U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser’s comments were brief, but they had all the markings of a gubernatorial stump speech from an out-of-town Congressman trying to appeal to Philadelphians.

“I’m not from here,” Meuser, a Republican who represents Northeastern Pennsylvania and originally hails from New York, said to a small audience in a Germantown event space Wednesday. “But I will tell you this: Philadelphia is my favorite city in the world, and it’s always going to be that way.”

The appearance by the longtime ally of President Donald Trump in a predominately Black neighborhood, where 78% voted for Vice President Kamala Harris last year, was promoted as a community event — and the doors were open to everyone — but the subtext for Meuser was laying the groundwork for a possible 2026 run for Pennsylvania governor.

While Philadelphia voted overwhelmingly for Harris, Trump got more votes here last year than he did in the 2020 election, and Republicans see an opportunity in the Democratic stronghold. Meuser has confirmed he is considering a run against Gov. Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania’s unusually popular first-term Democratic governor, reiterating it in an interview with Newsmax last week. He’s a frequent guest on conservative cable TV, including Fox. His guest to Trump’s address to Congress last month was Brian Kilmeade, a cohost of Fox & Friends.

“I will just tell you this, there’s a lot more that can be done in that governor’s office,” Meuser said at Treasures night club and event space in Germantown Wednesday night, as people ate southern and Chinese food from a provided buffet.

“And I’m going to be coming back. You’re gonna be seeing more of me, because there’s a real good chance we — and I mean we — are going to look to take on the Executive Office of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and deliver great things for our great Commonwealth. And that would be the plan.”

Questions about Medicaid but few answers

The event was hosted by Xavier Devereux and co-founders of the Do For Self Coalition.

“The politicians you’re mad at, it’s not in this room,” Devereux told the audience as he emceed. “We brought them here because of the fools we been dealing with for 60 years.”

Devereux attended a party thrown by Meuser and other GOP members of Congress in Washington during Trump’s inauguration, and campaigned with Meuser for Trump in the city over the summer.

The event on Wednesday started about an hour late. A businessman from Atlanta took 30 minutes to talk about his green steel company and hopes to build affordable housing in Philadelphia. Meuser and state Rep. Dave Zimmerman, who was also invited to speak, did not start addressing the crowd until about 8:30 p.m., two and a half hours into the event and after most people had left.

While the room was predominantly made up of people who have supported Republican campaigns in the city before, and their guests, it was open to everyone, including some Democrats.

Former state Rep. Stephen Kinsey, a Democrat who is from Germantown, said he came in the spirit of bipartisanship and because he wanted to hear how the politicians would address his community.

“You know, we can sit back and criticize the president, or we can try to chip away and get elected officials like the Congressman, and others to recognize what’s taking place.”

Attendees were given notecards to write down questions for a Q&A. Judy Pinkney, a lifelong Democrat from Northeast Philadelphia, said she wanted to ask about whether the GOP would cut Medicaid as part of an upcoming budget resolution.

“I go to a senior center and they’re complaining about they losing their food stamps and they losing their Medicaid and Medicare,” she told The Inquirer. “They fearful of all that. It’s a very sad situation.”

Pinkney, said she appreciated politicians coming to speak in a time when she wants answers. But ultimately, she didn’t get many.

By the time Meuser and Zimmerman took the floor, a staffer for Zimmerman presented them with about four pre-selected questions that she read aloud, none about Medicaid or government cuts.

The event came at a time of rapid governmental reductions that Republicans are under pressure from their constituents to respond to and as GOP leadership has encouraged them to avoid town hall-format events. Meuser has promised to host a town hall in his district. U.S. Reps. Ryan Mackenzie (R., Berks) and Rob Bresnahan (R.,Lackawanna), both freshmen Republicans from Pennsylvania, have tele-town halls planned in the next week. Democrats in the state, meanwhile, have started holding mock town halls to call out the lack of open public forums.

Before Wednesday’s event, state Democratic Party chair Sharif Street joined local Democratic representatives in Germantown to blast the event and Republicans in Congress for supporting Trump’s policies, including recent cuts to federal programs and workers and expected cuts to Medicaid.

“You come to a Black and brown community like Germantown ... and hey, that’s fine. You can go anywhere you want in Pennsylvania, right?” said state Rep. Andre Carroll, who represents the district. “But what you cannot do? You cannot cut Social Security. You cannot cut Medicaid. You cannot fire thousands of federal workers ... gut the Department of Education, and then come here and tell us that you appreciate us. We appreciate if you guys do your damn job, take the oath that you took, and take it serious and protect people.”

After the protest, Carroll was welcomed inside the event and stayed for a while. Later Meuser acknowledged him during his comments to the crowd, though he got the lawmaker’s first name wrong, calling him “Dante Carroll.”

‘I got a lot of Democrat friends’

In addition to Meuser, state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R., Franklin) has said he’s considering running against Shapiro for the second time. Treasurer Stacy Garritty, who garnered a record-breaking number of votes in November, also hasn’t ruled out a run.

There is more than a year to go before the state’s gubernatorial race, but Meuser previewed some of the appeals he’d likely make on the campaign trail. He noted that while he’s a Pennsylvania transplant, he’s fully a Philadelphia Eagles fan. He was careful in how he described his relationship with Trump, a close ally, whom he has actively defended.

“You know, with President Trump in there, like him or not, he’s our president,” Meuser said. “I do know him personally, and he’s a much better person than anybody in the media ever portrays him as. We do have a Republican House, but I got a lot of Democrat friends. [Democratic U.S. Rep.] Dwight Evans is my friend.”

Meuser noted Philadelphia has problems — with education, housing and crime, though he provided few specific ideas on how to solve them. He more directly criticized the state’s second largest city, Pittsburgh, which has a mayoral race this year.

“You know, Philadelphia, to me, I come in. It looks nice, right? ...I go out to Pittsburgh. I don’t know what happened out there, but, but since COVID hit, Pittsburgh has gone backwards,” Meuser said.

“And how that’s not a top priority ... of our current governor and our past governor is beyond me.”

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