NEW YORK — The number of Pennsylvania Republicans running for governor and U.S. Senate just keeps growing, with primaries less than six months away, but candidates in those races are rebranding the crowd as a good sign.
GOP ambitions are soaring, those Republicans said during the gathering of Pennsylvania Society in Manhattan this weekend, because the party is in strong position to win both seats.
One of them is open because U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, a Lehigh Valley Republican, is not seeking another term.
“People who have thought about this are looking at it and thinking: Is there ever going to be a better time?” Toomey said Saturday.
Much of the cocktail party chatter this year centered on some Republicans in the Senate primary considered to have closer ties to other states, including former Ambassador Carla Sands(California), television doctor Mehmet Oz (New Jersey), or hedge fund leader David McCormick (Connecticut) who is expected to enter the race soon.
Jeff Bartos, a GOP Senate contender from Lower Merion, hit that note while speaking Saturday to the annual Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association seminar, calling himself a lifelong resident of the state.
“Who would have thought that would be a differentiator in this race?” he said, drawing chuckles.
Bartos later told Clout, “I think Pennsylvanians will be incredibly welcoming and open to people who are new to the state. I don’t think they will want them to represent them.”
U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb, the only Democrat running for the Senate who attended the weekend events, also took note. “You have a couple of high-profile people that do not live in our state and seem to want to launch themselves into Pennsylvania politics from the outside,” Lamb said.
Republicans in both races agreed on one other topic: Nobody wanted to speculate on what former President Donald Trump might do to be a factor in the primaries.
“I would not want to try to predict what the former president would do,” said State Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, a late entry to the primary for governor who has faced Trump’s wrath at times about the 2020 presidential election results in Pennsylvania. More recently, Corman has been trying to work his way back into Trump’s favor by supporting an examination of the election results.
The GOP field for governor grew even larger over the weekend. Former Congresswoman Melissa Hart, who represented the Pittsburgh suburbs from 2001 to 2007, spent the weekend re-introducing herself and unofficially launching her campaign. She’s the only woman in a field of at least 10 men running.
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