Doug Mastriano

Douglas Vincent Mastriano (born January 2, 1964) is an American far-right politician and retired military officer who has served in the Pennsylvania Senate since winning a special election in 2019, representing the 33rd district. Mastriano served in the United States Army from 1986 to 2017 and attained the rank of colonel. A Republican, he ran for U.S. Congress in Pennsylvania's 13th congressional district in 2018, where he finished fourth in the primary. In May 2026, President Trump nominated Mastriano to be the U.S. Ambassador to Slovakia.

Mastriano is a prominent figure in fundamentalist Christian nationalism and has called the separation of church and state a myth. He has made social media posts referencing QAnon and has spoken at events that promoted QAnon and 9/11 conspiracy theories.

He attended Trump's January 6 rally in Washington, D.C., prior to Trump supporters' storming of the United States Capitol, and was seen on video passing through Capitol Police barriers after they had been breached by others in the crowd. Raised in Hightstown, New Jersey, he graduated from Hightstown High School in 1982. He was a member of the Boy Scouts of America and obtained the rank of Eagle Scout. He then attended Mercer County Community College, where he was a member of Psi Beta and Phi Theta Kappa.

Mastriano himself has said that he did not grow up in a "strong Christian family", but was led to embrace religion as a teenager by an "on-fire youth pastor" after being invited to a youth group called "The Way". While at Eastern, he participated in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps.

Continued education Mastriano received a master's degree in strategic intelligence from the Joint Intelligence College in 1992. In the thesis, Mastriano writes from a perspective of a colonel, like himself, who is forced to hide out in a cave because a politically correct leader has taken over America and killed millions. The complaint cited 213 allegations of potential academic misconduct contained in Mastriano's doctoral thesis. Regarding the incident, Jeffrey Brown, a UNB associate professor who was listed on Mastriano's doctoral dissertation, said that "[Mastriano] was awarded a Ph.D. on very shaky grounds." In May 2023, the University of New Brunswick appointed three professors from other institutions to review Mastriano's dissertation for academic fraud. The committee's final report was not made public. In 2024, Mastriano filed a lawsuit against the University of New Brunswick, alleging them of "leaking his doctoral thesis and of participating in a scheme to discredit his research on a First World War hero".

Military career After college, Mastriano was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Army and assigned to the Military Intelligence Corps. After initial training, he started his career in Nuremberg, Germany, with the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment in the area of the West German borders with East Germany and Czechoslovakia. Mastriano was deployed to Iraq for Operation Desert Storm in 1991. He served at the DLIFLC in Monterey, California, as the company commander of Alpha company from 1995 to 1996. Mastriano then was in Washington, DC, in the 3rd Infantry Division and US Army Europe. Less than a week after his announcement, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania redrew the congressional district map of Pennsylvania after ruling the previous map unconstitutional (due to gerrymandering by the majority Republican Party), and the area previously covered by the 9th District corresponds most closely to the new 13th District, so Mastriano became a candidate for .

During his run for Congress, Mastriano made multiple controversial statements including stating that same-sex marriage and adoption by same-sex couples should "bsolutely not" be legal. Mastriano won the Republican nomination for the May 21 election at a party conference held in Gettysburg on March 30, 2019.

Val DiGiorgio, the chairman of the Republican Party of Pennsylvania, said "Doug Mastriano is the kind of conservative candidate that reflects the values of South Central Pennsylvania and will be a key asset in helping advance the Republican agenda in Harrisburg."

On May 21, 2019, Mastriano defeated Democrat Sarah Hammond with 70% of the vote. Mastriano was sworn into the Pennsylvania Senate on June 10.

Campaign Facebook page controversy Mastriano has been criticized by some religious leaders and the Pennsylvania Democratic leadership

In May 2019, during his campaign for state senate, Mastriano spread Islamophobic content via several shared posts on his campaign Facebook page targeting Muslims. "Islam wants to kill gay rights, Judaism, Christianity and pacifism" read one of the posts, which critiqued the common "Coexist" bumper stickers. with a caption reading "something wicked comes this way". He also made birtherist allusions regarding president Obama.

