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“It’s like he didn’t even know he was running from behind, like if he prayed and fasted enough, he would win,”

That and the fact that he said he was gonna make Pennsylvania “the Florida of the north”.

It was off course from the moment he tossed his hat into the ring. WTF were middle of the road Republican voters thinking?

He opened his mouth. Pretty sure one of his campaign ads was a hate crime.

Freak show.

Honestly the worst candidate I've ever seen, period. This guy makes Scott Wagner (who ran against Wolf for gov in 2018) look like Einstein.

This is now the third consecutive PA Governor race where the Democrat thumped the Republican by double digits.

Easiest vote against on the state level since I’ve been of age.

He had no shot from Day 1. I could have saved the Inquirer the ink...

“Covert campaign” is a pretty accurate way to put it.

He hasn't conceded yet. He still thinks he's going to win.

This traitorous religious nutcase had no chance from the jump. Fuck him, and fuck whoever supported this traitorous piece of shit.

That's the thing. That's what we learned in church. You pray, fast, tithe, and more, and God will provide.

They are all cults.

It's a holy war to him. Conceding would be admitting God lost and the Satan won.

Genuine question: if he keeps refusing, will it just look like bad sportsmanship, or does he have to concede for things to move forward?

Edit: oh thank goodness. The possibility of Mastriano getting any sort of power was fucking scary and I'm glad it's over.

Once the election is certified, it doesn't matter what he says or does or believes. He doesn't hold the office now so he doesn't really stand in the way of a transition like Trump did when he lost but refused to concede.

Hey Doug, perhaps you should take a cue from one of the far right dark money ads that played non-stop this cycle...

"It's time...to STOP. THE INSANITY"

Conceding isn’t necessary, it’s just done as a small token of good faith. Shapiro will be Governor regardless of what Mastriano says.

Even though he lost in a landslide, he probably will never truly concede in order to keep up his “strongman” image. He knows if he says that he will concede, his political career is probably over (if it isn’t already over now).

We can continue. He can take his ball and go home

He also makes Tom Corbett look like FDR by comparison.

I don't think the GoP ever really cared about the governor race. I mean, just look at the pool of "candidates" for the GoP primary back in May. They probably figured that no matter who won the primary Shapiro was going to win regardless hence very little money being given to Mastriano's term.

It seems like they put all their eggs in the senate race, but that failed too. I do think they regret not pushing a more traditional republican like Barletta since I think Mastriano hurt Oz's chances despite the latter's efforts in distancing himself from Mastriano and the radical right.

PA broke the two terms and switch pattern with the governor’s office by ousting Corbett by one term and has followed it up with 3 straight dem wins, which hadn’t happened since the 1840s.

Pa demographic changes are slow but interesting. Population wise SE PA has been growing slowly, Pittsburgh is flat, and rural, small town PA is shrinking. Politically, That’s offset by small town PAs long shift from union backing blue dogs to the hard right. That shift is not going to change most likely but it will max out at some point. And if SE pa continues to slowly grow...is it crazy to suggest the state might be slightly trending blue?

It didn't hurt Trump when he never conceded. In fact, bad sportsmanship is now in the DNA of the Republican party.

I remember watching an episode of first 48, detectives were called to a house where everyone in the house was dead. They were confused because there were no signs of forced entry, nothing out of place… the adults in the home were just dead. When they started looking for clues in the home, they found they all died of starvation. The deceased kept journals and they were doing some sort of testing the faith type thing, showing their faith in God and he will provide food, something like that. You could tell the detectives were really bothered by this case.

It was by design, as the Democrats had an active strategy of boosting the worst Republican candidates in the primaries, so the general election would be easier to win. It worked across several races nationwide.

True, but I think it's a stretch to say that these candidates won because of a few ads that Democrats ran.

I agree...you still have the far right wing nuts that voted him in during the primary. I just hate the 2 party system overall and how divided it is. It's clear that bipartisan efforts and compromises are a thing of the past, which is a shame, because most Americans are more moderate than the media would have you believe.

The 'terrible candidate' is another lie they are pushing. Don't fall for it.

The terrible people of there party got together to promote Mastriano and the members of the party elected him in their primary election. Our Republican neighbors voted for him, many of them twice now.

It's the Republican Party that is terrible and Mastriano was their chosen statewide leader.

Dude stormed the capital on Jan 6th. Absolute fucking loser and a traitor.

This is the hard part about this. I’ve seen the signs, heard the conversations from neighbors and friends. It’s hard to go back to “hey, let’s drink some beer on the patio” when I know you not only voted but actually “believe” the things he says.

