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Barnette, Former PA4 Nominee and Conservative Commentator, Announces 2022 U.S. Senate Bid

A former GOP congressional candidate and conservative commentator has joined the 2022 race for U.S. Senate. 

Kathy Barnette, a veteran and conservative commentator who was the GOP nominee for Pennsylvania’s 4th Congressional District in 2020, announced her candidacy for the U.S. Senate on Tuesday morning. 

“I’m Kathy Barnette and I’m running to become the first Black Republican Woman elected to the US Senate. I’ll be the voice we need to defend our rights,” Barnette wrote in a tweet, along with her 3 minute plus long announcement video. “And by the way, Joe, just because I believe in competent leadership doesn’t mean “I ain’t Black!”

In the campaign video, Barnette speaks at Gettysburg, highlighting the significance of the location for her, while taking jabs at Biden and “cancel culture.” 

PoliticsPA reported last week that Barnette was considering a run for office and that her campaign purchased the domain “kathybarnette4senatepa.com” and additional domains prior to her formal announcement on Tuesday morning. 

Barnette, a conservative Republican, helped organize buses to the now-infamous “Stop the Steal” rally in DC on Jan. 6. 

She posted a video on December 31 saying that she and her team were organizing two busses to support President Donald Trump. A Barnette spokesperson told PoliticsPA last week that she was in attendance for Trump’s remarks, but did not participate in the riots or enter the Capitol building. 

Barnette’s first bid for federal office was in 2020 when she was GOP nominee against incumbent Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Montgomery) in the Philadelphia suburban district. She outperformed the President by 5 points. Dean won by 19 points, while Joe Biden carried the district by 24 points over President Donald Trump, according to DailyKos. She was the first Black candidate to run for Congress in the district. 

During her congressional bid, she promoted a conservative platform and supported Trump’s agenda. 

According to her 2020 congressional campaign website, she promoted being a supporter of the 2nd Amendment, school choice, being pro-life, backing Trump’s energy policies, and being tough on China, while voicing her opposition to Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH), which she said would “Abolish the Suburbs” and the Affordable Care Act. She also proposed creating the Centers for Infectious Disease Outbreak and introducing the Minority Inclusion Act (MIA)

Barnette channels Trump’s message on her Senate campaign website with the words “Pennsylvania First. America First.”

During her 2020 congressional bid, Barnette was endorsed by state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Adams), Pennsylvania’s Republican Congressional Delegation, and the Montgomery County Republican Committee. 

Barnette, like other Republicans candidates in Pennsylvania, did not immediately concede after her race was called. She posted a video on YouTube in late November that references the hearing that Mastriano held one day before Thanksgiving as proof that she thinks that there was voter fraud in her race and the presidential race, although courts later determined that there was no widespread voter fraud to impact the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. 

Her Senate campaign video, which had over 260,000 views on Twitter by Tuesday afternoon, grabbed the attention of various conservative commentators, who offered support for her campaign for Senate. 

Tomi Lahren, Sebastian Gorka, Georgia GOP state Rep. Vernon Jones, and U.S. Rep. Burgess Owens (R-UT) offered words of support on Twitter to Barnette’s Senate candidacy. 

The 2022 GOP race for Senate is expected to be crowded in Pennsylvania. 

Jeff Bartos, a Montgomery County real estate developer and former Lt. Governor candidate, Sean Gale, an attorney, and Everett Stern, a businessman and HSBC whistleblower, have also formally announced their entrance into the race to succeed outgoing GOP Sen. Pat Toomey. 

Other Republicans that are reportedly interested in seeking the GOP nomination according to Politico include, Reps. Mike Kelly (R-Butler), Guy Reschenthaler (R-Allegheny), former Congressman Ryan Costello(R-Chester), former Navy Secretary Kenneth Braithwaite, former gubernatorial candidate Paul Mango, former U.S. Attorney Bill McSwain, former U.S. Ambassador Carla Sands, business consultant Craig Snyder, and former congressional candidate Sean Parnell.

19 Responses

  1. What a bunch of rude people. I was born and raised in PA; however, no longer live in that state. I lived in several cities in PA. I never realized that there were so many illiterates. If you all would do some research, you would realize how dumb many of you are.
    Good luck to Kathy!!! Wish you all the best!!!

    1. Why are you insulting “illiterate people”, telling them to do research on Kathy, if they can’t read.

      Kathy sucks. So do you.

  2. Please, i’d love if Mango ran again! He would of beat Wolf in the PA Gov race but Republicans decided to go for Wagner, such a stupid mistake. Mango For Senate 2022!

  3. Bluntly, Republicans need a lot more candidates who *look* like Kathy Barnette. I just don’t know if they need more that *sound* like Kathy Barnette. She’d get politically slaughtered in and around Philly, meaning she’d lose statewide.

    Tim DeFoor could run against Bob Casey in ‘24. He is probably a much better bet to elect an African-American Republican in PA.

    Jeff Bartos could hold this seat next year. The Philly collar counties aren’t going to go for Fetterman in a good GOP midterm year.

  4. This woman is an imbecile. She was absolutely crushed in her House election and is a talking parrot for Trumpism, without forming any meaningful or intelligent positions of her own. There’s no way the state GOP backs either this dope, or Sean Gale, who probably lives with his brother in his parents basement.

  5. It’s about time the GOP had an intelligent, capable candidate who can beat any dem opponent. PA and the country need Kathy in the senate to bring some sanity back. Stay in there Kathy, you are a sure fire winner.

    1. But she did lose. In a year where down ballot republicans exceeded top ticket. She under performed. So, what do you base this on, Greg?

  6. Rudeness gets you nowhere…I as a black woman am glad to hear of her candidacy. Good luck Kathy!

    1. But Brenda, clearly you were sent here by her campaign, because you sound like a putz who doesn’t get the difference between a nice woman who cares and a viable candidate.

      The problem with candidates like Kathy isn’t that she is just trying to sell her book by running for office, or that she can be condescending in her unreasonable confidence as a candidate for an office she doesn’t know anything about. It’s that she runs on a platform that isn’t appealing to the majority of voters and doesn’t care.

      So watch as she wastes everyone’s time and money to lose to a communist.

  7. I back this Lady a 100% and Iam a white man from TN. Love her a will back
    her. A 100%

  8. Based on the objectionable posts I’m reading here, I’d say she has the left worried. I think I’ll send her campaign some money.

  9. Kathy is a high-quality individual, who is resolute in her belief-system; the article doesn’t mention Lou Barletta and mis-spells “Craig Snider.”

    1. How is she resolute in her belief system? She regurgitates far right platforms and has no idea what she’s talking about. By her own admission, she was a Democrat not too long ago.

      She is just selling her book.

    1. How dare you! You know you have to pay women to treat them like that!

      You are going to offend Kathy if you disrespect her idol like that.

  10. She is the worst. All she does is promote her book on the back of a campaign.

    Get ready for a waste of resources in the R primary.

  11. Unfortunately, she will stay in too long and drag down the whole ticket around her.

    Because she is selfish and stupid.

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