Joe Gale, one of the few Republican commissioners in the Greater Philadelphia region, has announced his run for the 2022 Pennsylvania gubernatorial race.
An advocate for traditional values and an avid supporter of former President Donald Trump’s policies, he told The Epoch Times that “the only path to victory 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.”
“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 with true conservative outsider candidates like myself,” he said.
“Running a moderate, or a ‘Democrat-lite’ Republican, in hopes of attracting Independent and Democrat voters is a proven recipe for disaster,” he added. “The GOP tried this in 2008 with John McCain and again in 2012 with Mitt Romney. Both candidates failed miserably. Those races did little more than shift the political spectrum to the left, which alienated conservatives and made a radical liberal like [former] President [Barack] Obama falsely appear moderate.” Gale said.
Gale’s push toward succeeding Gov. Tom Wolf, who is in his second and final term, has been in large part driven by the current governor’s policies in addressing the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.
“For over a year, we have watched in horror as a novel coronavirus from mainland China has taken lives, destroyed families and—with the help of Democrat Governor Tom Wolf’s authoritarian lockdown and shutdown orders—decimated countless jobs and private enterprises,” Gale said.
In addition to what he said have been disastrous actions taken by Wolf, Gale believes that China is responsible for “wreaking havoc” on the Pennsylvania economy over the past year and “is one of the biggest threats to our nation.”
“Millions of Americans have experienced firsthand the turmoil and troubles that China’s communist regime has maliciously exported to the United States. And no one has been hit harder than the people of Pennsylvania … as I travel the commonwealth, I hear from businesses, both big and small, that have struggled with Chinese competitors who infringe upon their intellectual property rights,” Gale said.
Gale also plans on securing jobs for teenagers and middle-class families, while strengthening small businesses. He said that the $15 federal minimum wage increase recommended by many Democrats would “result in hurting the very people it’s supposed to help … the minimum wage has done little more than price entry-level teenage workers out of the job market. The effort to make the minimum wage a de facto living wage that supports a working family has only resulted in higher unemployment rates across the board as small businesses cannot afford to pay more than what a low-level skill is worth.”
Gale also would bring both corporate and gasoline taxes down, which are now the second highest in the nation and, he noted, have adversely impacted Pennsylvanians.
To address the high rates of violence and homicides in the state, Gale said that the state needs “more police on the streets and more firearms in the possession of law-abiding citizens.”
“Regrettably, Democrats and their allies in the mainstream media have turned law enforcement officers and responsible gun owners into villains and criminals into heroes. I will fight those who aim to defund the police and take away the right of Pennsylvanians to defend themselves and their families. When I become governor, the days of granting leniency to the perpetrators of violent crime and homicide will be over.”
Besides Gale, four more Republicans have declared for the Republican primary’s nomination: former congressman Lou Barletta, restaurant owner and former Corry Mayor Jason Monn, Pittsburgh attorney Jason Richey, and cardiothoracic surgeon Nche Zama.
So far only one Democratic candidate, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, is running for Pennsylvania governor.
Lily Sun contributed to this report.
