Mar. 15, 2023: The GOP faces its 'candidate quality' issues

We’re barely into the 2024 Senate cycle, and already some Republicans are feeling a sense of deja vu. 

In a new must-read, our Holly Otterbein attended a rural Pennsylvania rally for Doug Mastriano, the “state’s most MAGA Republican” who also won its gubernatorial primary last year only to lose the general election by double digits to Democrat Josh Shapiro. 

Her biggest takeaway: Despite that huge loss, Pennsylvania Republicans aren’t ready to toss Mastriano overboard as he mulls a challenge to veteran Democratic Sen. Bob Casey Jr.

“Establishment Republicans have found a silver lining amid the grimness [of 2022]: Perhaps there will be a reckoning,” she writes. “Even diehard supporters of former President Donald Trump, they’ve reasoned, are finally sick of losing. … In this corner of the political world in Pennsylvania, it’s the establishment — not the MAGAverse — that needs course-correction.”

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Raghu Manavalan is the host and senior editor of POLITICO's Playbook Daily Briefing.
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