ALLENTOWN, Pa. - Republican gubernatorial candidate and current state Sen. Doug Mastriano visited Allentown on Saturday to rally supporters as November's general election approaches.
Mastriano is facing Democratic Attorney General Josh Shapiro to replace outgoing Gov. Tom Wolf, who is term-limited.
More than 100 area residents gathered at Lehigh Valley Active Life to hear Mastriano speak and shake his hand. Many said they liked his anti-mask stance during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and his plan to do away with all pandemic mandates if elected.
Attendees said they also support Mastriano because of his Christian faith, support for restricting abortion access and his conservative stances in education policy.
- Mastriano visited Allentown with 30 days to go in the general election
- He blasted opponent Attorney General Josh Shapiro on crime and support for LGBTQ students
- Shapiro leads in the latest polls
Jimmy Zumba, a regional director with the Republican National Committee, said Mastriano will take on corruption and crime, and fight for family values.
Mastriano said during his speech in Allentown, which has a large Hispanic population, that Latinos are the future of the Republican Party. He said they are now breaking for the GOP by 57%, but didn't offer further context on that statistic.
According to the PEW Research Center, a new survey shows the majority of Latinos either identify with or lean Democrat.
Sam Negron, who helped with security at the campaign event, said he supported Mastriano because he has witnessed firsthand the devastating impact of drug addiction.
Growing emotional, Negron said he recently lost his son to an opioid overdose.
“I see it too much,” he said. “I’ve seen it in my house. Trust me when I tell you he wasn’t raised that way.”
Mastriano blamed the issue of crime and addiction on Shapiro.
Robert E. Smith, a local Republican candidate for state representative in the 22nd district, also attended the event. He is running against Democratic Allentown City Council member Joshua Siegel.
Smith said he supported Mastriano because he had the values and experience to move the state in the right direction.
“He’s for school choice,” he said. “He’s for pro-life. He’s for the Second Amendment.”
Mastriano promised that if he wins, Pennsylvania K-12 public schools would not teach Critical Race Theory.
CRT, as it’s often called, is an academic framework that examines how institutions perpetuate racism. It's usually taught in graduate programs, but has become a catch-all for some who believe that the discussion of race and racism is divisive.
Mastriano also pledged that transgender students would be prohibited from using gender pronouns that differ from their biological gender assigned at birth. He said they would also be banned from using facilities that correspond to their gender identity and not allowed to play on sports teams that align with their gender identity.
“Under Mastriano, they’ll be no more boys on girls’ teams,” he said.
Mastriano also touched on national immigration issues during his speech, saying, if elected, among his first actions in office would be to send undocumented people to “Joe Biden’s house in Delaware.”
The latest Marist poll shows Shapiro with a 13-point lead over Mastriano with 30 days to go until the election.
