Another Republican recruiting triumph
By 
Perhaps the most remarkable data I’ve seen from the election is that Doug Mastriano would have lost even if you take out the votes from Philadelphia and Pittsburgh:
if you want another picture of just how terrible the Pennsylvania Gov Race went from Republicans, here’s the statewide tally if you just completely remove Philadelphia and Allegheny:
Josh Shapiro (D) – 2,188,713
Doug Mastriano (R) – 1,993,190
Shapiro still wins. Comfortably.— some guy from PA (@Pennthusiast) November 12, 2022
It would be hard to find a hot take that’s aged worse than the Barro/Douthat theory that only the hardest core Democratic partisans thought that the attempt to install Donald Trump as a dictator was a big deal.
Of course, had only Josh Shapiro waited until after the primaries to start his standard negative ad campaign then Mastriano would have instantly lost all of his support from Republican primary voters — when have they ever wanted to support a fascist bozo left to their own devices? — and then they would have, uh, nominated another creepy election denialist, so really this shows that the Democrat Party is the true opponent of American democracy. The alternative explanation is that both Republican elites and primary voters have agency and we all know that’s not true.