HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — AP is reporting…Lou Barletta, the Trump-backing former congressman and immigration hawk who unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Senate, has taken a step toward possibly running for governor of Pennsylvania in 2022 and begun a political action committee to raise money. Barletta told The Associated Press a month ago that he was considering running and would decide in the coming weeks on whether to seek the Republican nomination for governor. Barletta has continued to discuss the possibility of running internally, with Republicans, and on Monday said in an interview, “I am definitely very seriously considering it.” To help him in his decision-making, Barletta has forged another connection to Donald Trump, saying that he hired a newly formed political consulting firm that includes Bill Stepien, Trump’s former campaign manager and White House political director.
The website for Barletta’s new political action committee, Change PAC, lays out his views on a range of topics and on how they affect Pennsylvania. The PAC, he said, is not an announcement that he is running, but “people across Pennsylvania have been encouraging me to get involved in statewide issues and the PAC gives me a platform to do it.” Barletta, 65, was a staunch and early supporter of Trump during the 2016 Republican presidential primary race from his perch in Congress in a northeastern Pennsylvania district where Trump made a particularly strong showing. Barletta won the seat during 2010′s Republican wave after rising to national prominence as the mayor of small-city Hazleton, where he tried to combat illegal immigration through tough municipal laws. His strategy was copied by dozens of other cities across the U.S., but his Hazleton ordinances were never enforced before the U.S. Supreme Court struck them down in 2014. (Associated Press)
