylvania’s voters wish to move on, both parties’ nominees for governor are looking backwards to whip up their bases. The future of the Commonwealth looks very bleak — unless Pennsylvania voters demand better.