I am hoping to find all my neighbors that supported the Republicans this year and buy them a beer to discuss. It's a good topic to engage on. Otherwise they will only hear from their friends on Facebook.

Was his campaign ever on course?

But you can't have a discussion with people that refuse to hear anything but what they've already been told by the overlords. Good luck, but it's going to be exhausting

Yeah. Like taco said below, you can’t change the minds of people, that don’t want to listen. It is weird anymore. You can’t have discussion. It turns into anger. In order to not lose friends, or make for unneighborly relations, we just ignore it. That has been the biggest takeaway of the trump elections. People are emboldened into thinking his views, and by extension their views, are the only views. The hard part for me is the the far right is/was seriously trying to limit things like birth control. Birth control. I mean holy fuck, what century are we living in. Any time I would bring it up, my righties would say shit like “small price to pay for freedom”. Like that is the OPPOSITE of freedom. Then they would bring up gas prices, and I would just quit. Short story, save your beer bro.

Veered off course??? He tried to murder elected officials in Washington D.C.! Terrorists like him are why we still have Guantanamo.

I’d say it stayed exactly on the course he wanted it to be on. It didn’t “veer” anywhere. This kind of both-sideism language is framing it as some kind of mistake or something rather than saying “fascist candidate: not popular”

Well, at the statewide level, we have been blue for a LONG time. we dabble with red at those levels but usually only very popular candidates. Our national senate tends to be rather purple.

Even our national representatives are purple-ish, when they are not gerrymandered. Our state congress is pretty red.

Small towns have also shifted because every generation for atleast the last 40+ years have ran from them and have generally decided not to go back. You go off for college or technical training, why go back there, you can make so much more money elsewhere. You aren't religious, are gay, or have odd interests for a small town... why the hell would you stay there, there is NOTHING to do there.

Even if you do regular trades work, why go to a place that only has 40k people in 400 square miles who are generally poorer, when you can have a million+ in the same sized space only an hour away, who tend to have more money.

Those places aren't bringing in new people, there aren't a lot of businesses, aren't a lot of well paying jobs, they shoot themselves in the foot every step of the way

Well, I doubt that Shapiro's ad boosted Mastriano. If it did, Shapiro needs to be a campaign manager for republicans. He spent less than a million dollars and Mastriano won the primary by 20+%. if it was only a couple of points, maybe but to swing 300k voters(more than the next primary hopeful got) to Mastriano is a bit of a pipe dream.

The ad was also not saying "Mastriano is a great guy", it was "Mastriano is a cool with hateful mobs" and the like. It was to turn off moderate republicans that had enough of Trump and violence. It was aimed at like the 60% of the republicans that didn't vote for Mastriano in the primary.

It was stillborn.

Word!

It happened when he was 1st considered as a viable candidate in an American democracy.

And then there’s the Senate race in GA. How is that even close.

He plotted the exact course he wanted. He was inches from sacrificing lambs and handling snakes. Nuts. 2 million nuts voted for him. Be aware. Did he concede yet?🤡🤡🤡

I don't think he has publicly but I don't think he's made any indication that he'll challenge the results either. He'll probably just fade into obscurity.

It veered off track the moment he announced his candidacy and came out as a go down on his death bed Trumper.

Also, how did the military people he led, not come out and say this man is a looney tune?

I doubt that. 2 million goldfish voted for him.

He lost by a landslide and the GoP establishment is probably going to stay as far away as possible from him. It was an embarrassing defeat and regardless if he concedes or not, Shapiro will be the governor in January.

Rule #1 Don't dress up like a Confederate to win in a Union state.

Rule #2 Don't be a jerk (see rule #1)

Rule #3 Not once did any of his ads mention what he might want to do for the state of Pa, other than enforce ideas most Pennsylvanians overwhelmingly reject (right to choose in some degree, tolerance for gay marriage.)

Rule # 4 Don't get your information from Q Anon.

His campaign never even got on a road, lol. The man needs help. There's a padded cell with his name on it somewhere. He makes Trump look like a calm cool collected person. I'm not even saying that to be mean, there's something mentally unstable with him.

That Shapiro ad quoting Mastriano was like “greatest hits from the biggest asshole.”

I remember the Trump installed Supreme Court appointees saying roe vs wade was something they would not attack. They lied right to your face. Mastriano will still work the sewers and he’s an elected Pa state senator. The work is not done. They are not going away. We must end them, because we were told before to “not worry” about the lunatics.