State Senator Doug Mastriano, a potential candidate for governor in 2022, traveled to the United States Capitol on January 6 and even announced a bus to take the protesters there. In the weeks after the deadly uproar, a right-wing state representative, Daryl Metcalfe, said on Facebook that the FBI called his office asking about the day of the insurrection and referred to the agency’s whistleblower line as a “whistleblower” line.
“It’s not the party I belonged to years ago,” said Robert Byer, a former Republican judge and legal adviser to George HW Bush in 1988 presidential campaign in Pennsylvania. “The notion that government officials could challenge the integrity of the election in our community bothers me a lot. It bothers me as a citizen. “
In 2016, the radical turn to the right of the state Republican Party was a boon for the party: Trump became the first Republican to win the presidential election in Pennsylvania in almost 30 years. But since then, it has caused damage. After clinging to Trump, the Republican Party’s nominees for governor and senator in 2018 lost by double digits. Democrats also won seats in the House that year in part thanks to the suburbs of Philadelphia, a former stronghold of the Republican Party. And in the fall, Biden recovered Pennsylvania, again fueled by a Trump reaction in the populous suburbs of the state’s largest city.
Next year, there will be another referendum on the trombification of Pennsylvania Republicans: there will be rare open seats for governor and senator. Democrats and never-Trump Republicans pledge to ensure that undecided voters remember efforts to overturn the state’s presidential election results based on allegations that have not been made. Republicans say the party’s pro-Trump base will be energized by lawmakers who protested electoral fraud and opposed Biden’s voters.
“They are very happy to have defended them,” said former Republican MP Lou Barletta, an important Trump ally, of how supporters of the president see legislators who tried to block the results of the state’s Electoral College. Barletta, who is eyeing a campaign for governor, said “we must not return to the old Republican Party for this reason: the Republican Party today has grown more to represent male and female workers”.
As the new face emerging from the Pennsylvania MAGA movement, Perry’s recent actions “would make him an important target on our list,” said Sarah Longwell, co-founder of the Republican Accountability Project, which plans to spend $ 50 million supporting impeachment Republican lawmakers. of Trump and expelling the supporters of the former president. “Anyone who has sought to help the authorities of the president’s right arm in Georgia, to work to overturn the results of a free and fair election, must be held accountable.”
The surprising revelation that Perry, until recently a little-known congressman outside Pennsylvania, took the highly unorthodox step of introducing Justice Department attorney Jeffrey Clark to Trump was made public over the weekend. As reported by The New York Times for the first time, Clark unsuccessfully tried to expel the acting attorney general, Jeffrey Rosen. Perry also reportedly spoke with Clark and Trump about the prospect of a Justice Department letter to Georgia state lawmakers alleging that an electoral fraud investigation could change the state election, which Biden won.
In a statement to reporters, Perry confirmed his role in the presentation of the two men, as well as in general discussions about the election, but provided few other details.
“Over the past four years, I have worked with Assistant Attorney General Clark on various legislative matters. When President Trump asked if I would give a presentation, I thanked him, ”he said. “My conversations with the president or deputy attorney general, as with everyone I became involved with after the election, were a reiteration of the many concerns about the integrity of our elections, and that these allegations should at least be investigated to alleviate voters’ minds that they, in fact, participated in a free and fair election. “
Politicians in Pennsylvania attribute the shift to the right in the state’s Republican Party to a combination of familiar factors: the Trump presidency, the role of gerrymandering in creating highly party districts, the polarization fueled by cable TV and social media.
“Reinforced low turnout primary elections in districts chosen by gerrymander do not surprisingly facilitate the good performance of extremist candidates,” said David Thornburgh, chairman of the good government group Committee of the Seventy and son of the late centrist governor. “My father’s party wing was a moderate-liberal republican from the northeast. You have to look hard to find someone who remains in that category. “
The collapse of the GOP in and around Philadelphia’s collar counties also played a role. As the suburbs became more liberal and the party became more socially conservative, moderate Republican lawmakers, such as Ryan Costello and Charlie Dent, were succeeded by Democrats, a process that was accelerated by the state Supreme Court’s redesign of Congressional maps in 2018.
“The Republican Party’s recent political free fall in the Southeast has resulted in many central Republicans who are not seeking re-election or losing re-election,” said Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt, a Republican who was targeted by Trump for fighting against women. unfounded allegations of electoral fraud in the city. “It certainly diminished the influence of moderate Republicans.”
Christopher Nicholas, a consultant for the Pennsylvania-based Republican Party, also pointed to population trends in central Pennsylvania as having a role.
“Congressman Perry and Senator Mastriano come from the conservative center of Pennsylvania,” he said. “There has always been a more conservative GOP trend here, and you add the fact that the center of Pennsylvania is growing.”
Even though moderates have lost significant power in the state’s Republican Party, they are still not dead – and some are looking for a return in 2022, especially at the state level, where they have often done better. Costello is advancing toward a Senate offer for the vacancy held by Republican Senator Pat Toomey. Schmidt left the door open to an upper office. Dan Hilferty, a former chief executive of the Independence Health Group who has sometimes supported Democrats, is considering running for governor as a Republican.
The Republican Accountability Project has said it will wait to see the result of the redistricting this year – the state must lose a seat because of the redistribution – to decide its exact game plan when it comes to Perry and other pro-Trump lawmakers. But the group said it could run negative ads against Perry before that. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, however, is in talks with former general auditor Eugene DePasquale, the Democrat who unsuccessfully tried to oust Perry in 2020, according to a person familiar with the discussions.
DePasquale and other Pennsylvania Democrats called for Perry’s resignation, saying “he was part of a coup attempt”. DePasquale predicted that the massive increase in Trump’s stake that benefited Republicans last year “will not be at stake in 2022”. But his almost 7-point loss to Perry – one of the biggest disappointments for Democrats in the state, which came after DePasquale raised millions of dollars and consistently well researched – shows the strength of the conservative politicians in Pennsylvania.
“People here like the congressman,” said Nicholas. “And I think that has always been Congressman Perry’s saving grace, is that he’s very, very, very conservative – bold – but he’s a nice guy.”