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Extreme right-wing candidate Doug Mastriano, who was crushed by now-Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) last November, is currently weighing (well, technically, praying for guidance about) a run for the seat of Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA). If God says "Go, Doug, Go!" he could jump in. Mastriano, we mean, not God. Mastriano was able to get the Republican nomination last time and stands a good chance to get it again, unless Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) picks someone else and pours tens of millions of dollars into the primary to defeat Mastriano. However, while McConnell is not averse to picking candidates, he surely knows that beating a popular three-term incumbent Democrat in blue state will be very tough even with a perfect candidate, so he might prefer to write off Pennsylvania and concentrate on Montana, Ohio, and West Virginia.
Mastriano is saying that 2.2 million people voted for him (800,000 fewer than voted for Shapiro), so he has a future in Pennsylvania politics. But God gets to decide first and then his wife (Mastriano's wife, not God's wife) gets to make the final call.
As is common with ultra-MAGA politicians, Mastriano has few contacts with Republican politicians other than Donald Trump. In fact, many of them blame him for the Democrats' clean sweep of the state, winning not only the governorship, and the Senate seat, but also a majority of state House contests. This means he won't get any help from the Republican establishment. If God and Mrs. Mastriano want him to run, he'll jump in. No doubt there will be others as well. One possibility is Dave McCormick, a resident of Connecticut, who ran for the GOP nomination for the Senate in 2022 and lost out to Mehmet Oz, a resident of New Jersey. McCormick never really acted like he wanted to be a senator and was more cajoled into running than anything. Whether he would try again, against another Trumper, remains to be seen. But probably not, especially when unseating a long-time incumbent is very difficult.
Mastriano is hoping God and the wife give him the green light because he is already holding rallies. He was confident that he would win last time. It didn't happen last time and it won't happen this time, in part because the Republican establishment will almost certainly oppose him in the primary. But a guy can always hope. (V)