Doug Mastriano, the Republican who lost to Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania’s 2022 gubernatorial race, said Wednesday that he will not seek the party’s nomination in 2026.
Mastriano, 62, spoke nostalgically during a social media livestream about the grassroots campaign he led four years ago.
“We’ve prayed a lot, we’ve fasted and we’ve discussed it with each other a lot,” Mastriano said, while seated next to his wife and political adviser, Rebbie. “We believe with full peace in our hearts that God has not called us to run for governor this year.”
Mastriano, a state senator from Franklin County, noted that to defeat incumbent Gov. Shapiro, a Democrat, Republican voters will need to coalesce behind the party’s nominee.
But Mastriano fell short of naming — let alone endorsing — the state GOP’s officially endorsed candidate, Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity.
Mastriano has criticized the Pennsylvania Republican Party for its early endorsement of Garrity in September. He has said the decision to back Garrity so early was an attempt to prevent other candidates, like himself, from seeking the party’s nomination.
During the livestream, Rebbie Mastriano left room for another gubernatorial bid for her husband in later elections: “Maybe in the future. We aren’t saying never.”
The livestream began around 1:30 p.m. with a video highlight reel of a series of speeches Mastriano made during the COVID pandemic. One clip showed him leading a group of supporters outside the state Capitol in Harrisburg while chanting, “Where is Wolf?” — a reference to Shapiro’s predecessor, Democrat Tom Wolf, whom conservative voters believed abused his powers to order lockdowns during the pandemic.
Mastriano served in the U.S. Army for 30 years, retiring in 2017 with the rank of colonel after teaching at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle.
He led an unsuccessful bid for U.S. Congress in 2018, but won a 2019 special election to serve in the state Senate. Mastriano quickly rose in profile among Republicans by being a loud critic of government-ordered lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the wake of President Donald Trump’s 2020 loss, Mastriano endorsed unfounded conspiracy theories about voter fraud and was present in Washington, D.C., outside the U.S. Capitol on January 6. (He did not enter the building or engage in any physical violence against police.)
In 2022, with the last-minute backing of President Donald Trump, Mastriano bested eight other candidates to win the GOP gubernatorial nomination. But in the general election against Shapiro, Mastriano lost by almost 800,000 votes — roughly 15 percentage points.
In the aftermath, critics said Mastriano failed to secure financial support from Republicans outside the MAGA movement, and many party insiders said he should not run for governor again.
Since defeating Mastriano, Shapiro has raised his national profile, having been considered a potential vice presidential pick by 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. Shapiro is also widely viewed as a possible presidential candidate in 2028.
A majority of Pennsylvania voters, or 51%, according to an October poll by Franklin & Marshall College, said the first-term Democrat is doing at least a “good” job as governor — that includes more than one-quarter of Republicans surveyed.
On Tuesday, Shapiro’s campaign announced he had about $30 million on hand for his reelection bid this year, and he is scheduled to officially kick off his 2026 campaign on Thursday with rallies in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.