Does Mastriano happen to have some support?
Yes, he does...tremendous support all across the state and even in Bucks and Montgomery Counties in the East and Allegheny County in the West. As before, the push polls don’t pick it up because the grassroots don’t participate in them. Same thing that happened in the 2016 and 2020 elections.
I think to ask that question begs an answer that shines a light on how awful the republican party in PA truly is.
Scott Wagner should have been governor during the pandemic and a lot of the effects of Covid on the PA economy would have been much different, but the PA republican party sat on its hands for both of those campaigns. Lou Barletta should have easily marched Bob Casey out of office, but again, the PA republican party sat on its hands. In both of these cases and many others, the PA republican party has chosen to side with chamber of commerce candidates and act indifferently to populist/tea party/MAGA candidates. In a statewide race, the party does need to contribute to the success of a candidate for office. Philly and the Philly ring counties are woefully inept at best, but the party leaders there are completely uninspired to support a candidate who is too populist.
That brings us to someone like Doug Mastriano. He's probably my favorite Pennsylvanian politician (until someone throws their name in to primary Jake Corman), but he's thus far been ineffective in addressing this structural weakness and he's made enemies of the Cormans and the Chamber of Commerce patronage machine. I'd think Doug would be a more effective senator than governor now that Sean Parnell is out, but I'd also like to see Mastriano eventually lead the PA senate and gut the corrupt PA political machine from the inside.
It's all up to how the chips fall and how each candidate decides what office they'd most prefer to pursue, but I can say with relative certainty that grassroots support for each candidate is going to be the winning strategy, not support from the party.