Matt Hackenburg

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Matt Hackenburg

Libertarian Party

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 8, 2022

Personal

Profession

Computer engineer in the aerospace industry

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Matt Hackenburg (Libertarian Party) (formerly Jonathan) ran for election for Governor of Pennsylvania. He lost in the general election on November 8, 2022.

Hackenburg completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Matt Hackenburg's career experience includes working as a computer engineer in the aerospace industry. Hackenburg is a former member of the Army National Guard.

2022 battleground election

See also: Pennsylvania gubernatorial and lieutenant gubernatorial election, 2022

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro (D) defeated state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R) and three others in the general election for governor of Pennsylvania on November 8, 2022. Incumbent Tom Wolf (D) was term-limited.

Shapiro was elected as attorney general in 2016. He was the Montgomery County commissioner from 2011 to 2017 and served in the state House from 2005 to 2011. Shapiro's campaign focused on two key messages: his record as attorney general and his potential ability as governor to veto legislation the legislature's Republican majority passes. He said his experience in the criminal justice system and on cases related to LGBTQ issues, workers' issues, and election security were things he would continue to pursue as governor. Shapiro's campaign website said that he would veto certain legislation related to abortion and absentee/mail-in voting.

Mastriano was elected as a state senator from the Cumberland Valley in 2018. He served in the United States Army from 1988 to 2017. Mastriano proposed a number of election policy changes, including eliminating no excuse absentee/mail-in voting and drop boxes, enacting universal voter identification, and prohibiting the use of private donations or grants for election administration. Following the Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Mastriano called on the Legislature to pass a bill banning abortion after the detection of a fetal heartbeat. Mastriano said he would rescind any remaining mask and vaccine mandates related to the coronavirus pandemic on his first day in office and work to pass a law banning similar future mandates.

How the state conducted elections was one focus of each candidate's campaign. As of November 2022, the governor of Pennsylvania appointed a secretary of state charged with certifying election results, determining which voting machines the state uses, and ordering recounts and recanvasses of elections. Shapiro said, "[I will] appoint a pro-democracy Secretary of State to run our elections, expand pre-registration opportunities for young people, and implement same-day voter registration through Election Day." Mastriano's website said he would "Appoint a Secretary of State with experience in securing elections from fraud."

Heading into the election, Pennsylvania had a divided government, with a Democratic governor and Republican majorities in both legislative chambers. Shapiro's win preserved this divided government, while a Mastriano win would have left open the possibility of a Republican trifecta. A trifecta occurs when one political party holds the governorship and a majority in both legislative chambers. Across the country, there were 23 Republican trifectas, 14 Democratic trifectas, and 13 divided governments at the time of the election.

Minor party, independent, and write-in candidates included Christina Digiulio (G), Joseph Soloski (Keystone Party of Pennsylvania), and Matt Hackenburg (L).

Each candidate had a running mate for lieutenant governor. Shapiro's running mate was state Rep. Austin Davis, and Mastriano's running mate was state Rep. Carrie DelRosso. Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D) ran for U.S. Senate rather than seek re-election.

Elections

2022

See also: Pennsylvania gubernatorial and lieutenant gubernatorial election, 2022

General election

General election for Governor of Pennsylvania

Josh Shapiro defeated Doug Mastriano, Matt Hackenburg, Christina Digiulio, and Joseph Soloski in the general election for Governor of Pennsylvania on November 8, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Josh Shapiro (D)	56.5	3,031,137
		Doug Mastriano (R)	41.7	2,238,477
		Matt Hackenburg (L)	1.0	51,611
		Christina Digiulio (G)	0.5	24,436
		Joseph Soloski (Keystone Party of Pennsylvania)	0.4	20,518

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 5,366,179
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Eddie Wenrich (Independent)
• Christina Olson (Green Party of Pennsylvania)

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Governor of Pennsylvania

Josh Shapiro advanced from the Democratic primary for Governor of Pennsylvania on May 17, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Josh Shapiro	100.0	1,227,151

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 1,227,151
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Tega Swann (D)

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Governor of Pennsylvania

The following candidates ran in the Republican primary for Governor of Pennsylvania on May 17, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Doug Mastriano	43.8	591,240
		Lou Barletta	20.3	273,252
		Bill McSwain	15.8	212,886
		David White	9.6	129,058
		Melissa Hart	4.1	54,752
		Joe Gale	2.1	27,920
		Jake Corman III (Unofficially withdrew)	1.9	26,091
		Charlie Gerow	1.3	17,922
		Nche Zama	1.2	16,238

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 1,349,359
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Jason Monn (R)
• Guy Ciarrocchi (R)
• Scott Martin (R)
• Jason Richey (R)
• John Ventre (R)

Polls

See also: Ballotpedia's approach to covering polls

Polls are conducted with a variety of methodologies and have margins of error or credibility intervals. The Pew Research Center wrote, "A margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level means that if we fielded the same survey 100 times, we would expect the result to be within 3 percentage points of the true population value 95 of those times." For tips on reading polls from FiveThirtyEight, click here. For tips from Pew, click here.

Below we provide results for polls that are included in polling aggregation from FiveThirtyEight and RealClearPolitics, when available. Click here to read about FiveThirtyEight's criteria for including polls in its aggregation. We only report polls for which we can find a margin of error or credibility interval.

Pennsylvania gubernatorial election, 2022: General election polls
Poll	Date	Shapiro	Mastriano	Undecided/Other	Margin of error	Sample size	Sponsor
Research Co.	November 4-6, 2022	51%	43%	—	± 4.6	450 LV	N/A
InsiderAdvantage	November 3, 2022	51%	43%	8%	± 3.6	750 LV	FOX 29
Remington Research Group	November 1-2, 2022	52%	40%	7%	± 2.8	1,180 LV	N/A
Marist	October 31-2, 2022	54%	40%	—	± 3.8	1,152 LV	N/A
Beacon Research/Shaw & Company Research	October 26-30, 2022	53%	37%	10%	± 3.0	1,005 RV	Fox News

Click [show] to see older poll results
Poll	Date	Shapiro	Mastriano	Undecided/Other	Margin of error	Sample size	Sponsor
Suffolk University	October 27-30, 2022	54%	40%	—	± 4.4	500 LV	USA Today
co/efficient	October 26-28, 2022	51%	41%	8%	± 3.4	1,716 LV	N/A
Muhlenberg College	October 24-28, 2022	54%	40%	6%	± 6.0	460 LV	The Morning Call
Wick Insights	October 26-27, 2022	49%	43%	8%	± 3.2	1,000 LV	N/A
Insider Advantage	October 26, 2022	50%	42%	8%	± 3.6	750 LV	N/A
YouGov	October 21-24, 2022	54%	45%	—	± 4.4	1,084 LV	CBS News
Siena College	October 24-26, 2022	53%	40%	7%	± 4.4	620 LV	The New York Times
Franklin & Marshall College	October 14-23, 2022	58%	36%	—	± 6.8	384 LV	N/A
Rasmussen Reports/Pulse Opinion Research	October 19-20, 2022	43%	40%	16%	± 3.0	972 LV	N/A
Echelon Insights	October 18-20, 2022	50%	38%	3%	± 4.8	500 LV	N/A
InsiderAdvantage	October 19, 2022	49%	42%	9%	± 4.2	550 LV	WTXF-TV
SSRS	October 13-17, 2022	56%	41%	—	± 4.1	901 RV	CNN
Wick Insights	October 8-14, 2022	49%	46%	5%	± 3.1	1,013 LV	N/A
Fabrizio/Impact Research	October 4-12, 2022	53%	42%	—	± 4.4	1,400 LV	AARP
Trafalgar Group	October 8-11, 2022	53%	44%	8%	± 2.9	1,078 LV	The Daily Wire
Monmouth University	September 29-October 3, 2022	54%	38%	—	± 4.8	610 RV	N/A
Suffolk University	September 27-30, 2022	48%	37%	—	± 4.4	500 LV	USA Today
Emerson College	September 23-26, 2022	51%	41%	9%	± 3.0	1,000 LV	N/A
Beacon Research/Shaw & Company Research	September 22-26, 2022	51%	40%	10%	± 3.0	1,008 RV	Fox News
Franklin & Marshall	September 19-25, 2022	51%	37%	12%	± 5.6	517 RV	N/A
InsiderAdvantage	September 23-24, 2022	52%	37%	11%	± 4.2	550 LV	WTXF-TV
Marist College	September 19-22, 2022	53%	40%	6%	± 3.5	1,242 RV	N/A
Phillips Academy	September 19-22, 2022	46%	43%	12%	± 3.6	759 RV	Abbot Academy Fund
Muhlenberg College	September 13-16, 2022	53%	42%	4%	± 6.0	420 LV	The Morning Call
Trafalgar Group	September 13-15, 2022	47%	45%	8%	± 2.9	1,078 LV	N/A
YouGov	September 6-12, 2022	55%	44%	1%	± 3.8	1,194 LV	CBS News
Echelon Insights	August 31-September 7, 2022	55%	36%	8%	± 4.1	828 RV	NetChoice
RABA Research	August 31-September 3, 2022	47%	41%	13%	± 3.8	679 LV	N/A
Emerson College	August 22-23, 2022	47%	44%	9%	± 3.0	1,034 LV	N/A
Franklin & Marshall	August 15-21, 2022	44%	33%	24%	± 5.3	522 RV	N/A
Trafalgar Group	August 15-18, 2022	49%	45%	7%	± 2.9	1,096 LV	N/A
Public Opinion Strategies	August 7-10, 2022	50%	35%	15%	± 4.0	600 RV	Pittsburgh Works Together
Beacon Research/Shaw & Company Research	July 22-26, 2022	50%	40%	—	± 3.0	908 LV	Fox News
Blueprint Polling	July 19-21, 2022	51%	39%	—	± 3.7	712 LV	N/A
Cignal	June 17-19, 2022	48%	45%	7%	± 4.2	535 LV	N/A
Fabrizio/Impact Research	June 12-19, 2022	49%	46%	—	± 4.4	1,382 LV	AARP
Suffolk University	June 10-13, 2022	44%	40%	—	± 4.4	500 LV	USA Today

The chart below shows RealClearPolitics polling averages in this race over time.

General election

====Democratic primary====

Satellite spending

See also: Satellite spending

Satellite spending describes political spending not controlled by candidates or their campaigns; that is, any political expenditures made by groups or individuals that are not directly affiliated with a candidate. This includes spending by political party committees, super PACs, trade associations, and 501(c)(4) nonprofit groups.

If available, this section includes links to online resources tracking satellite spending in this election. To notify us of a resource to add, email us.

The Pennsylvania Secretary of State provides a list of all independent expenditure filings in the state. To view filings for this race, click here.

Spending news

• October 4, 2022: The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Everytown for Gun Safety launched a $2.1 million ad campaign opposing Mastriano and U.S. Senate candidate Mehmet Oz (R).

• September 30, 2022: The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Commonwealth Leaders Fund suspended its ads opposing Shapiro with $3.2 million remaining on its reservation.

• August 31, 2022: Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania Victory Fund and Natural Resource Defense Council Action Votes jointly purchased a $500,000 ad buy opposing Mastriano.

Endorsements

Click the links below to see endorsement lists published on candidate campaign websites, if available. If you are aware of a website that should be included, please email us.

• Josh Shapiro

This section lists noteworthy endorsements issued in this election, including those made by high-profile individuals and organizations, cross-party endorsements, and endorsements made by newspaper editorial boards. Please note that this list is not exhaustive. If you are aware of endorsements that should be included, please email us.

Noteworthy endorsements
Endorser	Josh Shapiro	Doug Mastriano
Government officials
President Joe Biden (D)  source	✔
Vice President Kamala D. Harris (D)  source	✔
Gov. Tom Wolf (D)  source	✔
Individuals
Frmr. U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff  source	✔
Frmr. state Rep. Mario Civera, Jr.  source	✔
Frmr. U.S. Rep. Charles W. Dent  source	✔
Frmr. U.S. Rep. Jim Greenwood  source	✔
Frmr. Pres. Barack Obama  source	✔
Frmr. state Rep. Dennis O'Brien  source	✔
Frmr. Gov. Ed Rendell  source	✔
Frmr. Pres. Donald Trump  source		✔
Newspapers and editorials
The Philadelphia Inquirer  source	✔
Organizations
Boilermakers Local 154  source	✔
Pennsylvania State Troopers Association  source	✔
Philadelphia Firefighters’ and Paramedics’ Union Local 22  source	✔
Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police  source	✔

Campaign themes

2022

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Matt Hackenburg completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Hackenburg's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Matt is one of us, not a politician. He’s principled, not dishonest. He’s looking for freedom, not a career. He cares about his family, not paybacks. Matt is a veteran against war, the husband of a nurse against medical tyranny, and a neighbor against government overreach into our communities. He doesn't want to see our men and women sent overseas to die. He won't stand for our kids being muzzled and abused. And more than anything, he wants us to be the ones that decide how we live our lives. Matt lives in Northampton County with his wife, Laura, their young daughter, and their homestead of dogs, chickens, and goats. Matt is a former member of the Army National Guard and has a fifteen-year career as a computer engineer in the aerospace industry.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• We, the people of Pennsylvania, should decide what happens in Pennsylvania. What’s best for us is not necessarily what’s best for other states. Any and all laws coming from corrupt D.C. that infringe on our rights should be nullified and made unenforceable.
• Our children have suffered enough. They're forced to attend failing government schools, stripped of their creativity, indoctrinated into servanthood, and robbed of their dignity while being muzzled literally and figuratively throughout. We as parents know best how to raise our kids, and the State shouldn't come between us.
• Taxes on our income, our property, at the store, on our gas, everywhere we turn. Criminal politicians steal money from our kitchen table and waste it. Meanwhile, most Americans live paycheck to paycheck and struggle month in and month out. You know better how to spend your money than politicians hundreds of miles away. We must end the theft of taxation and restore our prosperity.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

The people of Pennsylvania know what’s best for Pennsylvania and have the right to make those decisions. It’s the State’s responsibility to make sure laws and edicts from D.C. are not infringing on the rights of its citizens. That protection is one of the most important roles of a Governor, but we’ve been living without it for far too long.

The tyranny of the COVID regime was unprecedented: locking us in our homes, taking away our jobs, muzzling our kids, and doing untold damage to our friends and family. We are not free if we don’t have body autonomy. We must end medical tyranny, any and all government mandates, and return the power to make health decisions to the individual and our families.

The National Guard has been abused beyond measure. War criminals in D.C. deploy our family members unlawfully into unnecessary conflict with zero regard for their well-being. As a former guardsman, Defend the Guard policy, which will protect our Guard from being deployed without a formal declaration of war, will be a top priority.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

The most important characteristic for an elected official is a perspective of service and humility. Those elected serve the people, not the other way around, and must humbly execute their duties without forgetting who they work for. Too many officials end up lusting for more control, power, and wealth. Protecting the freedoms of our citizens must be most important in the eyes of any elected official.

Governors have many responsibilities, which vary from state to state. Which of those do you personally consider the most important in your state?

The most important role of a governor is to protect the citizens of the state from infringement on their rights and freedoms by any law, regulation, or action from the state or D.C.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

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