Josh Shapiro defends primary ad tying Doug Mastriano to Donald Trump

[FakeNoose]

(Link) https://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-state/2022/05/23/josh-shapiro-doug-mastriano-tv-ad-pa-primary-for-governor-election-2022-trump-ultra-maga/stories/202205230070

Josh Shapiro, the newly nominated Democratic candidate for governor in Pennsylvania, defended on Sunday a television ad that he ran that appeared to elevate the standing of the Republican rival he will face in November — a man Mr. Shapiro has called the country’s most extreme candidate for governor.

The ad is part of a long-held strategy among campaign tacticians: elevate your most extreme rival and peel away disaffected moderates from that rival’s party come November. Last week, Axios noted that the rise of far-right, Trump-aligned candidates could test this theory and that Democrats are “trying to engineer the rise of ultra-MAGA candidates they feel will be easier to defeat in a general election.”

But in today’s highly polarized environment, in which party affiliation is deeply interwoven with people’s sense of identity, that strategy could backfire, as many Democrats were stunned to learn in 2016.

During the Republican primary in Pennsylvania, Mr. Shapiro, the state’s attorney general, ran an ad that called state Sen. Doug Mastriano “one of Donald Trump’s strongest supporters.” The ad went on to say that Mr. Mastriano “wants to end vote by mail. He led the fight to audit the 2020 election. If Mastriano wins, it’s a win for what Donald Trump stands for.”

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CNN's Dana Bash suggested that Shapiro's primary ad was "irresponsible" because it boosted Mastriano even though he hadn't been chosen as the GOP candidate yet. Shapiro replied that it wasn't because Mastriano had been leading the crowded GOP field for weeks. Mr. Shapiro, who was running uncontested for the Democratic nomination, said he was eager to have voters understand the choice they would soon face.