Shapiro kicks off fall campaign questioning Mastriano’s ‘focus’

Pennsylvania Democrat Josh Shapiro’s gubernatorial campaign is kicking off a $16.9 million fall ad buy with a new spot, shared first with NBC News, which argues Shapiro’s Republican opponent, state Sen. Doug Mastriano is focused “on all the wrong things.”

“Like making abortion illegal and overturning elections,” the narrator explains, before framing Shapiro, the state’s attorney general, as the candidate focused on common-sense issues like a gas tax rebate, vocational training and removing “the requirements for a college degree to get thousands of state government jobs.” 

It’s all part of the Shapiro campaign’s months-long effort to bombard the airwaves with tens of millions of dollars to define Mastriano as too far to the right, and pitch Shapiro as the consensus choice.

Since the start of the race, Shaprio has spent and booked more than $30 million on TV ads to Mastriano’s $250,000.