Harrisburg, PA — The last full day of campaigning for governor of Pennsylvania and the US Senate began on Monday with a top Senate candidate in hospital and Republicans trying to block victory for candidates they worry will fall will be accurate.
John Fetterman, who was election and fundraising in the Democratic Party’s primary election for the US Senate, remained in hospital on Monday after suffering a stroke just before the weekend.
His campaign said he would not appear at Tuesday’s election night party in Pittsburgh, although Fetterman said on Sunday that he was feeling better, expected to make a full recovery and resume campaigning after taking some rest. will start with.
Meanwhile, ads for a new attack against late Republican U.S. Senate candidate Cathy Barnett are circulating as many in the Republican Party establishment vouch for their support to prevent Doug Mastriano from winning the party’s gubernatorial nomination on the presidential battlefield. Trying to get stronger.
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Some Republicans fear that Barnett and Maastriano are too polarizing to defeat Democratic opponents in a general election. Barnett and Maastriano have campaigned together, supported each other and promoted conspiracy theories, including former President Donald Trump’s lie that widespread voter fraud cost them the 2020 election.
He has even spent a fraction of the money of some of his rivals.
The scrambling reflects the high stakes and uncertainty of Tuesday’s election in Pennsylvania that has fueled the campaign in the past week amid reports of Fetterman’s hospitalization and last-minute jockeying in the Republican primary.
In the gubernatorial race, an organization that is reported to have spent nearly $13 million promoting Republican nominee Bill McSwain, a lawyer who was Donald Trump’s appointee for the US Attorney General in Philadelphia, nearly two days before the election. changed his allegiance to former Congressman Lou Barletta.
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The Commonwealth Partners Chamber of Entrepreneurs, a business advocacy group whose political action committees are conditioned for cash from billionaire Jeffrey Yass, said it believes Barretta has the best chance of beating Mastroiano. The group is now calling on McSwan to leave and support Barletta.
Maastriano, recently backed by Trump, downplayed efforts by Republicans to defeat him and portrayed Democrats, including President Joe Biden, as far-left hardliners.
“The swamps hit back, but they hit and they failed, they missed, and Donald Trump came in the middle of their plot with each other’s swamp-like creatures and backed me up and cut legs out from under them,” Maastriano said. . An interview Monday with the Light of Liberty podcast.
Meanwhile, in the hard-fought Republican primary for the U.S. Senate, Barnett worked to stem mounting attacks from former hedge fund CEO David McCormick and heart surgeon-turned-TV celebrity Mehmet Oz, a candidate backing Trump.
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Barnett said Monday on conservative Breitbart radio that “I am not a globalist, they are both” and that he has “very strong ties to the World Economic Forum”, an organization that has been the subject of right-wing conspiracy theories. ,
They’re pretending to be “trump card-carrying members of the Patriotic Party,” she said, and she called Oz — he was born in the United States to parents who immigrated from Turkey and had dual citizenship. Used to keep – “not only an American, but also a Turkish one.”
“Globalist” is a derogatory term, adopted by Trump and others in his class to refer to an elite, international congregation that does not serve America’s best interests.
Barnett also suggested on Breitbart radio that she would not support Oz or McCormick if they win the primary, adding that “I have no intention of supporting the globalists.”
However, he later told reporters in Scranton, “I believe they are globalists, and I find it very upsetting. But … I will do everything I can for the GOP to make sure we win.” And make sure the Democrats don’t win.
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Trump’s endorsement of both Maastriano and Oz has turned Pennsylvania’s Republican establishment into contradictions, as some have warned that Maastriano is far from right to defeat Democrat Josh Shapiro in the general election.
Trump himself has warned that Barnett may not win in the fall – yet Maastriano is campaigning with him. In a telephone townhall with Oz on Monday night, Trump warned that when Barnett is “inspected, it’s going to be a catastrophe for the party.”
With elections showing a boom of late for Barnett, Trump’s attacks reflected an eleventh-hour behind-the-scenes scramble by Trump allies and rival campaigns to discredit him. If elected, she would be the first black Republican woman to serve in the Senate.
On Monday, the Oz campaign sent a 90-second robocall to Republican voters, with Trump urging them to vote for Oz and attacking McCormick and Barnett, saying “not the candidates who put America first, Label for his governing philosophy of Trump.
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In addition to the new attack ads targeting Barnett, he is being asked about his history of inflammatory comments, which have included insulting Muslims and homosexuals. She said her Islamophobic tweets were taken out of context.
She is also being asked if she was involved in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol after attending Trump’s “Stop the Steel” rally that day. She was not, she said.
“Understanding Kathy Barnett is confusing. Every time she answers a question, she raises a whole lot more,” Oz said on “The Brian Kilmed Show” on Fox News Radio.
Barnett, speaking to several dozen supporters at the Scranton Hotel on Monday evening, said her rivals were lying about her because she was winning.
“Do you really want to hear more smear attacks, more attacks, throwing people under the bus, using tactics like Lefties trying to destroy one of their own?” Barnett questioned.
McCormick, a decorated US Army combat veteran who has strong ties to the party establishment going back to his service in President George W. Bush’s administration, has also been repeatedly criticized by Trump over the past two weeks.
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Still, McCormick is kicking off a 2020 campaign by airing a TV ad showing a video clip of Trump at a private ceremony, congratulating McCormick, saying, “You’ve helped our country in so many different ways.” Good service.”
“You know why they said that,” McCormick says in the TV commercial. “Because it’s true. I risked my life for America and I’ll do it again in a heartbeat. … I’m a Pro-Life, Pro-Gun, America First Conservative and I’m proud of it.” “
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Follow the Associated Press for full coverage of the midterm at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections and on Twitter here https://twitter.com/ap_politics,
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Levy reported from Harrisburg, Pa. Follow Mark Levy on Twitter https://twitter.com/timelywriter
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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