(WHTM) – Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano’s bid to become the United States’ Ambassador to Slovakia passed through committee on Wednesday after U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) threatened to withhold his vote unless he sees “movement” on stalled global AIDS relief funding.
According to a source familiar with the vote, Mastriano passed on a party-line vote, 12-10, on Wednesday morning.
Cornyn, who sits on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Semafor Tuesday he would block Mastriano’s nomination unless the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief funding is released. He also threatened to vote against Kari Lake’s Jamaican ambassadorship nomination, which also passed 12-10.
Mastriano now faces a floor vote in the Senate, which the Republican Party controls by five seats.
President Donald Trump nominated Mastriano to the post in May after Gautam A. Rana announced in January he would leave his role at the U.S. Embassy in Slovakia.
During a confirmation hearing, Mastriano was criticized by committee Democrats for efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and his presence in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2022.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) inferred in the hearing that Mastriano was a conspiracy theorist who questioned the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Mastriano told lawmakers he attended Trump’s speech at The Ellipse and did not participate in the Capitol riot. When asked in the hearing who won the 2020 election, Mastriano told lawmakers that Joe Biden had been certified the winner.
Mastriano was also questioned on whether “all U.S. political leaders should be Christian,” to which he replied he had a record of upholding the Constitution and its values.
Senator Dave McCormick (R-PA), who serves on the committee, called Mastriano a “highly qualified nominee,” citing his military and scholarly experience.
A former U.S. Army officer, Mastriano has represented Adams and Franklin counties since 2019. He previously served in West Germany, Iraq, and Afghanistan before going on to teach at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle.
In 2022, Mastriano won a heavily competitive primary for governor after being endorsed by President Donald Trump. Mastriano went on to lose the general election to Josh Shapiro by nearly 800,000 votes, with Shapiro receiving more than 56% of the vote.
Mastriano publicly weighed another run for governor in 2026, but opted not to run against State Treasurer Stacy Garrity, who won the nomination unopposed.
In an interview with abc27, Mastriano denied that his ambassadorship nomination was tied to his not challenging Garrity in the 2026 primary. Mastriano did receive thousands of write-in votes statewide in the Republican primary.
This is a developing story. Stay with abc27 News as more information becomes available.
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