Voice of Franklin County Republicans loud and clear as Marjorie Taylor Greene visits GOP dinner

• Robby Brod
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  Robby Brod was the Democracy Beat reporter for WITF.

Correction: The original version of this story included an incorrect description of the inside of the fire hall. 

It’s a warm evening in Fayetteville, and the smell of brisket and cheesy potatoes wafts through the fire station. The parking lot is packed with trucks festooned with red bumper stickers – and luxury sedans.

Republican voters, mostly white and over 50 wearing button-down shirts and jeans, share laughs with old friends, and anticipate hearing from two of their party’s heavyweights.

This is the annual Lincoln Day Dinner fundraiser hosted by the Franklin County GOP, where registered Republicans outnumber Democrats two-to-one.

Throughout the night, political hopefuls vye for facetime with potential supporters.

The May 16 primary is critical, as the Commonwealth court and state Supreme Court seats on the ballot could determine the fate of Pennsylvania’s 2024 elections, likely to be challenged in court.

As voters pulled into the gravel parking lot, many gushed over Franklin County-native state senator Doug Mastriano, who lost the race for governor last year by 15%, but still pulled solid support here.

Richard Grove, who owns a flower shop in Chambersburg, supports Mastriano because the senator resisted COVID shutdowns in 2020.

“I just love the guy because he’s not a politician. When we were shut down during COVID-19, he was the one that did whatever he could to get a setup to reopen there,” Grove said. “He was the one pushing to get us reopened. There’s just something about the guy.”

Joel George, a retired electrical contractor from Letterkenny Township, smiled through the clear lenses on his thin-framed aviator glasses.

He and his wife, Joan, self-described “Trumpers,” protested President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

“We were both there on January 6 at the Capitol in D.C. at the rally. We were there already two, three times after the election,” he said.

He believes most of the protesters in D.C. that day were peaceful, even though the final report from the House January 6th Select Committee, and court documents from federal prosecutions, show hundreds left the rally encouraged by Trump to march on the Capitol – and several carried firearms with them.

To protest the certification of Biden’s 2020 electoral victory, which he describes as a “coup,” he hasn’t cut his hair in over two years.

“They blew it… That was never the game plan at all. They blame it all on Trump,” Joel said.

Joan recalled the rally was “peaceful.”

“I’ve heard, on your channel, WITF, that the crowd was armed, and that’s baloney. We all had to go through metal detectors to get in there, just like any other rally,” she said. “The crowd was there to support President Trump.”

It’s unclear exactly how many rioters were armed, but seven men were found with guns near the Capitol and arrested.

Evidence shows many arrived with violent intent armed with a wide variety of weapons, including guns, knives, stun guns, and chemical sprays.

One of the most recent convictions in the insurrection was of Robert Sanford, a retired firefighter sentenced to two years in prison for throwing a fire extinguisher as he stormed the Capitol that struck two police officers in the head.

Joel supports Mastriano because he, too, thinks Pennsylvania’s elections are filled with fraud – except in Franklin County.

“But I don’t trust any other county after I saw what happened. I mean, Jesus, it’s so much. I mean, it was [black and white] … well, it’s a real good coup,” he said.

He undid his salt-and-pepper ponytail that unfurled halfway down his back.

“And then – hey, I used to have short hair. I have not been to a barber. This is my ‘screw the coup’ hairdo.”

Tears gathered in his eyes while explaining false election fraud theories he heard from Breitbart News, former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, and other conservative influencers on video streaming site Rumble.

Almost three years after the 2020 election, Joel still refuses to acknowledge the results, claiming voter fraud sullied the outcome – an increasingly common viewpoint among Pennsylvania Republicans.

This may have been influenced by over two years of attacks on the legitimacy of the state’s electoral system by Republican politicians, leading to over half of Pennsylvanians expressing dissatisfaction with the way the state conducts its elections – a figure which has more than doubled since August 2020, according to a poll from Franklin & Marshall College.

Nearly two-thirds of Republicans surveyed supported eliminating ballot drop boxes entirely – a stated policy goal of the previous state legislature’s Republican majority.

However, the poll showed a majority of Pennsylvanians oppose these changes when Democrats and independent voters are included.

As voters file in, bombshell news breaks: Former President Donald Trump had been indicted in Manhattan on over 30 felony counts related to payments made to former adult film actress, Stormy Daniels.

The sold-out crowd filled the fire hall, eager to hear from two far-right rock stars, though neither stayed very long.

Doug Mastriano and his wife, Rebbie, walked three stairs up the wooden stage as the crowd exploded with applause.

Rebbie began a prayer.

“Father, we just ask for your blessings to pour forth, and we ask that the wicked would be removed, because we want to live in one nation under God, not under any dictatorship or man or anything else,” she prayed. “Father, we just thank you for the fellowship time…”

Doug Mastriano didn’t speak much – only presenting an award to a longtime county commissioner and World War Two veteran.

The senator stepped down and left the building shortly after.

Greene arrived minutes before the dinner in a dark-tinted black SUV and spent most of the time before her speech outside the firehouse.

After the meal, Congressman John Joyce, who represents Franklin County in D.C., started Act Two of the night.

“Please stand up if you are running for school board. I salute you,” Joyce said.

Conservative political action groups are now directing their efforts toward school board races to combat what they view as a liberal influence in public school districts.

This includes Moms for Liberty, a conservative group that claims to champion parental rights in schools by opposing COVID-19 restrictions and protesting curriculums that mention LGBTQ+ rights.

What used to be a focus on property taxes and local issues has given way to more partisan school board elections.

Joyce introduced Marjorie Taylor Greene, who took the stage to enthusiastic applause.

She launched into a fiery, 45-minute speech about everything from the importance of securing the border, to the need for Republicans to embrace “ballot harvesting” – the practice of dropping off someone else’s completed ballot for them.

Both Greene and Mastriano are among the Republicans who have recently warmed up to the idea, following a number of high-profile conservative defeats during the 2022 elections, including Mastriano’s failed bid for governor.

They now embrace mail-in ballots, despite building their political careers condemning them based on baseless voter fraud claims.

Greene said, in order to win in November, and in 2024, Republicans must beat the Democrats at their own game.

“I’m gonna tell you what President Trump has said he wants you to do, and this is what I want you to do. This is what Congressman Joyce wants you to do,” she said. “I used to say, ‘No. We’re doing it this way. We want to vote on the day of elections. We want to show up in person.’ I don’t think so. We need to start harvesting ballots. You better harvest ballots. Better register people to vote. You go into places where you think they won’t vote Republican. I bet you money they will.”

However, ballot harvesting is not legal in Pennsylvania or her home state of Georgia — the latter of which requires someone to have a physical disability to have their absentee or mail-in ballot returned by someone else.

Nevertheless, The crowd hung on her every word.

When she was finished, they applauded her off the stage and she was quickly whisked out of the back door.

Outside after the event, everybody buzzed with excitement like teenagers who just saw their favorite band.

Susan Neill, from Mechanicsburg, enjoyed the speech.

“This whole ‘transgender on our children’ and what they’re trying to teach in school so secretly. I just don’t understand how people, Christians or non-Christians, could ever subject our children to that type of thing,” she said.

People hugged each other goodbye and loaded back up into their cars.

As the convoy filed out, the gravel transformed into a cloud of dust.