Five days after Donald Trump gave his surprise—and very early—endorsement of former U.S. Army Ranger Sean Parnell for U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania, speculation throughout the Keystone State is rampant over how much it will help the U.S. Army veteran and unsuccessful U.S. House nominee.
“It certainly is a major boost for Sean,” Lowman Henry, head of the conservative Lincoln Institute, told Newsmax, I think basically it is a race between Parnell and [Lower Merion real estate investor and 2018 lieutenant governor nominee] Jeff Bartos.”
In large part because of his previous statewide campaign, Bartos has been considered the front-runner in a crowded primary with no known candidate or obvious favorite.
Bartos has also developed a popular following as the head of the Pennsylvania 30 Day Fund, which distributed more than $3 million to more than 1,000 small businesses to keep them afloat during the pandemic.
The candidate obviously affected negatively by Trump’s blessing of Parnell is Carla Sands, multi-millionaire and Trump’s ambassador to Denmark.
“[Sands] just doesn’t have a following among the Republicans,” said Henry, organizer of the annual Pennsylvania Leadership Conference (PLC) that is a “must” conclave for conservatives and statewide office-seekers.
Also in the race is U.S. Army Reserve officer Kathy Barnette, a fixture among conservatives for her frequent appearances on talk radio and cable news shows.
Barnette, like the other three major candidates, is running as a strong “Trump Republican”—a sharp contrast to retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, who voted for Trump’s impeachment earlier this year and has said the former president’s tie to the incident at the U.S. Capitol should keep him from running again in ’24.
Pennsylvania is the sixth state in which Trump has become involved by endorsing a Republican candidate in a contested primary for the Senate. The other five states in which he has backed Senate candidates are Alabama, Alaska, Georgia, Nevada, and North Carolina.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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