Whether due to Donald Trump's 11th hour endorsement or his 18-month crusade to discredit the results of the 2020 presidential election, Pennsylvania State Sen. Doug Mastriano defied the polls with a 24 percentage point victory over former U.S. Congressman Lou Barletta in Tuesday's Republican gubernatorial primary election.

Even a weekend Emerson College Poll — taken after Trump issued his coveted endorsement — predicted only a 12-point victory for the polarizing Mastriano. It was a stronger-than-expected statement against a Republican establishment that had coalesced around Barletta during the campaigns' stretch run.

Barletta, former mayor of Hazleton in Luzerne County, took northeastern Pennsylvania, winning in the Poconos and along the Scranton-Wilkes-Barre-Hazleton corridor. Barletta outpolled Mastriano in Susquehanna, Wayne, Wyoming, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Carbon, Columbia, Montour, Northumberland and Schuylkill counties.

The rest of the state went to the far-right Mastriano (with the exception of Chester County, the home turf of former U.S. Attorney and gubernatorial candidate Bill McSwain). In a crowded nine-Republican field, Mastriano amassed more than 55% of the vote in north-central Pennsylvania's McKean, Potter and Tioga counties; Western Pennsylvania's Crawford, Mercer, Clarion, Armstrong and Jefferson counties; and his south-central PA stronghold of Bedford, Huntingdon, Mifflin, Juniata, Franklin, Fulton and Adams counties.

Mastriano's 33rd district includes all...

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