Pa. Sen. Doug Mastriano says he has ‘grassroots’ support as party lines up behind opponent

Sen. Mastriano opposes “extremely premature” decision by Pa. GOP and legislative leaders endorse Treasurer Stacy Garrity for governor.

• Jordan Wilkie/WITF
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  As the democracy reporter for WITF, I will cover any kind of story that has to do with how we govern ourselves. That will include doing a lot of election coverage about how to access the ballot, how public officials administer elections, the technology used to run and secure elections, and the laws that govern it all.
  
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Pa. Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Franklin, and his wife, Rebbie Mastriano, deliver the keynote speech at the Kings and Priests Christian event led by KEY Fellowship in Camp Hill, Aug. 23, 2025.

State Sen. Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for Pennsylvania governor in 2022, said the state GOP is making a mistake by lining up behind state Treasurer Stacy Garrity for next year’s race. 

Speaking with WITF after delivering the keynote address at the Kings and Priests Christian event led by KEY Fellowship on Saturday in Camp Hill, Mastriano said he recently shared his frustration in a one-on-one meeting with the Pennsylvania GOP’s chairman, state Sen. Greg Rothman, R-Cumberland.

“ I spent 90 minutes with Greg Rothman at our house expressing our opposition to an extremely premature endorsement,” Mastriano said, referring to himself and his wife, Rebbie Mastriano, who has been a key figure in his campaigns. “We think it’s a terrible idea and it’ll disenfranchise the grassroots, which we’re part of.” 

The state GOP meets next month and is expected to endorse Garrity at that time.

Garrity officially entered the 2026 race on August 18. On Monday morning, her campaign released a statement showing she has the unanimous support of Republican leadership in the state House and Senate. 

“Their endorsement means a great deal, and I’m grateful for their confidence in my record and vision for our Commonwealth,” Garrity said in the statement. 

Mastriano said the early endorsements, months before the deadline to enter next year’s race, are a mistake. 

“ Some bad decisions are being made and I’m in agreement with the grassroots that that shouldn’t happen,” Mastriano said. “Let the people decide. Otherwise, let’s just cancel the primary. Why even bother?”

He said the party’s early endorsement of Garrity is a return to Republican machine politics of the 1970s, where the party essentially picked candidates.

Rothman and the state GOP declined to respond. 

Mastriano’s timeline 

Mastriano, a retired U.S. Army colonel who was first elected to the Legislature in a 2019 special election, said he is months away from deciding whether to make another run for governor. He announced his last campaign in January 2022 and said he’s following a similar strategy this year, regardless of Garrity’s early entrance. 

In the 2022 election cycle, nine Republicans entered the party’s gubernatorial primary — hoping to return their party to power in the governor’s office after eight years of Democratic rule under Tom Wolf.

Mastriano won 44% percent of the primary vote, with a last-minute endorsement from Donald Trump helping cement the victory. But he went on to lose the general election to then-Attorney General Josh Shapiro by 15 points, or 760,000 votes. 

Garrity won reelection as state Treasurer in 2024 with the most votes ever given to a single candidate for a Pennsylvania row office — a record previously held by Shapiro when he won reelection as attorney general in 2020.

What Mastriano calls his grassroots network developed during his opposition to COVID-19 lockdowns. The coalition is still in place, he said, insisting that he has greater reach than all other state senators and a “massive media market that we reach out to organically.” 

Mastriano will spend the next couple months measuring whether the grassroots still wants him to run, and if there are enough resources to support another campaign, he said.

He did not answer questions about what specific dollar amounts or other metrics he wants to hit in order to declare for governor. 

“I’m an intel officer. If I told you, I’d have to kill you,” he said as a joke, referring to his three decades of service in the military.

“Ultimately,” added Rebbie Mastriano, “we pray about it.”

A collection of interviews, photos, and music videos, featuring local musicians who have stopped by the WITF performance studio to share a little discussion and sound. Produced by WITF’s Joe Ulrich.

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