Doug Mastriano and his right-wing media allies are priming followers to claim that the midterm election was stolen from him. During interviews with the Pennsylvania gubernatorial nominee, hosts have claimed that there’s already been “cheating,” said there’s “so much nonsense going on with voter irregularities,” and speculated about whether “the fix in.”
Right-wing media outlets played a critical role in pushing election denialism in the 2020 election and are continuing to do so in the leadup to the November 8 midterm election. In Pennsylvania, as Media Matters’ Matt Gertz noted, there could be a repeat of 2020, “with Mastriano and Senate nominee Mehmet Oz holding early leads on election night, declaring victory, and, with the support of the right-wing press, alleging that mail-in ballots that subsequently reduce or eliminate their leads are fraudulent.”
Mastriano is a fitting candidate to push baseless fraud claims: He was a leading figure in promoting false claims about Pennsylvania’s 2020 results and is a January 6 insurrectionist.
He recently sent a fundraising email with the headline,“The fix is in (2020 all over again).” During a recent Mastriano campaign event, right-wing commentator and disgraced former New York Police Department Commissioner Bernard Kerik said: “The only way the Democrats are going to win this time is cheat.”
His campaign has also become notable for trafficking in antisemitism. Mastriano is also a QAnon conspiracy theorist.
Mastriano has largely avoided credible media outlets and questioning and instead preferred to go on programs hosted by supporters. In those interviews, the right-wing hosts push election denialism while talking with Mastriano about the election results. Here are four examples.
Steve Bannon prompted his audience to get involved with the Mastriano campaign after Mastriano told him: “There's still shenanigans in Pennsylvania.”
On October 31, Steve Bannon hosted Mastriano and claimed that CNN and The New York Times are supposedly pushing “suppression” polling against him. He asked the Republican what people need to do for his race. Mastriano replied by claiming, “I do believe we're going to have a great turnout, but we have to make sure it's not a narrow margin because there's still shenanigans in Pennsylvania.”
Bannon, who is a leading election denier, later prompted Mastriano to let his viewers know where they can go to help his campaign.
