STATE COLLEGE — The Republican Party of Pennsylvania endorsed Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity for governor in the 2026 election at its massive fall meeting in State College on Saturday.
The party decided to endorse a candidate months earlier than in past years as it sets its sights on denying popular Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro a second term.
And there was a lot of excitement for Garrity at Saturday’s gathering.
“I know what it means to serve,” Garrity, a U.S. Army Reserve veteran, said in a speech to GOP state committee members Saturday. “I know what it means to solve the tough problems impacting the lives of Pennsylvania families.”
“So my message to families all across our great Commonwealth: Help is on the way,” she added.
Party leaders from every county in the state sat shoulder to shoulder filling a conference room at the The Penn Stater Hotel. Some wore Garrity T-shirts and red Trump hats and others dressed in business wear.
They were all well aware that Garrity received more votes for treasurer last year than any other elected leader in Pennsylvania’s statewide elections. Shapiro previously hit that record when he was elected governor in 2022.
Garrity has been a loyal supporter of President Trump, who won Pennsylvania by 1.7 points in 2024 as part of a red wave of GOP victories that included auditor general, attorney general and U.S. senator. He narrowly won the state in 2016 and narrowly lost it in 2020.
» READ MORE: Republicans in Pennsylvania had a comeback in 2024
State Democratic Party chair Eugene DePasquale criticized the state Republicans for “pledging allegiance to a candidate who has pledged her own allegiance to Donald Trump.” Democrats have gone after Garrity over her staunch support of the president, but she told reporters on Saturday she doesn’t feel the need to moderate her stances for the gubernatorial race.
“I’m totally authentic,” she said with a smile.
The GOP is framing Garrity as a hardworking Pennsylvanian who can relate to the struggles of rural communities, while presenting Shapiro as a politician mostly interested in photo ops. Shapiro was the subject of frequent criticism and mockery throughout the two-day weekend.
His office declined to comment on the GOP endorsement or Garrity’s speech.
Republicans point to Garrity’s rural home county, her military service, and her work as treasurer to return unclaimed property to Pennsylvanians — a task of the treasurer’s office that’s been streamlined due to a change in the law for which she lobbied.
» READ MORE: Stacy Garrity on being impatient, Pa.’s unclaimed property problem, and the governor’s race
Peter Quaglia, a state committee member from Wayne County in the northeastern part of the state, said he’s normally against party endorsements, but that Garrity is “a special case.”
“Not to endorse her would be an abdication of our responsibility to the party,” he said. “She is the only one that can beat Josh Shapiro, in our estimation.”
Dick Harris, the chair of the Bradford County GOP, called Garrity “a daughter of Bradford County” when he stood up to nominate her for the party endorsement. Garrity echoed the same words in the start of her speech in a nod to her northern Pennsylvania home.
“Stacy’s story is our story,” Harris said. “She grew up in rural Pennsylvania where hard work, faith, and community still mean something.”
Jason Richey, the Allegheny County GOP chair who seconded the nomination, praised Garrity for being a servicewoman deployed to “all three Middle East missions: Desert Storm, Iraqi Freedom, and Enduring Freedom.”
If elected, Garrity would also be the first female governor of Pennsylvania.
“At the age of 8, my dad paid me $10 to dig my first ditch,” she said in her speech. “He called it my first foxhole. Two decades later, I arrived in the Middle East for the first of three combat deployments. So you learn a lot about yourself and what you believe when you’re standing in a desert half a world away.”
Garrity was the only candidate nominated for the endorsement on Saturday and received overwhelming support. The room filled with a loud chorus of “ayes,” and attendees chanted her name when the endorsement was made official.
But she didn’t have unanimous support, with a much smaller crowd voting against the endorsement. According to attendees,some objected because they believe a gubernatorial endorsement ahead of November could divert attention from the judges’ races this fall, while others are anti-endorsement in general. Doug Mastriano, a state senator who lost to Shapiro in 2022 by 15 points, also has supporters who don’t want to endorse Garrity.
Mastriano, who is still considering whether to mount another gubernatorial bid in 2026, said in an interview Thursday that the Pennsylvania GOP was “denying the people of Pennsylvania a choice and a voice” in the primary by endorsing so early in the election cycle.
“It’s not about the person they’re endorsing, it’s about the process,” Mastriano said. “Why even vote? Why have a primary?”
Mastriano, noted that a May Public Policy Polling poll had him well ahead of Garrity among Republican voters, before she had officially announced her candidacy.
“They’re starting off with someone who needs to make up a lot of ground in her own party,” he added.
Garrity told reporters she has “a great relationship” with Mastriano and “he does a great job for people in his district.”
“Let’s hope that he unifies behind Stacy,” said Val Biancaniello, a Delaware County state committee member.