It's pretty incredible, the aversion pro-Trump voters have to mail in ballots. At this point, it's just bizarre...
PA passed a universal mail vote in 2019 in the GOP controlled Legislature. It was a compromise where both sides got what they wanted, the Dems wanted no excuse absentee/mail ballots and the Pubs wanted elimination of straight ticket voting option. Both sides based those positions on the fact that Dems outnumber Pubs by nearly a million voters in terms of statewide voter registration affiliation...
But even though the GOP voted for it and were generally happy with the bill, that all changed heading into 2020 because Trump didn't like it and sent out instructions to his lackeys to oppose the statute and try and get it labelled unconstitutional. Notice he didn't raise a ruckus in states like FL, where absentee ballots had long benefited the GOP. Just in states like PA and MI, where again the measures to allow universal mail ballots were approved by a state referendum and not some last minute change or voting irregularity, as Trump's minions in the state tried to later claim...
Now fast forward to these Primaries, and in every case the pro-Trump endorsed candidate has lagged behind in the mail in ballots. Even in PA where all of the GOP candidates for Gov and Senator were basically outdueling each other for the title of most Trumpiest, the candidates Trump actually endorsed started out behind when early/mail votes were tabulated first, although in PA it was a county by county decision. For some reason voters who have the most extreme fealty to Trump seem to have taken to heart his condemnation of mail ballots as rigged, even when all the other candidates are just as committed to Trump and he's just left them on the outside looking in when it comes to be his chosen endorsee...
I'm actually hoping Oz prevails because other than Barnette I think he's the easiest competition for Fetterman. Oz will likely get some crossover vote in Philly area, but he did lousy in areas of NE PA where Trump piled up his biggest margins in 2016. And despite Trump's endorsement of Oz, Fetterman has the economic and working man chops to appeal to some of those voters he's targeting in those heavily rural areas.
Fetterman has experience running and winning a statewide campaign, and Oz is a carpetbagger who basically lives in Ct and bought a house in the Philly burbs to pretend he's a PA guy and run for office. Fetterman will continue to campaign in those small towns and drive around in his truck, and Oz will likely go out and by a pickup, so he can make another ultra cringey commercial, maybe even install a gun rack and don boots and a cowboy hat...
And while Barletta and Oz could have co-existed, Mastriano is a wackier than usual nutjob, who should turn people off the more he's exposed to the population as a whole. He wants to avoid having press coverage of his rallies and refuse debates, and Oz will likely look to maximize exposure and the type of publicity Mastriano wants to avoid. At some point they are going to likely refute something the other one said, and I can't wait to see Oz try to defend Mastriano's Jan 6 history...I knew this guy was basically Q-lite, but he's even wackier than I imagined...
thehill.com
