Before holding elected office, Stacy Garrity spent 30 years in the United States Army Reserves. This included three deployments to the Middle East, serving in Operations Desert Storm, Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. She hit her mandatory retirement date in 2016.

Had it not been for her mandatory retirement, she said, she would not have thought about running for office.

Now, two years after a successful reelection campaign for state treasurer, Garrity finds herself criss-crossing Pennsylvania running against the policies of incumbent Gov. Josh Shapiro. When Garrity visited the Butler Eagle newsroom for a sit-down interview Friday, Aug. 28, she was driving from a campaign-related event in Pittsburgh to another campaign-related event in Meadville.

She’s hoping a campaign focused on affordability and policies meant to grow the economy can elevate her to governor of the fifth largest state by population in the union.

“We’re on the move, 24/7. Everywhere we go, people seem to be really resonating with our message. Because right now, we rank 47th out of 50 states, economically. People can feel it. We have the fifth-highest tax burden in the nation,” Garrity said, citing a number frequently pulled from a U.S. News & World Report ranking that ranks Pennsylvania 40th overall.

“Everything is more expensive under Josh Shapiro,” she continued.

With just over two months until the election, campaigning is in full-swing for Garrity and her running mate, Jason Richey, an attorney and chairman of the Allegheny County GOP.

The available data paints Garrity as an underdog. Polling from August has Garrity down 56%-25%, according to PennLive; 50%-25%, according to Franklin & Marshall College; and 54%-37%, according to the New York Times and Philadelphia Inquirer.

Despite the polling numbers, Garrity says she feels her messaging resonates with Pennsylvanians interested in “making life affordable” — a pillar of her campaign. She speaks of plans to bring costs down, reduce tax burdens and to expand energy access and “unleash the liquid gold we have under our feet.”

“I have a vision where Pennsylvania once again, like we did in the past, is leading the nation, and not trailing at the bottom of every metric imaginable,” Garrity said.

Beyond her policy proposals and criticism of Shapiro, Garrity also highlighted how she feels her background prepares her for the leadership position.

While serving in Iraq, she claims to have run the “largest internment facility in theater,” encompassing 7,000 detainees and 12,000 soldiers. Past reporting from NPR referred to her as “The Angel of the Desert” due to her work as a Red Cross liaison and considerate treatment of detainees.

Garrity also spent three decades in the private sector working for Global Tungsten & Powders Corp. in Bradford County. She worked her way up to a vice president role there.

Elected state treasurer in 2020 and reelected in 2024, Garrity describes herself as a fiscal watchdog for Pennsylvanians, while managing an office of 350 people.

In all, she said, she brings a different perspective than a “career politician” like “the current governor.”

Like elsewhere nationally, data center expansion has become a focal point in Pennsylvania’s gubernatorial election. Shapiro has run campaign ads calling Garrity “Pennsylvania’s number one fan of data centers.”

Shapiro’s ad includes clips of Garrity talking, including quotes like: “48 out of 67 counties in Pennsylvania are rural. So, there are a lot of areas where you can put data centers.” Another is: “We have 88 data centers. Ohio is kicking our butt. They have over 192.”

Garrity rebuked those ads, calling them misleading. She pointed to comments she made in May calling for a pause on data center development.

Garrity told the Eagle that “we need a pause” to give communities time to update ordinances like old zoning regulations and take other actions needed to protect rate payers and communities.

“The first thing I did is do what I think any leader should do — I listened. I went and did five listening sessions all across the Commonwealth. I had township supervisors, commissioners, different community leaders, first responders, solicitors,” Garrity said.

“And everybody told me the same thing: they’re not against data centers, but they need some time to make sure they get it right.”

Brownfield sites and blighted industrial sites could be acceptable locations for data centers at some point in the future. Garrity also said she does not want to put them on farmland.

She also wants to require data centers to “bring their own energy and water sources,” according to her website.

Meanwhile, Garrity accused Shapiro of flip-flopping his stance on data centers and “gaslighting Pennsylvanians.”

“Right now, Gov. Shapiro is, with his ads, trying to rewrite history. I don’t do that. He is trying to say I am the biggest cheerleader of data centers, and taking little snippets of things I’ve said in the past and not taking the full statement,” Garrity said. “He took $5.7 million from data center developers, gave them sweetheart tax breaks, did not have any energy requirements, any water requirements … Now he’s calling those same folks he took money from greedy.”

If elected governor, Garrity’s plan to make life more affordable for Pennsylvanians includes a slew of policies.

Proposed policies she mentioned to the Eagle include expanding a proposed $250 rebate to Pennsylvania drivers once pitched by Shapiro. She would offer it for three months — meaning a $750 total rebate for “everybody with a Pennsylvania driver’s license.”

Garrity said she wants to roll back red tape around the energy industry, deregulating and making it “easier to do business.” She claims unleashing “the natural gas under our feet” could create 200,000 “family-sustaining jobs” and billions of dollars in revenue.

Her other economic policies include getting rid of the gross receipts tax on electric utilities with the aim of lowering rates, pushing for a constitutional amendment to end property taxes for seniors on a fixed income and launching a program that covers up to 3% of mortgage interest rates for first-time home-buyers.

On workforce development in Pennsylvania, Garrity said her administration would support vocational-technical schools and encourage students to enter the trades.

“We don’t have any choice,” Garrity said on the shortage of skilled workers — something she has seen since she worked in private industry.

“We don’t want to be hiring people out of state because we don’t have enough skilled labor. We are the sixth highest state for young people leaving, and that’s because there’s not opportunities,” Garrity said.

“What does everyone want? What do your parents and grandparents want? They want you to stay here. Get married here. Raise your families here. Start businesses here. Work here. We have to address keeping our young people here,” she continued.

For several years in a row, Shapiro and Pennsylvania’s General Assembly — the Republican-led Senate and the Democratic-led House of Representatives — have missed the budget deadline. In 2025, they were almost five months late, not passing it until November.

As state treasurer, Garrity oversaw a budget bridge loan program to help entities like K-12 schools, pre-K schools, rape crisis centers, county governments and others that without the funding, could have needed to cut staff.

Garrity is critical of Shapiro’s budget proposals and resulting budgets that have pulled money from the rainy day fund to cover structural deficits.

“We’re spending $5 billion more than what we’re bringing in,” Garrity said. “We expect families to live within their means, and our state government needs to do the same thing.

“The current governor has had four budgets, and he’s been late with four budgets. And I’ll focus on last year’s budget, that was five months late. Who does that hurt? That hurts our vulnerable populations because they don’t get their appropriations. It hurts kids and seniors.”

Garrity also staunchly opposes certain proposals by Shapiro to bring in additional revenue, such as legalizing and taxing recreational marijuana.

“It’s really a shame that you want to legalize drugs to plug your budget hole. I think that’s really terrible. Kind of a tragedy. Shameful, if you will,” Garrity said.

On day one, Garrity would opt into the federal school choice program. She points to other blue states that have opted in to the program and thinks Pennsylvania should.

Citing rankings that show Pennsylvania as 35th overall in education — yet in the top 10 in education spending — she said such policy would benefit students who are better suited for cyber school, home schooling, Catholic school or another kind of private education.

“The money’s not coming out of our coffers. He’s (Shapiro) trying to play politics with his administration. Because he’s more interested in Pennsylvania Avenue than helping Pennsylvania families.

“I will embrace school choice,” Garrity said.