Make PA 'Florida Of The North,' Mastriano Says, Channeling DeSantis

PENNSYLVANIA — One of the nation's fastest rising and most popular figures in the Republican party was in Pennsylvania last week to bolster Doug Mastriano as he continues his campaign for governor.

But Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' appearance at a rally in Pittsburgh last week was about more than just stumping for a nominee. It was about laying out a blueprint for Trump-brand conservatism in a battleground state. And it was about how the local leaders that that fought for election denial in 2020 and beyond are coming to power on the backs of an undercurrent of MAGA populism that did anything but dissipate with President Joe Biden's victory.

"Our goal, and we are going to achieve it, our goal is to make Pennsylvania the Florida of the north," Mastriano reportedly told a crowd gathered at a Delaware County diner campaign stop days after the rally with DeSantis.

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What would that look like? It actually isn't very unfamiliar territory at all.

Under DeSantis, Florida was one of the nation's staunchest opponents of mask mandates, proof of vaccinations, and school and business shutdowns. The state now requires "curriculum transparency," meaning schools must post all educational and instructional materials online for review by parents. Florida also now outlaws sexual orientation and gender identity from being taught in public schools. Finally, new election legislation controls and limits mail-in balloting, among other things that advocates of voter rights have decried as undemocratic.

If any of that sounds like you've heard it before, it's because you probably have. Pennsylvania would be Florida if many of the bills and ordinances proposed by the Republican-controlled legislature made their way past Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf's desk in the past few years. Each of the measures listed above can already see its equal, in some form, in Pennsylvania's courts and legislative chambers.

While Pennsylvania Republicans tried and failed countless times to curb Gov. Wolf's powers to issue economic shutdowns during the pandemic, they succeeded in questions on the 2021 primary ballot. Pennsylvania became the first state in the country in which voters approved additional checks of this nature on the governor.

A curriculum transparency bill was passed by state Republicans in Dec. 2021 and vetoed by Gov. Wolf.

In April, a bill seeking to restrict "sexual" content in schools, derided as draconian by Democrats, was introduced. In July, a coalition of 21 GOP lawmakers called for the resignation of the Pennsylvania Secretary of Education over sexual orientation resources and gender identity language on the state website.

And Act 77, Pennsylvania's "no-excuse" mail-in voting law put in place before the pandemic, had been tied up in courts until just weeks ago, when the state Supreme Court ruled in its favor.

Mastriano has weighed in on the side of DeSantis on all of the above issues. And the idea of creating a "Florida in the north" is not an isolated one, either, perhaps belying deeper policymaking ties between the pair and others of the vein.

"My goal as governor of Pennsylvania is to make the Florida of the North," Mastriano told One America News Network in an interview independent of his Delaware County appearance."Because (he) set the gold standard for the good a Governor can do — leading a state as opposed to what we have in Pennsylvania.”

Mastriano also reportedly said that it was DeSantis who approached him and asked him if they could rally together in Pennsylvania.

Democratic candidate and Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro holds a 5.9 point lead over Mastriano, according to an average of the most recent polls from RealClearPolitics.