In the race to become Pat Toomey’s replacement as U.S. Senator for Pennsylvania, former President Donald Trump today endorsed Sean Parnell.
Parnell lost to Conor Lamb in 2020 when the two faced off in 17th District Congressional Election. Most of the 17th District is located in Allegheny County.
Although the former president suggests that Parnell “got robbed in his congressional run in the Crime of the Century,” the official count still shows that Lamb won that election by almost 10,000 votes (51.15%-48.85%). Lamb won the same district in 2018 by almost 40,000 votes (56.26%-43.74%)
Trump’s endorsement of Parnell strikes a crushing blow to the candidacies of Jeff Bartos and Kathy Barnette, both of whom are from Montgomery County. Bartos ran unsuccessfully for Lt. Governor in 2018. In 2020, Barnette was defeated by Madeleine Dean in the 4th District Congressional Race. Neither Bartos nor Barnette have issue statements about Trump’s endorsement, but it would not be a surprise if either one of them dropped out the race.
[…] Wednesday (September 1), when Donald Trump endorsed Bartos’ opponent, Sean Parnell, it seemed likely that Bartos did not have to worry about winning the support of Liz Havey, who […]