Trump-backed Pennsylvania GOP candidate prayed for MAGA to ‘seize the power’ on Jan. 6

Mastriano is now Trump’s preferred candidate for governor in Pennsylvania

(Getty Images)

Pennsylvania’s Republican nominee for governor Doug Mastriano reportedly led a prayer for former president Donald Trump to “seize the power” a week before the January 6 riot, Rolling Stone reported.

Mr Mastriano, a state senator, apparently made the remarks during a Zoom call with Christian nationalists.

“I pray that… we’ll seize the power that we had given to us by the Constitution, and as well by You, providentially,” he said. “I pray for the leaders also in the federal government, God, on the Sixth of January that they will rise up with boldness.”

On the call, Mr Mastriano held up letters he sent to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell and prayed for Congress to “disregard” certified election results.

The meeting was part of a “Global Prayer for Election Integrity” that Jim Garlow, a leading figure in the New Apostolic Restoration movement, helped organise. The movement believes that the US government should operate according to Christian biblical principles, since Mr Garlow says “He knows best how government is to function.”

Mr Mastriano was one of the biggest promoters of election conspiracy theories in Pennsylvania after the 2020 presidential election. He paid for buses to go to Washington on 6 January of last year and reportedly crossed the police barricades, though he said he “respected all police lines as I came upon them.”

That earned him the endorsement of Mr Trump in the gubernatorial primary, which Mr Mastriano won easily in May. Mr Trump campaigned with Mr Mastriano--and his preferred Senate candidate Mehmet Oz--in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and pledged to enact election restrictions if elected.

“We’re gonna fight like hell for voting integrity, and we’re gonna start with voter ID,” he said onstage with Mr Trump.