And like Mastriano, Shapiro draws cheers and
applause. His crowd is not as big as his opponent’s
from the previous Saturday because it’s a canvass
kickoff , not a rally, but it’s just as enthusiastic.

Later in the day in nearby Swarthmore, more than
50 people crowd into a small room in a nondescript
offi ce building. It’s another canvass kickoff . Only
these residents of Swarthmore and its surrounding
area are not union members. Th ey are just supporters.

Many believe that, in the wake of Trump’s attempt
to “stop the steal” of the 2020 election and Mastriano’s
support for it, democracy is in peril; many oth-
ers want to uphold abortion access for women in
Pennsylvania; some are even former Republicans
who resent the party’s Trumpian turn.

None, however, mention crime or the economy as
their reasons for coming out.

“I’m worried that the MAGA part of my party is
taking over,” says Pat Brodeur of Wallingford. “And
they are going to hurt our future elections.”
Shapiro has been a state representative, a
Montgomery County commissioner and now an
attorney general. He understands how to craft and
communicate a narrative about his career.

In this race, he is pitching himself as a public servant
who takes on “big fi ghts,” like balancing Montgomery
County’s budget aft er years of Republican excess,
suing the Catholic Church over sexual abuse allega-
tions and settling for $1 billion with pharmaceutical
companies that pushed opioids. Th is pitch started
last October during Shapiro’s campaign kickoff , but
aft er Mastriano won the Republican Primary in the
spring, it took on new meaning.

Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano delivers a speech on Dec. 14, 2021.

Paul Weaver/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images via JTA.org
Mastriano, the woman-hating, election-denying
friend of the antisemites, as Shapiro oft en portrays
him, became the “big fi ght.” In his stump speeches
on Oct. 8, the Democrat reached the big fi ght beat
around the middle, aft er he got through his plans for
Doug Mastriano
dealing with crime and stimulating the economy, but
before he orated his way through his depiction of his
rival. At the day’s last public event, a campaign offi ce
opening in West Philadelphia, Shapiro looked out
over a parking lot of more than 100 excited support-
ers. Th ey came from the Main Line, Center City and
nearby neighborhoods. It was his most diverse crowd
of the day.

And with more Black residents in the audience than
at either of his previous two events, the Democrat
painted his most vivid picture yet of his opponent.

He said Mastriano is the “only candidate in the
nation who is on a white supremacist website known
as Gab.” He talked about how a few years ago,
Mastriano wore a Confederate uniform for a picture
at the U.S. Army War College. And then he para-
phrased a Maya Angelou quote, “When someone tells
you who they are, believe them,” to emphasize that
Mastriano “keeps telling us who he is.”
“In Doug Mastriano’s Pennsylvania, unless you
think like him, and look like him, and vote like him,
and pray like him, and marry like him, you don’t
count,” Shapiro said. “Here’s my view: No matter
what you look like, where you come from, who you
love or who you pray to, you count in Pennsylvania,
and I want to be your governor.”
Th e crowd hollered.

“I will do everything I can to make sure that
Doug Mastriano is not elected,” said Sajda Purple
Blackwell, a West Philadelphia resident. “We don’t
need white supremacists in offi ce.” JE
jsaff ren@midatlanticmedia.com
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM 17