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State Treasurer Stacy Garrity launched her bid for governor last year, immediately receiving the Republican Party’s blessing and praise from Republicans across the state who saw her as their best shot at the governor’s mansion.
“This is a gift to the Republican Party,” Peter Quaglia, a delegate from Wayne County told reporters at the Pennsylvania Republican Party annual meeting last September.
Quaglia called her “the only one who can beat Josh Shapiro.”
With days to go until the election, however, Garrity is trailing in the most recent polls by double digits, has only raised a fraction of the funds Shapiro has raked in and may have become a liability to down-the-ballot races.
Chris Borick, professor of political science and director of the Lehigh Opinion Observatory, said that there was “real optimism” about a strong performance at the start of the campaign.
“She had great success in two statewide elections,” he told WHYY News. “She’s widely liked within Republican circles, and there were efforts to clear the slate for her to allow her the opportunity to get this nomination without having to fight a really contested primary. None of this seems to have mattered in her performance to date in this campaign.”
