Pennsylvania State Sen. and Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano highlighted leftist gender ideology and the graphic sexualized content found in public schools in his latest campaign advertisement.
Mastriano, whose platform calls for “statewide curriculum transparency requirements,” spotlighted Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, his Democratic opponent, and his ties to organizations that expose students to sexual content and transgenderism.
“Children in Pennsylvania as early as five years old are being subjected to sexual indoctrination under Democrat leadership,” the advertisement, narrated by Mastriano, said. “To make matters worse, the Department of Education in Pennsylvania is encouraging teachers to host gender-neutral days at school. While parents are unaware at home, their daughters may share their bathroom with a biological male.”
BREAKING: Senator @DougMastriano releases graphic new ad slamming Josh Shapiro and Rachel Levine’s agenda of sexualizing and medical experimenting on PA children
Viewer Discretion is Advised pic.twitter.com/WWB7vIQQao
— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) October 14, 2022
Mastriano said that a parent had said that books relating to transgenderism were being read in a kindergarten classroom in Pennsylvania.
He also noted the influence of the Human Rights Campaign, which “supports irreversible double mastectomies and genital surgeries for kids,” as well as their decision to endorse Shapiro. The advertisement then pivoted to discussing the prevalence of sexually explicit materials in public schools, including graphic novels which depict homosexual and non-binary characters performing lewd acts.
“Will kids in Pennsylvania continue to have their innocence taken from them?” Mastriano asked. “Will they continue to be taught what to think and believe about their bodies by a school system without parental consent? Not on my watch.”
As many as 77% of voters nationwide consider “education and schools” a top issue, according to a poll from ABC News and The Washington Post. A separate survey by Impact Research showed that Republicans are leading Democrats in some battleground districts with respect to trust on education policy.
“On day one, no more boys on the girls’ team, and the sexualization of our kids will end in our schools as well,” Mastriano continued. “Public schools will be a safe place for learning, and if you don’t like your public school setting, you’ll have the option to choose how and where you want to educate your child, because I’m going to fight for school choice.”
Roughly 74% of registered voters support school choice, according to a poll from RealClear Opinion Research, while search engine data analyzed by the Washington Examiner appears to show that education is a particularly salient issue for voters in Pennsylvania.
Shapiro recently added language to his campaign website in support of “adding choices for parents and educational opportunity for students and funding lifeline scholarships like those approved in other states and introduced in Pennsylvania.” The commonwealth’s lifeline scholarship legislation would reallocate funds from the bottom 15% of districts to help families pay for tuition at alternative schools.
Though the Pennsylvania Senate race between Republican candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz and Democrat nominee John Fetterman continues to tighten, polling consistently shows Shapiro leading Mastriano. A recent survey from The Daily Wire and Trafalgar Group found that 52.8% of voters support the former while 43.5% favor the latter.
Trafalgar Group founder and senior strategist Robert Cahaly told The Daily Wire that Mastriano’s presence at the United States Capitol on January 6 has induced members of his own party to hesitate and caused establishment Republicans to tighten their purses on his campaign. For the first time in decades, Pennsylvania will not host a gubernatorial debate, since Shapiro has not accepted Mastriano’s requests for both candidates to pick their own moderators and field questions from both.