Republican gubernatorial candidate Stacy Garrity crisscrossed Pennsylvania Monday, hitting almost every major media market in an attempt to get more Republicans to the polls when they open Tuesday morning.
“Pennsylvania deserves so much better than what we’ve had the last four years,” Garrity said, referencing her opponent, incumbent Josh Shapiro (D). “His administration. What do they want? More government, more spending, more regulations, more mandates.”
Over the course of seven minutes, Garrity spent more than a third of her 720 words criticizing Shapiro and Pennsylvania’s direction under his administration. She called on the state to tap more into its energy resources to boost production and said her administration would slash regulations and be more transparent.
On the other side of the state, Shapiro took the stage in Montgomery County, on the outskirts of Philadelphia. He spoke for 18 minutes and didn’t name or reference Garrity once.
Instead, the man widely expected to be a 2028 presidential contender attacked President Trump and savored the possibility of Democrats seizing both chambers of the legislature in Washington and the Pennsylvania State Senate for the first time since 1993.
“Act One of 2027 will be… to raise our minimum wage to at least $15 an hour,” Shapiro said, promising to build more housing, put more money into funding mass transit, repair roads and codify access to abortion in the state constitution.
He then challenged the crowd.
“I also came here today to remind you not just of your power to do that work, but your responsibility to get it done,” he said.
Shapiro and Garrity were united on that front: getting voters to the polls was paramount. As of Monday morning, more than 80% of voters who requested a mail-in ballot had returned it to their elections office, but that represented just 12% of eligible voters in Pennsylvania.
Regardless of the polls, operatives in both parties acknowledged that campaigns would be won and lost based on which side was able to convince its supporters to show up.
If Republicans have an especially good night, they may hang on to the State Senate and place Garrity in power – where she’ll confront another divided government famous for its inaction.
She said she’d do handle it better than her predecessor.
“You convene special sessions, whether that’s for skill games, whether that’s for our energy policy, what have you, and you get all of the stakeholders in the room,” she explained. “You roll up your sleeves and you get the job done.”
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