Challenging Josh Shapiro for Pennsylvania Governor

0:00 Speaker 1 Well, let’s go to Pennsylvania. With us today is the state treasurer, Stacey Garrity, and she is running for governor of Pennsylvania and is a promoter of common sense for Pennsylvania. And I understand, well, Treasurer Garrity, I understand President Trump has endorsed you.

0:21 Speaker 2 Hey, John, great to be with you. And yes, he’s endorsed me three times and he’s done two videos with me. And so, yes, I’m definitely endorsed, and that is what my opponent is running on, that I’m too MAGA.

0:37 Speaker 1 And the fact is, you know, I spoke to President Trump the other day, and his batting average is pretty good. I mean, almost 97% or 95% of total candidates he has endorsed have won.

0:51 Speaker 2 That’s right. He knows how to pick a winner, and he knows that Governor Shapiro... I mean, he is just driving our great commonwealth into the ground. We rank 47th out of 50 states economically, and our inflation rate is 25% above the national average. Our gas prices are one of the highest in the nation, which is ridiculous because

1:16 Pennsylvania is the Saudi Arabia of natural gas. And I could go on and on. Utility prices are up 40% since Josh Shapiro’s taken office, and, you know, He wants to blame President Trump on all these high prices. But the fact of the matter is it’s his failed policies.

1:33 Speaker 1 Understood. Now, Stacey Garrity, you’ve been a longtime Pennsylvanian. You served in the armed forces for 30 years in uniform. And you came back. We spoke about it last time. And you came back. You ran for state treasurer. Tell me the major differences between you and Governor Shapiro. Sure.

1:58 Speaker 2 Well, Governor Shapiro is a career politician. And, you know, his first call is always to the press. And my first call is always to local elected officials or communities or whoever is closest to the issue at hand. He only serves himself, and I’ve lived my life in service.

2:19 As you mentioned, spent 30 years in the Army Reserve, three deployments all to the Middle East. Had I not hit my mandatory retirement date, which your veterans would know what that is, I would still be serving because serving was and is the honor of my lifetime. And the other thing is Josh Shapiro is more interested in Pennsylvania

2:37 Avenue than helping Pennsylvania families. And as governor, I will wake up every single day with one goal, one goal in mind, and that is how do I make the lives of Pennsylvanians better?

2:49 Speaker 1 Understood. Now, tell us about Pennsylvania. Is there any particular issues that you feel very emotional about in Pennsylvania versus opposite that of your opponent?

3:04 Speaker 2 Well, I’ll give you one prime example. So the fact of the matter is Josh Shapiro was spending $ 2 million every single week on negative ads against me because he came out and basically did a $ 20 billion deal for data centers with Amazon without talking to any local officials.

3:24 He gave them sweetheart tax breaks. He didn’t require them to bring their own energy or bring their own water. He did not require community engagement agreements. And so what I did was I did five listening sessions around the Commonwealth and three telecom halls. And what I heard from township supervisors is they just needed a little bit of

3:44 time to get it right because a lot of the zoning in Pennsylvania is from the 60s and the 70s. So now what he has done, because he got called out on it, and oh, I should also mention this, John, this is very important. He took $ 5. 8 million from data center developers. So political contributions And he fast-tracked all their permitting,

4:06 so he’s issued hundreds of thousands of permits. And so I called for a pause just to give local officials enough time to get it right. And what I have said is they need to bring their own energy, bring their own water. We should not be building them on farmland.

4:20 They need to be built on brownfields and industrial sites, blighted areas. They need to be a net benefit to the community. And you know what? It’s up to the community. If they want them, great. If they don’t want them, then okay.

4:31 Speaker 1 Okay. Wow. I mean, in other words, he took money and he fast approved certain projects.

4:41 Speaker 2 Yes, he did. And now he is running his ads are all saying that I am the number one supporter of data centers in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. And now he turned around and called the data center developers greedy and running roughshod over communities after taking $ 5. 8 million from them.

4:58 So basically, he used their money then to run ads and trash them. So it’s pretty incredible.

5:05 Speaker 1 Well, Stacey Garrity, Pennsylvania treasurer, now running for governor, thank you for coming on this Sunday morning. And let us know for anything else you need, and we’ll catch up with you again real soon.

5:20 Speaker 2 Fantastic. If you want to help the campaign, go to Garrity4PA. com. And thanks for having me, John. Thank you.