Lessons From A Gubernatorial Campaign | Dr. Stephanie Coxon

By: Dr. Stephanie Coxon

The grassroots freedom movements within and outside the United States have really taken off. In many respects, Pennsylvanians have been leading the way. The expectation of a red wave during the November elections had many of us hopeful for a changing America. Unfortunately, it fell short.

There were a lot of takeaways. First and foremost: FIX. VOTING. LAWS.  This may seem impossible at this point, but people need to reach out to their county commissioners and get new (or should I say old) machines.  Personally, I miss the hanging chad days; either stop the mail-in voting or get on board with it.  Conservatives need to take notes from the Dems and get those ballots to people who would not otherwise vote, clean up the voter rolls (after all, how long do you have to be dead to be considered not able to vote?), and hit the streets.  I don’t mean the comfortable neighborhoods with the white picket fences.  We need to reach out to the voters who may have been misledand/or feel short-changed (literally) from lockdowns, increasing inflation, crime and an education system that is more focused on a child’s pronouns than their ability to read and write.  This means getting to diverse ethnic groups and those who are weary from government dependency and yearn for something better for themselves and their kids.  

Recently, while sipping on a glass of wine at a networking event, I was eavesdropping on a conversation lead by a Latino who was in charge of door knocking campaigns for the Republican National Committee (RNC). I learned something new.  The immigrants and possibly those receiving government assistance are told they cannot receive help without voting for democrats and must register as a democrat.  We HAVE to educate our fellow Americans.  Their values do not align with the democrats, they are just afraid and don’t understand our laws. What is more egregious to learn is that she was specifically told not to door knock for gubernatorial candidate, Doug Mastriano. You draw your own conclusions here and then move on to the next paragraph.

Second is to stop donating to parties and organizations. Instead donate directly to your candidate of choice. This is where things get interesting. Pennsylvanians chose Doug Mastriano as their gubernatorial candidate despite every effort from the state GOP to stop it. He didn’t just slide by, he was so far ahead, the GOP couldn’t sleep at night. He garnered his support by showing up for his populace (like a candidate used to do before big donors showed up and chose the candidates for us). The amount of money that Mastriano received from both the RNC and the Republicans Governors Association (RGA); zero. There was zero funding from two of the largest republican organizations. On the other hand, Shapiro received $10,735,113.80 from 3 different democratic organizations, the Democratic Governors Association, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign, and the Pennsylvania Democratic Party.

Let’s consider some basic numbers for a guy who had zero support from any regular state or national GOP group. But first, I must digress for a moment. National voter registration from 2016 to 2020 saw significant changes. The Democrats increased registered voters by 10,466 people, republicans by 236,888, and others by 110,512 people. The moral of the story is that democrats have been losing substantial ground since 2016 and yet are somehow pulling off votes by never seen before amounts (i.e; the Biden presidency). Supposedly Mastriano lost the election, but, I, like many, aren’t sipping the Kool-aid…Let’s go back to election night. How is it that a candidate would lose votes while at the same time his opponent would get a steady influx of votes (about the same amount each time) putting him just above gubernatorial candidate, Mastriano? That seems a little unlikely when organically counting votes. Even flipping a penny won’t give you those sorts of odds in a statistical game of chance….ok, rant over….

Now where were we…numbers. Prior to this election, current Governor Tom Wolf led the record for the most spending on a campaign at $38 million. Josh Shapiro, spent $75 million, $40 million of that just on staff and tv ads. Mastriano hit a few numerical milestones himself. He had 2.2 million in-person votes, the largest for any republican gubernatorial candidate since 1962. He won by 70,000 in-person votes on election day. He also had 29,000 signatures on his petitions to earn his place on the ballot. Again, that was another record. Yet, we are expected to believe that Pennsylvania is a purple state. In truth, the GOP doesn’t seem to know their constituents and would rather have a radical, Josh Shapiro in office, than admit that they’ve been wrong all of these years. If the populace were not excited about a truly conservative candidate willing to stand apart from the crowd, Mastriano would not have been as successful as he was. Apparently, pro-life, constitutional freedom, and a person who knows his God is a popular stance – except to party bigwigs and elites who know what it takes to win elections more so than the voters (note…that was sarcasm in case you were worried). Let us further translate the numbers. He was able to spend approximately $2.84 per vote compared to Shapiro at $25 per vote. Imagine what would have happened if one major organization would have chosen to support him. The choice of elected officials truly come to the hands of the people if we can defund these major organizations.

So back to donating directly to the candidate of your choice.  You want to change elections?  Start here.  It is easy.  Stop donating money to places like the RNC and RGA.  As we watched republicans get decimated, the RNC spent donor cash on anything but the candidates.  Here is a general breakdown: $3.1 million on private jets, $1.3 million on limousines, $17 million donor mementos, $750,000 on flowers, and $80,000 on alcohol.  These numbers don’t include the amounts spent on spas, clothing, etc.  One question… is this where you wanted your money to go?  

The Mastriano campaign had eight staff members and yet one of the most successful PA gubernatorial runs ever. How is this possible? There were 1800 unpaid volunteers who were moved enough to donate one of the most important things, their time. The money was spent wisely, soundly, and yielded results. It’s not the rhetoric handed to us, the party excuses, hand wringing and long-winded, beard stroking, cigar smoking conversations about “electability”. But it’s the truth. Numbers don’t lie (except for vote counts in Philadelphia, but again I digress). Whether he holds the seat or not, Mastriano appealed to voters and performed very well by sharing his message with everyday Americans who have everyday concerns; freedom to worship, speak, earn a living, and raise their children as they see fit. My bet is that the governor’s seat is actually his as well and Shapiro knows it. But again, I digress. I just can’t help myself.