PITTSBURGH (TNS) — Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano made multiple stops this week as part of his meet and greet bus tour, where he highlighted some of his campaign points.
MMastriano was joined by his wife Rebbie, who also took some time to speak to supporters on Wednesday in the Pittsburgh area.
Media were admitted to the events, but were asked by campaign staff “not to engage with Doug or Rebbie” and at one point during Mastriano’s speech were physically blocked by campaign members and supporters.
In the parking lot of the Republican Committee of Allegheny County headquarters in Green Tree, Mastriano shook hands and took photos with a crowd of about 75 people. He dedicated a large portion of his speech at this event to criticizing his opponent, current Attorney General Josh Shapiro and current Gov. Tom Wolf.
”My goal is to make Pennsylvania the Florida of the north,” Mastriano told the crowd. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis joined Mastriano at a Pittsburgh rally in August, where he called on all Republicans to unite around the candidate.
”No longer will you have a governor reigning over you with terror and fear,” Mastriano added.
Mastriano went on to criticize Wolf’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic by shutting down businesses and mandating masks.
Mimicking Shapiro’s own line that targets Mastriano, he said that Shapiro was “too dangerous and too extreme for Pennsylvania.”
”Josh Shapiro is trying to project onto us his issues,” he said. “His problem is too extreme. If he was a solider in the Army, I would’ve kicked him out for incompetence and stupidity.”
Mastriano frequently returned to the idea of “too extreme” in his speech, saying that it was the Democrats who were too extreme.
”An extremist is somebody who thinks it’s OK to have boys on the girls [sports] team,” Mastriano said.
He referenced this particular topic numerous times during his speech, referring back to the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act that Wolf vetoed in July, which sought to ban transgender females from participating in all-girls high school sports.
Because of this veto, Mastriano said that the Republicans were more focused on women’s rights than the Democrats.
Mastriano took over the microphone to discuss some of the women’s rights the party says it supports.
”We care about a woman’s right to be born … to be able to access baby formula and have affordable groceries … and to have a government that enforces the law and prosecutes crime,” Mastriano said, also listing the First and Second Amendments to the Constitution as women’s rights the party supports.
Mastriano has previously said that he did not support a woman’s right to an abortion for any reason even under instances of rape or incest.
His speech also focused on driving down energy costs.
”Day one, we’re going to get ourselves out of this energy compact and we’re going to drill and dig and drive energy prices down,” he said in reference to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative Pennsylvania joined in April promising to reduce pollution from electric power plants.
Earlier in the day, the Mastrianos and GOP Lt. Gov. candidate Carrie DelRosso, met supporters at the Grace Life Church in Ross.
The speech there mirrored the one Mastriano gave later in the day, but with a greater emphasis on encouraging people to vote.
”We need change and this is who’s going to lead our charge — Doug Mastriano,” DelRosso said. “Most important thing right now is [to] call people, tell them to vote. The more people we get to vote, the more margin we win by. Because we are going to win.”
