erica, CNN
To Kathy Barnette and her ardent supporters in Pennsylvania’s Republican Senate primary, former President Donald Trump made a mistake.
It’s not that Barnette and her supporters don’t still support the former President. They do, and many of her backers remain Trump’s most fervent defenders. But when the former President endorsed celebrity Dr. Mehmet Oz in the Republican Senate primary, it opened a pathway for Barnette to run further to the right, and more in line with the “MAGA movement” than any of her primary opponents.
“As much as people support Trump, hey, he ain’t God,” said Gary Smith, chair for the Constitutional Republicans of Western Pennsylvania in Jefferson County who personally plans to vote for Barnette. “He made a mistake. I think it is one of the worst mistakes he has made in his endorsements because Oz is everything we are not.”
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Smith added: “This is Trump country. A year later, all the signs are still up. … But I would say right now, 90 some percent of our group is probably going to vote for her.”
Barnette’s campaign has been a surprising success in the final months of the primary, according to top Pennsylvania Republican operatives and county officials, many of whom have been impressed by the durability and strength of the author and commentator’s Senate bid in the face of unmatched money.
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