GOP-Backed PAC Tries to Meddle in May's State Senate Democratic Primary Race Between Bradley Merkl-Gump and Mark Pinsley

A GOP-backed PAC campaign mailer that landed in Pennsylvania’s Senate District 16 mailboxes on April 24 aims to confuse and manipulate voters about candidates running in the upcoming Democratic primary.

Will more of these smear-tactics flood voters’ mailboxes and television viewing in the run up to the May primaries – and beyond?

The election propaganda seeks to discredit Democrat Bradley Merkl-Gump. Merkl-Gump is a Pennridge School Board director and teacher running in the May primary against Lehigh County Controller Mark Pinsley for a shot to unseat incumbent Republican Jarett Coleman to represent SD-16 in Harrisburg.

The mailer calls out Merkl-Gump as “the pick of the party bosses” in an attempt to discredit him – while trying to mask the GOP message with the closing line, “Sounds like something Donald Trump would do.”




https://buckscountybeacon.com/2026/05/gop-backed-pac-tries-to-meddle-in-mays-state-senate-democratic-primary-race-between-bradley-merkl-gump-and-mark-pinsley/