Exclusive: Pennsylvania’s Lou Barletta Calls on Fellow GOP Candidates to Drop Out, Endorse Him in Gubernatorial Race

AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File
AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File

Former Rep. Lou Barletta (R-PA), running in Pennsylvania’s GOP gubernatorial primary, is calling on his fellow Republican candidates to drop out of the race and endorse him against State Sen. Doug Mastriano.

In an exclusive interview with SiriusXM Patriot’s Breitbart News Saturday, Barletta called on Republicans Dave White and Bill McSwain to drop out of the GOP gubernatorial primary and endorse his candidacy so the party can unite around one candidate against Mastriano, whom former President Trump endorsed on Saturday.

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“Everyone here in Pennsylvania knows that, that I’m the one here that can beat Josh Shapiro and that’s the goal, it’s not to win this primary,” Barletta said. “I really hope that Dave White and Bill McSwain would see that as well — that I’m the one person, I’ve been at the top of every poll with Doug Mastriano since the day I announced.”

“And they have spent over $20-something million on their campaigns and haven’t gotten above me once,” he continued. “So we’re down to the final days and we need to put our own personal ambitions aside and do what’s right for the people of Pennsylvania. That’s why I got in this. It wasn’t for me, it wasn’t for Donald Trump … I did this for the people of Pennsylvania.”

“We’re going to have to make a decision in a couple of days whether or not we can pick somebody who can’t win,” Barletta said.

As Breitbart News reported, Democrat gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro has signaled that he prefers to run against Mastriano in November’s general election.

An Osage Research poll of 600 swing voters in Pennsylvania shows Mastriano is losing in a head-to-head matchup with Shapiro.

While swing voters, by a three percent margin, say they prefer a Republican to a Democrat for governor, 49 percent said they would vote for Shapiro if Mastriano is the GOP nominee. Mastriano trails in the matchup with just 41 percent.

The Pennsylvania GOP gubernatorial primary election is on May 17.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here

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