Lancaster city resident Tony Dastra will appear on the ballot for Pennsylvania governor this fall.
Dastra, 29, successfully filed paperwork with the Pennsylvania Department of State on Monday as a Green Party candidate. He spent the last several months traveling across the state to campaign for the job and collect signatures to support his candidacy.
Pennsylvania requires third-party gubernatorial candidates to secure 5,000 signatures to run.
While the state does not require third-party or independent candidates to secure a specific number of signatures from different parts of the state, Dastra said he still made a point to hit different regions to campaign including Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Scranton. He also campaigned in rural Mifflin and Tioga counties.
The Lancaster community, though, helped get him across the finish line to get on the ballot, Dastra said.
Dastra has centered his campaign around data center development. He said the state needs to enact a mandatory moratorium on data centers to allow local communities to have meaningful conversations about their impact before they are approved.
As he campaigned, Dastra said data centers have stood out as a chief issue to Pennsylvanian residents across party lines. People are concerned about the environmental and health impacts data center development could have on the state.
“Pennsylvania voters truly don’t feel that either party are doing anything to address the data center issue,” Dastra said.
Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is running for a second term, and Republican nominee Stacy Garrity have flopped their stances on data centers over the past year. Both candidates previously heralded data centers as a key factor to Pennsylvania’s future, though they have recently walked back their support after people across the state have become highly critical of rapidly growing developments.
If elected, Dastra said he also wants to ensure state lawmakers adopt a budget by the mandatory deadline. He previously told LNP | LancasterOnline the state’s monthslong budget impasse last year inspired him to run.
This year, as most lawmakers campaign for reelection, the budget was passed nearly two weeks after the June 30 deadline.
History in politics
The Pennsylvania Green Party endorsed Dastra for the seat in March. Party leaders said he would provide much needed change for the state.
Craig Bolton, of Philadelphia, filed paperwork to run as the Green Party’s lieutenant governor.
Dastra’s name is likely familiar to many Lancaster residents. He’s run for multiple citywide officers over the last decade after first getting involved in local politics at 20 years old. He currently works as an administrative assistant for Lancaster Township’s public works department.
In 2017, Dastra ran for mayor as an independent candidate against Democrat Danene Sorace. He ran again for mayor as a Green Party candidate against Democrat Jaime Arroyo in 2025.
Dastra also created the Gold Goose Party and ran for several Lancaster offices under that moniker including the Lancaster Home Rule Study Commission, on which he won a seat in 2023. He was part of a group of nine elected members who created a new charter for the city that was adopted by city voters in 2024.
He joined the Green Party last year to run for mayor, attributing his decision to the institutional party support it provided him.
While optimistic, Dastra faces an uphill battle in the race, just like any third-party candidate. The Green Party’s prior two candidates received less than 1% of the statewide vote, respectively. Christina Digiulio, the party’s 2022 candidate, received 24,436 votes, or 0.46% of all votes cast, while Paul Glover received 27,791 votes, or 0.55% in the 2018 race.
As of Tuesday morning, the Department of State had not approved another third-party or independent candidate for the gubernatorial race.
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