PITTSBURGH — In 2016, then-Rep. Lou Barletta, D-Pa., and Tom Marino, D-Pa., became the first sitting members of Congress to endorse then-candidate Donald Trump for president. Their colleagues in Washington looked at them sideways. Barletta then told me that when that didn’t aid, their friends tried to talk it out of them.
It didn’t work. The two traveled across the state and sometimes in other states, earning the nickname “Thunder and Lightning” from Trump on the trail. It turned out that they were onto something. They snapped a streak this year in which Republican presidential candidates lost Pennsylvania, which had remained intact since 1992.
On Friday, true to their willingness to put it all on the line, Thunder and Lightning returned — only this time, not for Trump. Instead, Barletta and Marino in a tweet called on Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida to seek the Republican nomination in 2024: “More than ever, our country needs strong leadership, someone who will do whatever it takes and is not afraid to stand up for what is right . That’s why Tom Marino and I are calling on our former colleague @RonDeSantisFL to run for president in 2024. Come on Ron, your country needs you!”
David Urban, a Washington-based strategist and Trump adviser in Pennsylvania in 2016, said their support for DeSantis is a “big, symbolic deal.”
Urban, a native of Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, had a front-row seat next to two men supporting Trump ahead of the 2016 primary contests. “I can’t overstate their importance in 2016.” – he said. “They were credible, likable mainstream Republicans who, along with Chris Collins of New York, were early supporters on Capitol Hill. We met at the Capitol Hill Club on Thursdays and there were three of them, and eventually two or three others who joined. Marino and Barletta were early, great and vocal about the former president when he came to Pennsylvania, and were there every time he traveled. “I mean, they were die-hard Trumpers, and I think they could speak for themselves, but I think after the election they felt very, righteously irritated by the president’s actions.”
Then, during last year’s Pennsylvania U.S. Senate elections and gubernatorial races, Trump supported far-right state Sen. Doug Mastriano and celebrity physician Mehmet Oz. It was a foreboding prediction for them, explained former Pennsylvania state party chairman Rob Gleason, who led the party in 2016 and was also an early Trump supporter.
Barletta ran in that crowded gubernatorial primary along with nine other candidates, including Mastriano. Marino accused Trump of supporting Mastriano over Barletta, saying he threw the former congressman “under the bus.”
Mastriano’s loss to Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro included the loss of traditionally red counties to a Democrat from Montgomery County. Mastriano said this week that he is considering running for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania next year.
“Since Trump made the primary election last year, many people have expressed concern about Trump and the movement has been growing,” said G. Terry Madonna, a professor of political science at Millersville University. “Right now, Trump has about 30% of the Republican vote, and as I’ve told people, if he ends up in a series of primaries with four or five opponents and they split the vote against Trump, that will probably aid him win the nomination. However, one forceful opponent can unite his opponents instead of dividing votes,” he said.
Madonna stated that this is why Marino and Barletta’s endorsement means something. DeSantis has not announced that he intends to seek the Republican presidential nomination – and will do so only after the legislative session ends in tardy spring. But he’s in the middle of a book tour that has taken him across the country, including two events Friday in Iowa, and none of this is accidental.
The Florida governor, whose parents are from Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, and Youngstown, Ohio, will speak April 1 in Harrisburg at the annual Pennsylvania Leadership Conference. He is one of eight speakers at the event scheduled for March 30.
Urban added that the question that needs to be answered after today is: “How many Tom Marinos and Lou Barlettas are there left in the world? They loved (Trump), they went to war for this guy. And now they’ve been transferred with this guy saying what happens next.
