Doug Mastriano

PHILADELPHIA — State Sen. Doug Mastriano is considering another run for Pennsylvania governor in 2026, setting up a potential rematch with Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro after he beat Mastriano by nearly 15 percentage points in the last election.

Mastriano, R-Franklin, told The Inquirer on Tuesday that another gubernatorial run is “definitely on the table” and that he has spent time determining what went wrong in his disastrous 2022 bid, where he lacked the Republican establishment’s support, raised little money, and often refused to talk to mainstream media outlets.

Shapiro is up for reelection in 2026 and remains unusually popular in the swing state that voted for President Donald Trump in November. A spokesperson for Shapiro declined to comment.

Many top Pennsylvania Republicans have expressed a desire to more seriously challenge Shapiro — who broke the state’s spending record in the 2022 race and has been floated as a future presidential contender in 2028 — which Mastriano believes is possible with him at the top of the ticket after learning some critical lessons from the 2024 presidential election.

At least one other Republican has signaled their intention to run: U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa., who said he’s considering a run for Pennsylvania governor in 2026. Treasurer Stacy Garrity — who in November received the most votes of any candidate for statewide office in Pennsylvania history — has not ruled out a run.

The most important lesson that Mastriano said he learned in the recent election was that Republican candidates need to embrace mail voting to win statewide in Pennsylvania after previously disparaging it. And he thinks he could win by utilizing mail voting, even without the support of the GOP establishment.

“Where I fell short, and where we failed was not just the establishment — I think I focused too much on that,” Mastriano said. “Where I lost it was the mail-in votes. Me and my team did not embrace that new reality. … That’s where we blew it.”

Trump’s attacks on mail ballots in 2020 deterred Republican voters from using the option in previous election, but in 2024, Republicans made concerted efforts to increase mail voting among the GOP.

“It’s a reality we have to embrace. And had Trump not embraced it last year, he would’ve lost again,” Mastriano said, seemingly acknowledging for the first time that Trump lost the 2020 election. “And that’s where I’ll win it. I won’t win it whether or not the establishment comes on board, I’ll win it because we’ll have mail-in voting stuff figured out.”

Mastriano pointed to the trajectory of the late Gov. Bob Casey Sr., a Democrat who made four bids for governor before winning the top executive spot in 1986 and went on to serve two terms. And he’s looking at the positives of his race: He won the most votes of any GOP gubernatorial candidate since 1962 in the high turnout contest with Shapiro, a number Mastriano believes would increase by embracing mail voting in 2026.

Mastriano also said he has spent time over the years building up good will with the Pennsylvania’s Republican establishment, including state Sen. Greg Rothman, R- Dauphin, the new state party chair, and U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., whom he said he helped deliver grassroots votes for Republicans in the 2024 election and recent state GOP chairman’s election. He noted that he sat at the state GOP dinner with Rothman, alongside other grassroots and establishment leaders.

“I’m confident because of what we’ve done here, as far as with Greg Rothman, with Dave McCormick and showing good will there, that we would get their support after the primary for sure of both the establishment and not face the same challenges as we did,” Mastriano said.

Rothman, in a statement, said Mastriano “was very helpful in my campaign for Chairman of the PA GOP and I am grateful for his support.” But he did not say whether he was supporting Mastriano’s potential candidacy, if he officially joins the race.

“We are focused on making sure the infrastructure is in place to elect a Republican to governor in 2026,” Rothman said in a statement. “But it starts with winning judicial races in 2025.”

Mastriano considered running against McCormick in the U.S. Senate primary, but ultimately decided against it and threw his support behind McCormick. A spokesperson for McCormick did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mastriano is a former U.S. Army colonel with top-secret clearance-turned state senator who built a grassroots following during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic for his resistance to business shutdowns. That grassroots support continued to grow following the 2020 presidential election as he promoted Trump’s false claims that Pennsylvania’s election results were rigged.

He remains a staunch Trump supporter today, waking up every day since his inauguration “with a smile” and he believes his possible candidacy reflects Pennsylvania’s excitement for Trump. He has modeled some of his recent legislation off Trump’s executive actions, such as a bill he is working on inspired by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency for a Pennsylvania version of the commission led by the legislative branch and row officers.

He’s also preparing legislation to allow residents to access invermectin, an anti-malaria drug and dewormer that right-wing commentators popularized as a treatment for COVID-19 during the early days of the pandemic, and has supported efforts to ban transgender women and girls from participating in women’s sports.

Mastriano also has ties to Christian nationalism and opposes abortion, including exceptions for rape, incest or health.

In the 2022 primary, the state GOP declined to endorse in the gubernatorial or U.S. Senate races. This led to a crowded, nine-candidate GOP primary ballot for governor that was advantageous for Mastriano, who had already built name recognition for his anti-lockdown and 2020 election efforts.

Democrats saw Mastriano and his far-right views as an easier opponent in the general election. Shapiro, who at the time was state attorney general and did not face a primary opponent, ran an ad in the GOP primary to try to ensure he’d face the right-wing senator in the general election, where he later cruised to victory.

Republican leaders predicted — too late — that Mastriano would struggle to win statewide in a general election, so they tried to stop him in an 11th-hour attempt to coalesce around one candidate, ultimately failing with Mastriano winning 44% of the primary vote.