Nche Zama is the Only GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Not Seeking Trump Endorsement

Republican gubernatorial candidate Nche Zama is the only potential nominee who isn’t looking for a Trump endorsement to boost his campaign.

In a long list of candidates vying for the Republican nomination for the governor’s seat in Pennsylvania, Nche Zama stands out from the crowd.

The 65-year-old cardio-thoracic surgeon is a newcomer to politics, so he doesn’t have the name recognition or political experience many of the other candidates do.

He also stands out in four key ways:

Zama Is The Only Republican Not Seeking Trump’s Support

Zama is also the only candidate who is not seeking the endorsement of former President Donald Trump.

“It’s not about who likes me, who doesn’t like me,” Zama told The Pocono Record when he announced his candidacy last year. “I just want to do right. So I’m not embroiled in partisan politics. I am embroiled in issues that bring value to fellow humans.”

Party is “absolutely not” his top priority, he said. Zama is running as a Republican, but his affiliation isn’t as overt as it is for many candidates. Neither “Republican” nor “GOP” appear on his website, and he doesn’t state his party in his introductory video.

Zama Has Not Repeated Trump’s Lies About the 2020 Election

Unlike other Republicans, Zama has not perpetuated Trump’s lies about the 2020 election.

Although he agrees with repealing Pennsylvania’s no excuse mail-in voting law (Act 77), he is not doing it to curry favor with Trump like other candidates have. 

Zama Has Publicly Criticized Trump

Zama has a small following on his Twitter account and had posted only three Tweets as of Monday, but he used one of those Tweets to condemn the former president for withdrawing from the World Health Organization.

In May 2020, Trump accused the United Nations’ health agency of helping China cover up the threat the coronavirus posed to the world. He stopped funding to WHO and withdrew the US from the organization in July 2020. The nation relied on its partnership with WHO to share crucial data and information, including treatments and potential vaccines, about the coronavirus, HIV, Ebola, and other public health threats.

Zama is Black, and Has Called Racism a ‘Major American Health Problem’

Zama has also spoken out about what he calls a “major American health problem.” Racism.

“Disabling racism has left many blacks and other minorities in a state of social helplessness and desperation, as they languish in suffocating domestic colonies and silos of social oblivion,” Zama wrote in a now-deleted article on Medium.