Pa. Republicans avoid fight that could have jeopardized Trump re-election effort

Pennsylvania Republican Committee members on Saturday endorsed a truce intended to unify the effort to deliver critically-important Pennsylvania to President Donald Trump in the 2020 election.

By a resounding, unanimous voice vote, they elected Philadelphia lawyer Lawrence Tabas as committee chair during a gathering in Hershey attended by about 300 committee members.

By extension, committee members endorsed Bernadette “Bernie” Comfort to continue in her role as vice chair and work closely with Tabas and others to support Trump other Republicans running for office.

With that, they averted a family fight that could have undermined Trump’s effort in a state where polls say his popularly has fallen since 2016, when he became the first Republican presidential candidate to carry the state since 1988. Winning Pennsylvania is considered essential to winning a second term for Trump.

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The potential discord arose last month when former committee Chairman Val DiGiorgio abruptly resigned after The Philadelphia Inquirer detailed a series of sexually-explicate texts with a woman running for Philadelphia City Council. The woman called it sexual harassment; DiGiorgio called it a mutually consensual exchange.

His resignation led to what looked to be a showdown between Tabas, 63, and Comfort, 51, who was DiGiorgio’s vice chair. It threatened to become a divisive one after several people close to President Trump, including Donald Trump Jr., came out in support of Comfort. Some state party members resented the intrusion.

Link: https://www.pennlive.com/news/2019/07/pa-republicans-avoid-fight-that-could-have-jeopardized-trump-re-election-effort.html