HARRISBURG — A Republican state senator who has talked of possibly running for governor of Pennsylvania in 2022 said Wednesday that former President Donald Trump asked him to run and promised to campaign for him.
Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Franklin, said he met with Trump on Monday in New York and, among other things, discussed the governor’s race and the candidates.
“He had asked me to run some months ago,” Mastriano said during a sit-down interview in the studio of WEEO-FM in Chambersburg. “He said, ‘Doug, run and I’ll campaign for you.’”
Mastriano, first elected two years ago, has talked of speaking with Trump at least 15 times. In November, Mastriano organized a hearing in Gettysburg that featured Rudy Giuliani and a phone call appearance by Trump in which the president claimed the election was rigged and urged state lawmakers to overturn the result.
Mastriano has become a one-man force in conservative politics in Pennsylvania, leading anti-mask protests last year, pushing to overturn Trump’s reelection loss and showing up outside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot.
Mastriano’s statements come days after Lou Barletta, the Trump-endorsed nominee for U.S. Senate in 2018, said he is running for governor of Pennsylvania.
Barletta, a former Hazleton mayor and four-term member of Congress, has hired members of Trump’s presidential campaign team for his gubernatorial campaign.
