With months to go before November’s gubernatorial election, state Treasurer and Republican frontrunner Stacy Garrity used her first candidate appearance of 2026 to repeatedly attack Gov. Josh Shapiro at a Pennsylvania Press Club event on Monday in downtown Harrisburg.
Garrity took her first shot at Shapiro 15 seconds into her half hour speech, painting him as someone “who talks to the national press first” rather than state-level media. She mentioned the sitting governor by name at least 30 times.
She earned the state GOP’s endorsement in September, but still must secure her spot in the general election by winning the May primary. She is currently running unopposed. Garrity first won her state row office position in 2020 and was reelected in 2024.
Reflecting on her three decades of service with the U.S. Army Reserve, where she rose to the rank of colonel, Garrity shared the story of an abused Iraqi woman and her children who she said she helped secure a divorce.
“I’m pretty sure that I am the only American to get an Iraqi woman divorced,” she quipped. “(She) was one of the individual tragedies of war that’s too often lost in the shuffle … Today, all across Pennsylvania, there are individual crises that go unacknowledged and unknown every day.”
These crises included steep electricity bills, struggling to afford food and fatal drug overdoses — all issues Garrity pinned to Shapiro.
“The hard truth is that Josh Shapiro has failed all of them. Poverty, abuse, addiction — they’re not just an inner city issue. These are cancers plaguing every one of our communities,” Garrity said. “Those aren’t statistics; those are individual lives failed by Josh Shapiro.”
She accused Shapiro of blaming Trump for the state’s problems and not taking responsibility. Recognizing the pushback she received after calling Pennsylvania “mediocre” last month, Garrity said, “Pennsylvania is not reaching our potential, and the buck stops at Josh Shapiro’s desk.”
“Pennsylvania has, can and should lead, But Josh Shapiro’s failure has driven us into mediocrity,” said Garrity. “I don’t accept mediocrity and I don’t believe Pennsylvanians do either.”
Rather than suing the Trump administration — as Shapiro has repeatedly done — Garrity said she would “ work with President (Donald) Trump to make sure that Pennsylvania gets back on the right track.“
Several Democrat-led states have utilized the legal system to retain federal funds or defend state laws. For example, Pennsylvania joined a litany of states that sued over food assistance funding cut by the Trump administration during last year’s federal shutdown.
When asked, Garrity declined to identify any areas where she disagreed with Trump. It’s something the state Democratic Party condemned in a statement alongside criticism of her views on abortion and prior statements questioning the results of the 2020 election.
“Stacy Garrity’s flailing campaign was on full display as she doubled down on her extreme, toxic positions,” said a party statement. “Garrity made it clear Pennsylvanians cannot trust her to do what’s right for working families.”
A Garrity administration
Garrity briefly touched on her achievements in office, including investments in college savings plans and tripling assets under PA ABLE, a program that benefits Pennsylvanians with disabilities. Additionally, her office has prioritized returning millions of dollars to taxpayers and distributing state-held military decorations — including Purple Hearts, Bronze Stars and one Gold Star — to veterans.
“I guess you could say we’ve gotten stuff done,” panned Garrity, invoking Shapiro’s administrative catchphrase. “You see, getting stuff done is not a catchy political pathway. It’s something I’ve prided myself in accomplishing at every point in my life — because I believe actions speak louder than words.”
Shapiro’s version often includes the explicative, or “Get s*** done.” He has used that wording, for example, to describe the rapid rebuilding of a damaged bridge outside of Philadelphia.
“My question for Josh Shapiro: What about 3,000 deficient bridges found in nearly every community across our commonwealth?” Garrity said.
She pitched ending “wasteful” turnpike transfers, adding accountability for transit agencies — a reference, perhaps, to the evergreen debate about SEPTA funding in Harrisburg — and prioritizing freight. Additionally, she said artificial intelligence would be used to “predict maintenance needs, reduce congestion, prevent waste, and deliver projects faster and cheaper.”
Despite public skepticism over the deployment of AI and the resource-hungry data centers that power it, Garrity enthusiastically shared her vision for growing its development by tapping into the state’s natural gas stores.
“We will utilize the God-given resources under our feet to fuel the technological revolution of the 21st century. Pennsylvania can power the world, but only if the Shapiro administration stops its moratorium,” said Garrity.
Former Gov. Tom Wolf signed a moratorium on new drilling leases for oil and gas in state parks in forests prior to Shapiro taking office. Natural gas prices are currently sinking to new lows and eating into profit margins.
Noting that nearly two-thirds of the state’s 67 counties are rural, she said there were “a lot of areas where you can put data centers” in welcoming communities. Grassroots groups have popped up across the state opposing such efforts.
Garrity also vowed to improve the state’s education rankings, specifically by addressing reading achievement in third grade and making sure students were proficient in math and reading before entering high school.
Garrity campaign positions
The gubernatorial candidate briefly touched on a bevy of issues, including the following:
- Lieutenant Governor: Citing the recent news of state Sen. Doug Mastriano’s (R-Franklin) decision not to run against her, Garrity said there’s been “renewed interest” in the competition to be her running mate. “I know that we will have the absolute best partner as lieutenant governor when the time’s right,” she told reporters in a brief scrum following the luncheon.
- The 2020 election: When asked if Trump won the 2020 election, she said “absolutely not,” though in 2022 she said otherwise. “Just to be clear, that was at a Trump rally and … it’s easy to get caught up in a Trump rally. But I have to tell you that, after the 2020 election, I know Joe Biden was the president. I was painfully away of it.” At a separate 2021 rally, Garrity said the previous November’s election would be “tarnished forever.” She later told the Capital-Star her comment was about just one state Senate race, not the overall outcome.
- Property taxes: Garrity called the state’s property tax rate “one of the highest in the nation” and vowed to lower bills for seniors. The Tax Foundation ranks the Pennsylvania rate as the 13th highest in the country.
- Abortion: “My position on abortion has never changed: I am pro-life, but I am for exceptions.” She didn’t list those exceptions at Monday’s event.
- Recreational marijuana legalization: Garrity said she didn’t believe there was “as much revenue in the legalization of marijuana as you would think,” instead advocating for natural gas drilling to bring more revenue to the state. She mentioned Ohio. In that state’s first full year of marijuana sales, it netted over $700 million in its first year, though Garrity said she thought it was “under $300 million a year.”
- Voter rolls: Garrity said she would comply with the Trump administration’s request for the state’s voter rolls, which the commonwealth has resisted so far. Democratic critics and groups like the Committee of Seventy have criticized the push by the Department of Justice.
- On potential ICE enforcement: Garrity indicated she would be “cooperative” with a goal to have safe communities. “You can see how states that cooperate, the results are far different than states that have not been cooperative.” Last week, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis while federal agents shot two other people in Oregon.
- Taxpayer upgrades to Shapiro’s private home: “Everybody wants the governor and his family to be safe.” Rather than criticizing the security improvements made following the firebombing at the Governor’s Residence last year, she said she supported a legislative proposal to put a lien on the property to recoup taxpayer dollars if Shapiro ever sold the home.
