PHILADELPHIA — Jake Corman, the leader of the Pennsylvania Senate, is expected to end his Republican campaign for governor, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Corman was expected to file a petition in state court as early as Tuesday to remove his name from the ballot for the May 17 primary election, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said.
That would leave eight Republican candidates vying for the party’s nomination, including former U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, state Sen. Doug Mastriano, former U.S. attorney Bill McSwain and former Delaware County Councilman Dave White.
A Corman campaign spokesperson didn’t immediately comment Tuesday.
Corman raised $3 million last year through his gubernatorial campaign and other political groups — the most of any candidate in the sprawling field. He was one of just three candidates, in addition to McSwain and White, who had enough money to air TV ads.
He campaigned as the “conservative who stood up to” Gov. Tom Wolf and highlighted his legal challenges to the administration’s mask mandate in schools, successful opposition to the governor’s proposed new taxes, and his support for a partisan investigation of the 2020 election.
But Corman didn’t gain much traction in the polls, and early staff departures seemed to reflect a campaign uncertain about its direction.
First elected in 1998 to the state Senate seat previously held by his father, Corman has been a fixture of the Republican establishment in Harrisburg for years. Long seen as a Senate institutionalist who believed in the virtues of bipartisanship and compromise, Corman tried to reinvent his political brand as he prepared a run for governor.
Last summer, he embraced calls for a “forensic investigation” of the 2020 election, pursuing a review that former President Donald Trump and his allies had been urging for months. Mastriano had been leading that charge, threatening Philadelphia and other counties with subpoenas if they didn’t’ hand over election materials.
Then Corman ousted Mastriano from his leadership position and took control of the inquiry.
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