By Joe Gale
In 2015, when the Montgomery County Republican Committee chose a former board member of Planned Parenthood and a tax delinquent as their endorsed candidates for county commissioner, I was outraged and decided to run unendorsed on the core values of moral character and fiscal responsibility to give Republicans a true pro-life conservative choice in the primary.
Despite being smeared by the GOP establishment for daring to challenge their handpicked puppets, the Republican primary voters of Montgomery County elected me to be their nominee for county commissioner.
Opposition from party bosses and GOP insiders carried over into the general election, along with predictable resistance from the Democrat Party that wanted a rubber-stamp Republican who would “go along to get along” on the three-member Board of Commissioners.
Yet, by the grace of God and an unprecedented grassroots campaign, I garnered enough support from Republicans, independents and conservative Democrats to earn a position on the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners at the age of 26. In doing so, I not only became the youngest Montgomery County commissioner in history, but the first elected without the support of either major party establishment.
In 2016, I was honored to be the first elected official in Pennsylvania to endorse Donald Trump for president. Like me, I knew Donald Trump was a genuine conservative outsider who could win and shake up the system by disrupting the status quo. Beyond his many accomplishments in the White House, Donald Trump’s greatest contribution to our nation was his ability to defeat the GOP swamp and rebuild the Republican Party on the fertile soil of patriotic populism.
Sadly, in the final days of Donald Trump’s sabotaged presidency and the bogus impeachment that followed, we have witnessed the beginning of a concerted effort by entrenched politicians and party bosses to return the Republican Party to the failed policies and platforms of the Bush, McCain and Romney era. However, the Republican Party cannot go backward to move forward. To continue advancing the Trump movement, we must remain committed to draining the swamp within the GOP, which is best accomplished by winning Republican primaries.
The midterm elections of 2022 offer frustrated Pennsylvania Republican voters a unique opportunity. Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf, whose gross negligence and totalitarian overreach have destroyed the lives and livelihoods of countless families and small businesses, will be termed out. In addition, Republican Pat Toomey’s Senate seat will be open as he will not be seeking a third term. Based on his shameful track record of betraying President Trump and partnering with Democrats on gun-grabbing legislation, Pat Toomey is nothing more than a textbook RINO (Republican In Name Only) who has been an utter disappointment to conservative voters.
We cannot afford to replace Gov. Wolf and Sen. Toomey with establishment puppets or fake conservatives who make big speeches and peddle false hope instead of delivering real results.
In my travels across Pennsylvania, countless people have encouraged me to run for governor and nearly just as many have asked me to run for U.S. Senate. It is quite clear that there is a growing appetite to fill both seats with an independent conservative outsider who has the proven ability to win and the fortitude to lead.
That is why I am announcing my bid for Pennsylvania governor. In addition, we cannot allow the other top-of-the-ticket race in 2022 to fall into the hands of the Republican Party establishment and the ring-kissing candidates they control, influence and endorse. Therefore, my brother and fellow conservative outsider, Sean Gale, is running for United States Senate.
Sean Gale and I share more than a last name, we share the same values and principles that millions of Pennsylvanians live by each and every day. And frankly, in both the gubernatorial race and U.S. Senate race, we are all that stands between the conservative Republican voters of Pennsylvania and the insidious GOP establishment swamp.
Although Sean and I will be charging into two different battles, the foundation of each battle is the same: The only path to victory in each race is with a candidate who is pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, pro-small business, pro-shale, pro-pipeline, pro-Trump and, most importantly, not controlled, influenced or endorsed by Republican Party bosses.
For too long, the state government has been dominated by a pathetic Republican-controlled legislature that has given us little more than the nation’s highest gasoline tax (Act 89) and the nation’s longest universal mail-in voting period (Act 77). As governor, I will hold bad Republicans accountable not just by naming names, but by supporting primary challenges against those who undermine a common-sense conservative agenda – which must begin with election reform. This means eliminating Pennsylvania’s 50 days of no-excuse mail-in voting and mandating that photo-identification be shown at the polls on Election Day.
In Washington, D.C., Sean Gale will bring a much needed conservative backbone to a federal government that is immersed in pay-to-play politics and is quickly adopting the open-borders globalist agenda of never-Trump Republicans, radical left-wing Democrats and their friends overseas in socialist Europe and communist China. The United States Senate is in desperate need of a man like Sean Gale who will hold both parties accountable for their abandonment of the American people and the American way of life. Simply stated, Sean Gale will be the exact opposite of RINO Pat Toomey.
In the weeks and months ahead, Sean Gale and I will continue outlining and articulating our plans to restore common-sense and end politics as usual in Harrisburg and Washington.
God bless. ••
Joe Gale is a Montgomery County commissioner.
