For more than a year, people around Pennsylvania have been calling State Sen. Doug Mastriano “governor,” in expectation of him running for the seat. He made it official on Saturday in Gettysburg, declaring his candidacy for Pennsylvania governor.

Mastriano is a retired Army colonel. A combat veteran, he was commissioned in U.S. Army in 1986 and served on the Iron Curtain in West Germany. While serving along the East German and Czechoslovakian borders, Mastriano witnessed the end of the Cold War. He deployed to Iraq for Operation Desert Storm in 1991 to liberate Kuwait.

His regiment led the attack against Saddam Hussein’s elite Republican Guard forces, according to his biography. Mastriano later served in Washington, D.C., the Third Infantry Division, and U.S. Army Europe. After Sept. 11, 2001, Mastriano was the lead planner for the operation to invade Iraq via Turkey.

He served four years with NATO and deployed three times to Afghanistan. Mastriano was the director of NATO’s joint intelligence center in Afghanistan, leading 80 people from 18 nations.

On his own initiative, Mastriano led seven relief operations to help Afghan orphans and completed his military career as professor of the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Penn. where he taught Strategic Studies at the master’s degree level. He has a doctor of history and four master’s degrees, and has written several historic books. He is married to Rebecca and they have one son.

He introduced his platform on Saturday, which includes allowing school choice, abolishing property tax, returning power to the people, allowing medical freedom so patients can make choices for their own health, and trimming bureaucratic policies that hinder businesses. He is strongly pro-life and says it is the key to rebuilding families. He also calls for election reform.

“Our election system is compromised and we need to address it,” he said. Mastriano led investigations into the 2020 election until Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Jake Corman abruptly removed him from the task.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/sen-doug-mastriano-announces-run-for-pennsylvania-governor_4200790.html