2020

On November 3, 2020, Mastriano was re-elected to the Pennsylvania State Senate for the 33rd District by 68.7 percent of the vote. His Democratic opponent Rich Sterner had 31.3 percent.

2024

Mastriano briefly considered running in the 2024 senate election before ultimately declining to do so and endorsing the eventual winner Dave McCormick. He instead stood for re-election to the state senate, winning another term with 69.03% of the vote.

Tenure

Cannabis prohibition Mastriano opposed efforts by Governor Tom Wolf to legalize recreational cannabis. He has said that cannabis "causes an increase in violence, mental illness and driving under the influence" and that ending the prohibition is "madness and stupid". In a 2019 interview, in reference to states like California and Colorado that have legalized cannabis, Mastriano has said "[all] it's done is destroy their society," and turned the states "into rat holes and third-world backwashes".

Caucus meetings In 2021, Mastriano was banned from attending closed-door Republican state senate caucus meetings after he publicly shared information that was meant to be confidential. After fellow members requested he be let back in, Mastriano was allowed to attend caucus meetings starting on May 23, 2022.

Chemtrails Mastriano has made social media posts reminiscent of the chemtrail conspiracy theory. In December 2022, Mastriano posted photos of contrails over his senate district and linked to an article discussing a government research proposal to investigate whether releasing aerosols into the upper atmosphere to reflect solar radiation would combat climate change. In November 2023, Mastriano posted another photo of what he insinuated were abnormal contrails, and claimed, "I have legislation to stop this."

Confederate monuments In early summer 2020, fictitious rumors circulated online that a July 4 protest near Gettysburg National Military Park would involve burning the US Flag and calling for the removal of Confederate monuments and memorials. No permit was issued and although the protest did not materialize, "hundreds" of individuals showed up to counter the fictitious protest, many in tactical gear, heavily armed, and brandishing Confederate flags. Profanity-laced shouting matches took place between this group and cemetery visitors throughout the afternoon.

COVID-19 policies

On March 17, 2020, Mastriano called for suspension of the HIPAA law to allow the Department of Health to share more COVID-19 data, including publishing the names and addresses of those infected with the virus.

On March 28, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Mastriano proposed legislation that would allow Pennsylvania businesses to reopen if they followed CDC mitigation guidelines, subject to health department and law enforcement inspections.

Mastriano spoke during an anti-lockdown protest held on April 20, 2020, in support of reopening Pennsylvania during the state's ongoing pandemic.

On May 11, 2020, Mastriano called for the resignation of Secretary of Health Rachel Levine, saying she was "being complicit in the virus spreading through our elder care homes, triggered by unscientific and illogical directives, forcing them to readmit COVID-19 patients", and that she was "responsible for the deaths of approximately 2,500 of our citizens, and display[ing] the gross incompetence of someone unfit for office".

In May 2020, Mastriano wrote a letter signed by other Republican state legislators and a county commissioner calling for his home county of Franklin County to move out of the "red" phase of Governor Tom Wolf's reopening plan. At the time Franklin County's seat Chambersburg had one of the highest average daily growth rates of COVID-19 cases in the country. Mastriano's initiative was opposed by the mayor of Chambersburg and two county commissioners.

In response to a Pennsylvania mask-wearing order, Mastriano called for a mask-burning party at a rally in Gettysburg on July 22, 2020. At the rally, Mastriano urged people to reject store employees telling them to wear a mask and "tell them to mind your own business and say you're exempt".

In March 2022, Mastriano introduced legislation that would make it easier for Pennsylvanians who are diagnosed with COVID-19 to access dubious drug treatments such as hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and ivermectin. Medical studies have shown that there is no medical benefit to those drugs in treating COVID-19.

Firearms In July 2022, following a string of mass shootings, including the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Mastriano introduced legislation that would arm teachers and staff inside of schools. The legislation was criticized by the president of the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers as "a dangerous, kind of scary proposal". In an op-ed, Mastriano wrote, in part,: