muslims are running for office. in his victory speech last night, mastriano even vowed to pass the so-called bathroom bill, which would ban trans people from using the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity. so again, even if he weren t plotting a coup, this is a guy with very extreme views. i would hazard to say, too extreme for a purple state. but he s basically a coin flip away, from becoming the next governor of pennsylvania. e. l. i. s. a. griswold is a contributor to the new yorker, last year she wrote a piece about mastriano, his politics, and his ties to christian nationalism. she joins me now. elijah, you wrote a great profile on mastriano last year, you did a lot of reporting about the politics in pennsylvania. are you surprised that he won last night, or was that when you were expecting? i am not surprised he won, chris, and i m not surprised, i think we have to be, just as you ve been saying, a lot more sanguine about his chances in november.
J.D. Vance, the Ohioan who grew up poor, joined the Marines, got a Yale law degree, wrote a bestseller about his hardscrabble upbringing, became a venture capitalist, and panned Donald Trump before becoming a convert to Trumpism and winning Ohio’s GOP primary for U.S. Senate