Sean Parnell, a Republican candidate for a Pennsylvania U.S. Senate seat and an Afghanistan war veteran who led the infamous “Outlaw Platoon,” showed a 20 point lead in the polls despite attacks from CNN and the rest of the Democrat establishment media on behalf of Jeff Bartos, a former intern for former Democrat President Bill Clinton who is running as a Republican in the Senate primary.
Parnell, roughly a year out from the election, leads the Republican primary field by 20 points, in addition to leading the other Republicans in major cities throughout the state.
Overall, Parnell secured 27 percent of the hypothetical vote when respondents were asked, “If the primary election for U.S. Senate were held today and the candidates were Sean Parnell, Jeff Bartos and Carla Sands, for whom would you vote?” Bartos received seven percent of the vote and Sands got four percent. There was five percent who said “other” and 57 percent who said “undecided.”
The poll data showed Parnell’s strength in major cities across the state, noting that “any candidate who holds a commanding lead in Pittsburgh, Harrisburg and Philadelphia is headed towards securing the nomination”:
– Sean leads in Pittsburgh by 51%, with no other candidate breaking single digits.
– In Philadelphia, where Jeff Bartos has been running since 2017, Sean leads both him and Carla by 12.5%. Neither Jeff nor Carla breaks single digits in the most expensive media market in the state. Sean’s never run advertising there and is already leading.
– In Harrisburg, Sean’s lead is 10%.
– Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and Pittsburgh represent roughly 75% of the primary vote in the state. Sean’s lead in the low to high double digits is a trend that continues in the smaller markets across Pennsylvania as well.
The poll was taken from October 11 to 14, surveying 500 adults from different parts of Pennsylvania. There was no margin of error given.
Parnell’s campaign said in a press release, “Sean Parnell continues to surge in the polls and now holds a commanding 20-point lead despite the best efforts of a liberal media still consumed by their hatred of President Donald Trump and those who he endorses.”
The campaign also noted that within hours of Parnell’s receiving an endorsement from former President Donald Trump, Bartos and the establishment media started a smear campaign, bringing Parnell’s children into the light in hopes of scoring points with voters. The campaign said:
Pennsylvanians have rejected these attacks, and that not only shows in the fundraising (more on that below), but in our survey, over 50% of primary voters are less likely to vote for Jeff because he has engaged in them. Jeff promised to stick to the issues in his announcement video, and the voters are rejecting the personal attacks he spoke out against.
The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote an article pushed by Bartos and other establishment media claiming Parnell is “unelectable” because Parnell’s wife — who regularly retweeted Parnell’s campaign messages, and attacks on his opponent Rep. Conor Lamb (D-PA) throughout 2019 and 2020 election cycle — sought protective orders against him in 2017 and 2018 when the two were going through a divorce.
However, the political attack did not acknowledge that the court expunged both orders, and neither was extended. “The first was dropped after the two sides agreed to terms some days later, and the second was dismissed by a judge,” Breitbart News reported. “Parnell and his wife were granted equal 50-50 custody of their children as the divorce proceedings continue[d].”
Over the weekend, CNN adopted the same tactics as the Philadelphia Inquirer by publishing an article stating Parnell has “significant personal baggage that is raising concerns.” However, despite being debunked, CNN claimed that “a rival Republican candidate,” meaning Bartos, “revealed details about Parnell’s ongoing and messy divorce and custody cases.” The article even questioned Trump’s strategy of endorsing candidates with “alleged pasts” and questions about their “ability to clear the field in primaries.”
A report in June from the Pittsburgh City Paper revealed that Bartos, who is running as a Republican, was once an intern for former President Bill Clinton’s White House and has since then regularly donated and supported top Democrats nationally, including Hillary Clinton in 2014.
“Mrs. Clinton gets a bad rap for being distant… She couldn’t have been nicer to a 20-year-old unpaid staffer. … We had a birthday party for her chief of staff, and she helped me clean up — pick up the plates, throw them in the trash,” Bartos said when speaking about the Clintons in 2014.
A report from August 2020 in the Philadelphia Citizen also stated that Bartos has a close relationship with Pennsylvania’s Democrat Lieutenant Gov. John Fetterman, who’s running as a Democrat against Parnell and Bartos. Fetterman was quoted saying Bartos is “just a really good dude.”
Breitbart News reported that Parnell’s fundraising numbers that came from donations were larger than his opponents — instead of relying on a PAC, outside organizations, and self-funding of campaigns, making their totals appear to be larger.
Parnell raised $1,113,811.19 from donations in the third quarter while relying on donations from actual Americans to fund his campaign. However, the other three candidates Parnell is facing only raised $899,742 after taking away the money the candidates used to self-fund their campaigns.
Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter.