Republican gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano and his wife Rebecca on Nov. 2, 2022. Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images

By Jacob Kornbluh March 8, 2023

Doug Mastriano, a Christian nationalist who trafficked in antisemitic tropes in last year’s race for Pennsylvania governor, is considering a run for the U.S. Senate in 2024. In an interview with Politico, published on Tuesday, Mastriano said he’s “praying” about whether to compete in a Republican primary to challenge incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey.

“What do you do with a movement of 2.2 million?” he said, referring to the number of votes he received in the 2022 gubernatorial election. “We’re keeping it alive.”

In his campaign last year against now-Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish, Mastriano took heat for his divisive rhetoric and association with antisemites and conspiracy theorists. But the Pennsylvania state senator, who likened Democratic gun-control proposals to Nazi policies and referred to abortion as a “barbaric holocaust,” declined to distance himself from extreme views and extremists. He welcomed support from the founder of Gab, a social media platform for far-right extremists and an echo chamber for antisemitism, and attacked Shapiro for sending his kids to a “privileged, exclusive, elite” Jewish day school.

Antisemitism Notebook

Your weekly guide through the news and the noise of how rising antisemitism and disputes over how to address it are shaping American Jewish life.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Mastriano offended Jews in particular when he closed his campaign with a prayer from a Messianic rabbi and a woman who played a tribute to the tune of “If I Were a Rich Man” from Fiddler on the Roof.

Shapiro beat Mastriano in November by 15%, the largest margin for a non-incumbent since 1946 and the most votes in a Pennsylvania gubernatorial election. In the Politico interview, Mastriano said he believed he was going to win the race, even as polls showed him trailing, based on turnout at his campaign rallies. “I’d go to these rallies and people would say, ‘We’ve never seen this,’” he said.

Mastriano said his wife Rebecca, whom he calls “Rebbie,” will have the final word on a potential run. She received criticism during the campaign for saying that “we probably love Israel more than a lot of Jews do.”

Mastriano said it doesn’t matter that much of the attention he attracted running for governor skewed negative, because it made him a household name. “How do I beat the Casey name? ‘Mastriano’?” he told Politico with a grin. “At least they know who I am now.”

Mastriano recently hired Dan Cox, the defeated Republican nominee for governor of Maryland, who was an active user on Gab before he won the GOP primary last year, as his chief of staff. He is holding a rally titled “Walk as free people” in Franklin County on Saturday. 

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

$36 $500

$120 $180 Other amount