Apr 23, 2022 4 min read

The Republican race to be Pennsylvania’s next governor has been unsettled almost from the get-go, and a further note of uncertainty was injected into the race recently when former President Trump issued an “anti-endorsement” of candidate Bill McSwain, alleging that the former federal prosecutor did not investigate “the massive election fraud” that Trump has insisted happened in Philadelphia and elsewhere in 2020 despite a lack of evidence.

Trump further called the former Marine platoon leader a “coward.”

After a campaign stop at Southpointe Wednesday, McSwain didn’t elaborate on whether his candidacy has experienced a detectable loss in support in the days since Trump issued the brutal takedown, but said, “I’m proud of my record as a U.S. attorney.”

He added, “I think President Trump was an excellent president, and I support his policies. I think people are looking to 2022 as a very important year for the future of our state, and they’re looking to the future and not the past.”

Southpointe was one of a handful of stops on McSwain’s agenda Wednesday amid a five-county swing that also included Greene and Fayette counties. This is the first run for public office for the 53-year-old McSwain, who was appointed the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in 2018. In a poll taken by Franklin & Marshall College before the former president fired his broadside against McSwain, he came in second with 12% support in a crowded field behind state Sen. Doug Mastriano, who had the support of 15% of Republicans polled. In an earlier survey by Emerson College, McSwain came in third with 6% of Republican voters supporting him, behind Mastriano and former congressman Lou Barletta.

The ultimate winner of the Republican primary on May 17 might have the support of only 20% of GOP voters, or maybe even less. If he is the winner, how would he unite a fractured party after a bruising nomination contest?

According to McSwain, “Once the primary is over and we look to the general election, it’s a favorable environment in 2022 for Republicans. …I think my message is freedom and public safety and security and economic prosperity. This is a message that can apply across the political spectrum.”

If he is the GOP nominee and prevails in November over presumptive Democratic nominee Josh Shapiro, McSwain said he would support eliminating mail-in voting, but said the state could study instituting early voting or making Election Day a state holiday.

“I think there is some value in getting out of the house and getting to the polls and seeing your neighbors and participating in democracy, as opposed to sitting in your living room and filling out a ballot,” he said. “There is value in seeing democracy at work.”

McSwain was not the only Republican candidate making his way across the area Wednesday. Former state Rep. Jeff Coleman, who is one of nine GOP candidates for lieutenant governor, made a stop at Club Leaf & Bean in downtown Washington in the evening, following earlier events in Waynesburg and Uniontown.

Coleman has lined up endorsements from state Sen. Camera Bartolotta, R-Carroll, state Rep. Tim O’Neal, R-South Strabane, and state Rep. Josh Kail, R-Beaver. Coleman is running as a “no drama conservative” who says he hopes to bring a measure of civility and kindness back to the political debate.

“I think most politicians make the choice of just repeating back the fears that voters have,” said Coleman, who represented the 60th Legislative District, which includes parts of Armstrong, Beaver and Indiana counties, from 2001 to 2005. “I think ultimately it leads to nowhere.”

In Pennsylvania, parties nominate candidates for governor and lieutenant governor separately. Coleman is one of nine candidates in a field that includes former state Rep. Rick Saccone, who hails from Elizabeth. Coleman said he isn’t sure who has the pole position in the lieutenant governor’s race, but he says his message aimed at turning down the temperature in our politics is resonating with some voters.

Coleman looks to the late former Gov. Richard Thornburgh as a role model, going so far as to call the RV he travels around the state in “The Gov. Thornburgh.” Coleman said Thornburgh, who was Pennsylvania’s chief executive from 1979 to 1987, “had very good outcomes on taxes and spending and size of government, but (he) did it in a way that was decent.”

He also said, “The idea of cooperation, building bridges, almost defusing the bomb, is the role of a statewide leader.”