Will Trump’s Paterno statue shoutout help in Pennsylvania?

At a campaign event Wednesday in Pittsburgh, Trump called for the reinstatement of a statue of the late Penn State football coach Joe Paterno. “How’s Joe Paterno? We gonna bring that back? Right?,” Trump asked the audience. “How about that whole deal?”

Paterno, the winningest coach in major college football history, was fired from Penn State following allegations that he helped cover up a child sex abuse scandal involving Jerry Sandusky, a former assistant coach. He died two months later at the age of 85 after being diagnosed with lung cancer. While Paterno’s family maintains his innocence, a bronze statue of Paterno in front of the stadium in which his team played was removed in 2012.

The removal followed the release of a report by former FBI director Louis Freeh which concluded that Paterno, along with three university officials, played a role concealing the scandal. The statue has since been kept in storage according to the university.

For some who would like to see Paterno’s statue returned to its former glory, Trump’s shoutout was a welcome boost to their cause.

Another voice added to the chorus of those “anxious” to see the statue returned to its spot in front of the university’s Beaver Stadium, makes it “more likely it will be returned to its proper place,” Centre County Republican Party chairman Steve Miller told the Washington Examiner.

While Paterno’s win record may have been scrubbed and then reinstated by the NCAA in recent years, the university’s stance on his statue remains unchanged. A Penn State spokesman would not comment on Trump’s statue proposal, saying the university does not comment on candidates’ campaign speeches.

Asked whether Trump’s decision to make Paterno a campaign issue might impact his chances for the April 26 primary in the Keystone State, where recent polls show Trump leading by a wide margin, Miller said it would not “help or hurt him.”

“I do not believe the recent comments regarding Joe Paterno or the possible return of his statue will have any negative effect on Mr. Trump going forward in Pennsylvania,” said Jonathan Stack, state director of Pennsylvania’s Students for Trump, a student-led organization dedicated to helping the billionaire candidate’s campaign. “In fact, it may have helped him even more.”

Though Trump’s rally took place in Pittsburgh, a two-and-a-half hour drive away from Penn State’s main campus in State College, Stack was confident that many Penn State students were in attendance.

“It was only right Mr. Trump acknowledge them in some way and he has in fact defended Joe Paterno in the past,” Stack added. “Mr. Trump will never shy away from what he believes is right.”

Trump did in fact share words of support for Paterno, whom he claimed to know, in the fallout resulting from the Sandusky scandal back in 2012. The casino tycoon tweeted for the Paterno family to sue “the idiots” at Penn State who helped tarnish the coach’s legacy.

Surveys show a majority of Pennsylvanians support the reinstallation of the Paterno statue. As recently as last year, a Quinnipiac University survey showed nearly 60 percent of Pennsylvanians supported the statue’s restoration.

At worst, Miller said he would be surprised if his comment influenced 150 voters to hemorrhage from Trump’s cause. “The Trump wave is so large,” he added.

Miller is a professed supporter of former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who ended his campaign for the Republican nomination in February. Santorum is a graduate of Penn State. Though he didn’t reveal who he will vote for now in the primary, Miller said as chairman of Centre County’s GOP — regardless of who wins — he hopes the party will “unify behind” the winner in order to defeat the Democrats.