Former Rep. Lou Barletta (R-Pa.), who challenged Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) for his seat in 2018, is running for Pennsylvania governor.
Barletta becomes the most prominent Republican yet to jump into the race to succeed Gov. Tom Wolf, who is term-limited and cannot seek reelection next year.
In a video announcing his candidacy on Monday, Barletta delivered a scathing assessment of Wolf’s tenure in office, criticizing him in particular over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the lockdowns imposed amid the outbreak.
“The politicians in Harrisburg took too much power, and we all know what happens when you give politicians and bureaucrats more power,” Barletta said. “They’ll never give it back to us.”
“We need to take back our commonwealth,” he later added. “We need to take back our livelihoods from the insiders in Harrisburg that have no idea the harm their lockdowns have done.”
Barletta already has an existing relationship with former President Trump, who carried Pennsylvania in the 2016 election and remains highly influential among Republican voters.
Barletta was among the first members of Congress to endorse Trump’s 2016 White House bid, and Trump endorsed the former congressman in 2018 as he sought unsuccessfully to oust Casey.
Beyond his criticism of Wolf’s pandemic response, Barletta used his campaign announcement to echo a series of talking points that have become commonplace for Trump’s allies.
He lamented how expanded mail-in voting in the 2020 election had undermined confidence in the elections process. And he criticized calls for racial justice that have gained new momentum over the past year, accusing proponents of such reforms of “putting our families in danger and insulting the memory of civil rights leaders.”
Other Republicans are said to be weighing their own bids for governor, including Barletta’s successor in Congress Rep. Dan Meuser (R-Pa.) and former U.S. Attorney William McSwain.