When Republican gubernatorial candidate Stacy Garrity was in charge of Camp Bucca, the largest U.S. military internment center in Iraq, she would get calls from the gate “all the time” about people asking for humanitarian assistance.
But she was running an internment facility, not a refugee camp, and she had to say no.
“But the Marines dropped off a woman and her three kids,” said Garrity. “I came to the gate. Jamilla is there with a split lip, a black eye. Her three kids had distended belly buttons. They were just little kids. One of her sons had cigarette burns. We brought them in.”
“I was the first person in Iraq to get somebody divorced,” she said. “It was not so frequent over there. Jamilla wanted to get divorced. You have to announce in the paper three times. So, her husband’s lawyer comes to family visitation and said if I didn’t release her [the husband] was going to come and kill me, and a bunch of soldiers.”
She told the lawyer to tell the husband to come and “he will be in Compound 5.” The husband didn’t show up, and he didn’t contest the divorce. Garrity “traveled with a convoy into the city of Basra, met with an Iraqi judge, and we were able to get her divorced.”
When they were ready to redeploy, Garrity was worried about leaving Jamilla, that it was “not going to end well.” But Jamilla’s family called and said they’d take her back. Garrity called Jamilla and checked on her every week for months to be sure she was safe.
“So, there’s somebody running for governor who says they support women, and me, who really does,” said Garrity. “And I have a real track record.”Garrity was called the “Angel of the Desert” by the inmates for her fairness. “And I have a real track record, and I’m proud of that record.”
Garrity told that anecdote at a Veterans for Garrity rally at the American Legion in Fort Washington on Oct. 29. About 50 people came to support her, but 700,000 veterans live in the commonwealth.
Retired Army Major General Wesley E. Craig, an Oreland resident who was selected by former Gov. Tom Corbett to serve as the 51st Adjutant General of Pennsylvania, said he respects Garrity’s 30 years of service.
He noted that, as the state treasurer, Garrity knows how to handle the state budget, which has grown from $30 billion to $50 billion now.
“She’ll make an excellent governor,” said John McGlumphy, of Abington, another supporter. He noted that as well as being a veteran, Garrity was successful in business. She rose to become one of the first female vice presidents at Global Tungsten + Powders Corporation, a manufacturer.
Veterans “deserve a governor who will fight as hard for them as they fought for us,” said Garrity, who retired from the U.S. Army Reserve as a colonel, having been awarded two Bronze Stars and the Legion of Merit.
“We should be a hiring destination for veterans,” said Garrity. “We should offer businesses a $2,000 tax credit for hiring full-time veterans, $1,500 for a part-time veteran.”
Veterans come back from service with “world-class skills,” she said. She wants to make it easier for those skills to be recognized, such as a licensed practical nurse (LPN) training or veterans who have operated heavy equipment to get their commercial driver’s license (CDL).
“We need a constitutional amendment to give property tax reductions to disabled veterans or their surviving spouse,” she said.
“We need a Gold Star registry,” she added. Gold Star families have given their “fullest measure,” she said. “We need to have a program to recognize them every single year.”
Garrity said as treasurer her “favorite thing is giving back military decorations that we get from abandoned safe deposit boxes.” She’s returned nearly 600 medals, including 13 Purple Hearts and four Bronze Stars.
She asked the veterans for their support and for them to tell their families and friends to vote.
“Leadership matters. Accountability matters and putting Pennsylvania families first matters,” said Garrity.
Montgomery County GOP Chair Liz Ferry, a Navy veteran, slammed the Democratic Socialists in the state House for various bills. One would allow apartments to be built in areas zoned for single-family houses, causing homes to lose value.
“They want to allow illegal immigrants, which they call ‘never-resided citizens,’ to vote in our state and local elections,” she said. “And they want to increase taxes on wealth” so people’s houses would become part of their state tax bills.
“And they want to allow the homeless to live in public spaces. There goes your local park,” said Ferry. “We know Josh Shapiro will sign these bills and we can count on Stacy Garrity to stop them.”
State Sen. Tracy Pennycuick (R-Berks/Montgomery) said they both were veterans of the 1980s, when it was hard for women, and they were told they’d never see combat and limited career fields.
“Fast forward to Desert Storm,” said Pennycuick. “We both saw combat.”
“Stacy cares about every Pennsylvanian,” said Pennycuick. With Garrity as governor, there won’t be just photo-ops but “real work. Roll up the sleeves and get the job done. And get Pennsylvania back on track.”
State Rep. Donna Schueren (R-Gilbertsville) also touted Garrity as a strong leader.
“Having a chance to address our veterans and thank them for their service is always an honor,” Schueren said later. “Reassuring them that I will always fight to protect the Constitution and our God-given rights, inclusive to all personal and religious freedoms, is a promise that I take very seriously. I also vow to attack any and all legislation that attempts to steer our commonwealth or our country towards socialism in any way, shape or form. For as long as I am blessed to serve in Harrisburg, I will never forget the oath I took.”
At the close of the evening, Garrity answered questions from reporters.
Broad + Liberty asked her about her support for school choice and Gov. Josh Shapiro’s veto of the Pennsylvania Award for Student Success program in his first budget, despite a campaign promise to approve it.
Garrity said she’d “100 percent” sign it “because I believe that parents, not bureaucrats, know the best way to educate their kids. And these vouchers would be for the bottom 15 percent of poor-performing schools. And for parents and kids, this truly is a lifeline. If we want our kids to have a chance at the American Dream, it starts with a good quality education. The other thing, I’ll say that I would do day one, is opt into the federal school choice bill. So that’s hundreds of millions of dollars of educational opportunities. And it doesn’t cost Pennsylvanians a thing. And it helps public schools, as well. And I think 37 states have opted in. Even [California Gov.] Gavin Newsom opted in. So, why hasn’t our governor? Because he’d rather fight with the administration and score cheap political points than do the right thing for things.”
Asked if he might be trying to court progressive Democrats, she said, “Exactly. Otherwise, why wouldn’t you do the right thing? We have a governor more interested in Pennsylvania Avenue than helping Pennsylvanians, and it shows.”
A few weeks ago, Shapiro said his administration was still studying the federal program.
Another reporter asked Garrity what she would do if she were to get the “trifecta” or control of the legislature and governor’s office that Shapiro keeps asking voters to give him.
“My priority is growing the economy to lift everybody up,” Garrity said. She would lift the moratorium on drilling on public land, which would bring “200,000 good-paying jobs and generate $5 to 6 million in revenue, which we desperately need because we have a structural deficit of about $5 million a year.”
If elected, she would also reduce electricity bills by 20 percent by ending the gross receipts tax, ending tax-on-tax stacking on those bills, and ending some of the green energy mandates.
Those issues are “costing ratepayers over $700,000 every single year,” said Garrity.
She would also “tackle property taxes” because seniors tell her they’ve worked all their lives to own their home and now they can’t afford to stay in it.
“And young people are worried about when they can afford their first home,” Garrity added. “We have to tackle property taxes, and I have a three-point plan for that.”
If Shapiro is reelected, there will be “more government, more spending, more regulations, more mandates.”
While Garrity would bring “affordable energy, create jobs, build things. And I want people in Harrisburg, including the governor, to understand that the money they’re spending in Harrisburg, [is] it doesn’t belong to them. It belongs to the taxpayers.”
She also promised to use the state Rainy Day Fund to pause the gas tax until gas and diesel prices come down. While she agreed the Iran War raised prices, she noted that no new oil refineries have been built in the U.S. in years, which is also part of the problem.
“We’re going to grow the economy, and that’s going to lift everybody up,” she said.