In the weeks that followed the 2020 presidential election, Josh Shapiro and Doug Mastriano were on opposing sides of former president Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the presidential election in Pennsylvania.
As a state senator, Mr Mastriano was one of the biggest promoters of the lie that the election was stolen. He requested and organised a public hearing into nonexistent voter fraud in the days that featured Mr Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani. He also spent $3,354 busing people to Washington for Mr Trump’s Jan 6 rally and went to the US Capitol, though he claimed to have left before the violent riot started. In the days leading up to the certification of election results, he was part of a group of Republican state senators who asked for Congress to delay the certification of election results.
