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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Donald Trump on Saturday endorsed Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania’s Republican main for governor, siding with a far-right candidate who was exterior the U.S. Capitol in the course of the Jan. 6 rebellion and has labored with dedication to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 presidential election.
Mastriano was already main a crowded area of contenders, and the previous president’s endorsement places him on even stronger footing heading into Tuesday’s main.
However there are rising fears from get together leaders that Mastriano, a state senator and retired U.S. Military colonel, is just too excessive to win the final election in November and will drag down different Republicans competing within the pivotal state the place a U.S. Senate seat can be up for grabs.
Mastriano has, for instance, helped unfold unsubstantiated claims from Trump and his allies that Democrats fraudulently stole the election for Joe Biden — one thing that Trump seized on in his endorsement assertion.
“There is no such thing as a one in Pennsylvania who has achieved extra, or fought more durable, for Election Integrity than State Senator Doug Mastriano,” Trump wrote. “He has revealed the Deceit, Corruption, and outright Theft of the 2020 Presidential Election, and can do one thing about it.”
Trump referred to as Mastriano “a fighter like few others, and has been with me proper from the start, and now I’ve an obligation to be with him.”
Mastriano is a outstanding peddler of conspiracy theories, together with Trump’s lies that widespread fraud marred the final White Home race and resulted in his loss in Pennsylvania.
Mastriano additionally has and stated he would take the extraordinary step of requiring voters to “re-register” to vote. Such a transfer is barred by the Nationwide Voter Registration Act and certain runs into important protections beneath the federal — and presumably state — structure and legal guidelines, constitutional legislation students say. However his embrace of such an idea is a major breach of democratic norms respecting the outcomes of a free and truthful election.
“We’re going to begin yet again,” he stated throughout a debate final month, referring to registration.
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Related Press author Jill Colvin in New York contributed to this report.
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