Insurrectionist Doug Mastriano Should Be Barred From the Pennsylvania Ballot

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text:

John Nichols
@NicholsUprising
Video shows #PAgov candidate Doug Mastriano crossing police lines outside the Capitol on #January6, when a coup by Trump backers left 5 dead and 140 Capitol police officers injured.

Mastriano is an insurrectionist who sought to overthrow the government.

thenation.com
Insurrectionist Doug Mastriano Should Be Barred From the Pennsylvania Ballot
Details of Mastriano’s involvement with the coup attempt are overwhelming—and disqualify him under the 14th Amendment, argue constitutional lawyers.
6:55 AM · May 23, 2022

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/doug-mastriano-pennsylvania-ballot/

No paywall
https://archive.ph/xh1KL

Donald Trump’s choice for governor of Pennsylvania, state Senator Doug Mastriano, was affirmed last week by Republican primary voters who followed the former president’s order to nominate a candidate who actively sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

That may cut it in the fever swamp that is the Pennsylvania Republican Party. But it doesn’t cut it constitutionally.

Mastriano’s actions before, during, and after the January 6, 2021, coup attempt by Trump backers disqualify the newly minted nominee from Pennsylvania’s November ballot, say lawyers who point to a section of the US Constitution that bars insurrectionists and their allies from serving in elected or appointed positions.

Mastriano is a right-wing extremist who has appeared with QAnon conspiracy theorists, trafficked in Islamophobic hate speech, and promised to end public health mandates designed to slow the spread of Covid-19. Like other Trump loyalists, he is also seeking to ban teaching that he thinks is based on “critical race theory” and wants to implement an aggressive program of discrimination against trans youth.

Mastriano is perhaps most known as a fierce advocate for Trump’s Big Lie and a point man for Rudy Giuliani’s on-the-ground efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Pennsylvania, a state Biden won by more than 80,000 votes. After his efforts in Harrisburg were thwarted, the state senator organized busloads of Pennsylvanians to travel to Washington for the “Stop The Steal” rally on January 6, 2021.

*snip*

[walkingman]

1. Kick his butt at the ballot box. That will send the best message.

[onecaliberal]

2. He is t under arrest because he's a republican. If we don't have the balls to go after criminals

We are fucked.

[Initech]

5. Yeah how did he not get arrested for January 6th?

[Hoyt]

3. Gonna have to beat him at polls. That post-Civil War era law, ain't gonna work.

[samnsara]

4. omg i read 'ballot' as 'ballet' and read the whole thing looking for a ballet

[Initech]

6. Ahhhhhh... ballet!

[TheRealNorth]

7. Anyone from PA that votes for Mastriano....

They might as well be pissing on Pennsylvania Monument at Gettysburg.

[dchill]

8. You think that would bother them?

I don't.

[spanone]

9. 1,000,000%