A new poll from the Trafalgar Group shows former congressman and Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Lou Barletta leading the Republican primary field.
The survey of 1,070 likely Republican voters demonstrated that Barletta has 24.1 percent of the support, as State Senator Doug Mastriano follows closely behind with 19.9 percent.
The primary field has more than a dozen candidates vying for the GOP nomination. Only three other candidates gathered strong support: State Senator Jake Corman with 5.1 percent, former federal attorney Bill McSwain with 4.4 percent, and State Senator Scott Martin with 4 percent.
However, a large number of voters, 29 percent, are still undecided on their support of the candidates.
Barletta told The Star News Network that Governor Tom Wolf’s handling of the pandemic drove him to run for the office. Wolf is term-limited and cannot run for a third term.
“Actually, watching how Governor Wolf mismanaged the pandemic,” said Barletta, who left his House seat to challenge Democratic Senator Bob Casey Jr in 2018.
“Picking and choosing what businesses stay open, what businesses closed – crushing those employees and families made no sense to me – literally, going against what science was telling us – shutting down our schools, keeping our children out of schools for a year – having a year of their education stolen away from them. It is very difficult to tell moms in Pennsylvania they don’t have any right to decide what their children are being taught in the school.”
The Republican nominee will likely take on Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who is the clear frontrunner for the Democratic nomination. Recently, Shapiro dodged a visit from President Joe Biden to the state, citing an unexplained “scheduling conflict.”
Shapiro is not the first individual to avoid an appearance with the commander-in-chief. In Georgia, Stacy Abrams ditched a Biden speech in the state, also citing a “scheduling conflict.”
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Cooper Moran is a reporter for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
