Republicans who back Shapiro are choosing sane politics over extremism

Nine Republican leaders recently endorsed Democratic candidate Josh Shapiro over Republican candidate Doug Mastriano in the race for governor in November.

Just days after that endorsement, a group of centrist Republicans announced the formation of a PAC to oppose Mastriano.

It is too early to tell how persuasive these leaders will be in getting a significant number of members of their party to join them in supporting Shapiro and opposing Mastriano.

Still, their public support of moderate Shapiro over Mastriano, a far-right extremist, is encouraging.

The courageous Republican leaders who have endorsed Shapiro and formed the PAC against Mastriano are putting their state and country above blind party loyalty.

With their backing of Shapiro, the state’s moderate attorney general, these Republican leaders are saying that Mastriano is too extreme to be supported.

“There’s a long history of Pennsylvania Republicans being from what I guess people call the moderate part of the party,” said Craig Snyder, a leader of Republicans4Shapiro and a former chief of staff for the late centrist Republican U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter.

Other members of the group include former congressmen Charlie Dent and Jim Greenwood, along with a former lieutenant governor and a state House speaker.

“(He’s) an extremist who is a threat to the rule of law and the constitutional order,” Dent said. Shapiro, on the other hand, “has integrity and always works to bring people together.”

Snyder said the plan is to target persuadable Republican and independent voters.

“Donald Trump and Mastriano are way beyond what the Republican Party is supposed to stand for,” said Greenwood, the chairman of Republicans4Shapiro.

Greenwood called Shapiro “a sane, commonsense, well-thought-of public servant.”

The Republicans involved pointed to several of Mastriano’s far-right stances in explaining their efforts to oppose him.

They specifically oppose his extreme position on abortion. Mastriano supports new restrictions with no exceptions for rape, incest or the life of the pregnant woman, as well as criminal penalties for doctors and nurses who perform the procedure.

They also point out Mastriano attended the Jan. 6, 2021, rally that preceded the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol and continues to insist that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump and that there was widespread election fraud in Pennsylvania that helped President Joe Biden win.

“His view of the 2020 election is false,” Snyder said. “It was not a stolen election.”

Snyder correctly warned that Mastriano, if elected governor, would appoint the secretary of state to oversee elections and that could lead to chaos in the 2024 presidential election.

Snyder added that Mastriano, who embodies the Christian nationalist movement, is riding a “toxic mixture of religion and politics” that crosses a long-accepted line. “We’ve got to stop him, and I think he can be stopped,” Snyder said.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the Mastriano campaign has deleted more than a dozen videos from social media sites and his website that espouse his extremist views.

The controversial posts include tweets promoting the Qanon conspiracy theory and a plan to lift medical privacy restrictions so the government could disclose the names and locations of people with COVID-19.

More mainstream Republicans and independents should join the effort to stop extremist Doug Mastriano from becoming governor of Pennsylvania.