Pa. House Republicans strike out on last-minute push to pressure Wolf to rescind election results, report

A cadre of state House Republicans have fallen short in their push to get the state Legislature to directly intervene in the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s win in the Keystone State, according to a published report.

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A group of GOP lawmakers, none of whom are in leadership, failed to build support during a virtual caucus meeting on Saturday night for a non-binding resolution calling on Gov. Tom Wolf and Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar to rescind their certification of the results, PennLive reported.

More from PennLive:

The resolution, by itself, wouldn’t have been binding on Wolf, but supporters were hoping it would have created a platform and more pressure for further steps including: a formal challenge to the seating of Pennsylvania’s Democratic Party electors by members of the state’s Congressional delegation; or efforts within the General Assembly to name its own electors.

But after Saturday’s discussion, it was clear the House effort wasn’t going anywhere.

Speaker of the House Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster County, and Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff, R-Centre County, said in a statement issued as the caucus broke that they agreed the state’s elections processes and procedures need a top-to-bottom review for consistency and fairness, but they said there is no time to take legislative action on this year’s results and they will not be calling the House back into session.

News: The Pennsylvania House will NOT be meeting before it disbands Monday until the new year, meaning it won't vote on a resolution disavowing the 2020 election results. This comes after the House GOP had a private meeting earlier tonight. pic.twitter.com/gyPzuXUqt5

— Stephen Caruso (@StephenJ_Caruso) November 29, 2020

In a Tweet on Sunday morning, Rep. Kevin Boyle, of Philadelphia, the ranking Democrat on the House State Government Committee, blasted Republican rank-and-filers behind the resolution, saying it was “damning of the GOP and its commitment to democracy our legislature has even had conversations like these.”

The PA House won’t be heading back to Harrisburg this week to tamper with the outcome of the Presidential election. While this is good news it’s damning of the GOP and its commitment to democracy our legislature has even had conversations like these. https://t.co/or6jBQ49QY

— Rep. Kevin J. Boyle (@RepKevinBoyle) November 29, 2020

In the state Senate, Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Adams, has argued, without presenting evidence, that the election, which Biden won by 81,000 votes, was “compromised.”

There is mounting evidence that the PA presidential election was compromised.  If this is the case, under Article II, Section 1.2 of the US Constitution, the state legislature has the sole authority to direct the manner of selecting delegates to the Electoral College. (1)

— Senator Doug Mastriano (@SenMastriano) November 28, 2020