![\"Jaxon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/jaxonwhite_200x200.jpg\" "\\"Jaxon")
<\/a><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tI report on how decisions made in Pennsylvania\u2019s state Capitol ripple across communities throughout the commonwealth. My coverage centers on the General Assembly, the Governor\u2019s Office and the broader landscape of Pennsylvania politics.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m especially interested in the development and regulation of artificial intelligence, how public officials manage taxpayer dollars and policy ideas aimed at addressing everyday \u2014 and sometimes overlooked \u2014 challenges.<\/p>\n
I grew up just north of Pittsburgh in Beaver County, Pa., and graduated from Bucknell University in 2023. My first reporting gig was at LNP | LancasterOnline as a politics reporter, before I started at WITF in the summer of 2025.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"State](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20250920_garrity-1620x1080.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\u00a0Jaxon White \/ WITF<\/p>\n
State Treasurer Stacy Garrity received the endorsement of the Pennsylvania GOP on Sept. 20, 2025, during the party’s fall meeting in State College. <\/p>\n
Talking to a room of Republican insiders in Lancaster County earlier this month, Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity revealed how she secured a coveted endorsement from President Donald Trump in this year\u2019s governor\u2019s race.<\/p>\n
In her telling, Garrity landed Trump\u2019s support by answering a single question.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was on the phone with some committee people and Scott Perry starts blowing up my phone: \u2018Hey, POTUS has a question. Call me,\u2019 \u201d Garrity said, referencing the 10th District congressman and former chair of the House Freedom Caucus.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This story is based on an audio recording obtained by WITF of a private dinner held on Feb. 12.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank goodness I called him right back,\u201d Garrity told the audience. Without revealing what the question was, she continued, Perry was evidently pleased by her response. \u201cThat\u2019s all I needed to know,\u201d Perry said, according to Garrity.<\/p>\n
Garrity\u2019s campaign did not respond to multiple requests for more information about the question Trump had told Perry to ask Garrity on his behalf.<\/p>\n
Neither did Perry\u2019s campaign, nor the White House.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The recording of her speech was shared with WITF by an attendee of the Warwick GOP Committee dinner, who was granted anonymity because the person did not have permission to record the event. WITF then confirmed Garrity\u2019s comments with two other people who were in the audience that evening.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She said she didn\u2019t know when Trump would make his endorsement. \u201c(I)s it going to be a week from now, a month from now, six months from now?\u201d<\/p>\n
But about 20 minutes later \u2014 just before 9 p.m. on Jan. 27 \u2014 Garrity said Trump posted to Truth Social<\/a> a ringing endorsement of her campaign.<\/p>\n \u201cA successful Businesswoman, retired U.S. Army Reserve Colonel, and now, as State Treasurer, Stacy is a true America First Patriot, who has been with me from the beginning,\u201d Trump\u2019s post read.\u00a0<\/p>\n He added, \u201cStacy Garrity has my Complete and Total Endorsement to be the next Governor of Pennsylvania \u2013 SHE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN!\u201d<\/p>\n Winning Trump\u2019s endorsement was a vital step in Garrity\u2019s bid to oust incumbent Gov. Josh Shapiro, a first-term Democrat whose rising national platform has thrust him into conversations about whether he\u2019ll run for president in 2028.<\/p>\n Before she recounted the story at the GOP dinner, Garrity noted to the audience she was only the tenth gubernatorial campaign to win Trump\u2019s endorsement \u2014 a fact that elicited applause from the audience.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ties to Trump<\/p>\n Garrity, a native of Bradford County, is a longtime ally of Trump.\u00a0<\/p>\n At a 2022 rally<\/a>, she echoed his unfounded claim that he won the 2020 presidential election. Garrity rescinded that statement<\/a> earlier this year while speaking with reporters.<\/p>\n Democrats have pointed to that moment, along with her support for some of Trump\u2019s policies, to criticize Garrity for what they\u2019ve characterized as her putting loyalty to Trump above fighting for Pennsylvanians.<\/p>\n Trump has promised to use various levers of his power as president to influence this year\u2018s midterm elections. He also continues to falsely claim that mass fraud in favor of Democrats cost him the 2020 election against former President Joe Biden.\u00a0<\/p>\n The FBI seized hundreds of boxes of 2020 ballots from a Georgia elections facility in January. And at his State of the Union earlier this week<\/a>, Trump again claimed without evidence, \u201cThe cheating is rampant in our elections. It\u2019s rampant.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The Washington Post<\/a> reported this week that Trump said he would unilaterally require people to prove their citizenship before registering to vote and to show an ID before casting a ballot, if Congress failed to pass such legislation \u2014 known as the SAVE Act \u2014 before this year\u2019s midterm election.<\/p>\n Earlier this month<\/a>, Garrity said as governor she would work with Trump on organizing Pennsylvania\u2019s elections, after he said on a podcast that Republicans should \u201cnationalize\u201d them.\u00a0<\/p>\n State of the race<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear how far Trump\u2019s endorsement will go for Garrity. A Quinnipiac University poll released this week<\/a> found Trump had a 54% disapproval rating among Pennsylvania voters, compared to a 40% approval rating.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n That same poll found Garrity lagged Shapiro in a head-to-head matchup by about 18 percentage points \u2014 55% to 37% in Shapiro\u2019s favor.\u00a0<\/p>\n But Trump\u2019s backing could at least attract Republican donors to help narrow the fundraising gap between Garrity and Shapiro. Garrity raised about $1.5 million last year, compared to the $30 million Shapiro has banked over the past few years.\u00a0<\/p>\n Garrity received an early endorsement from the Pennsylvania GOP, helping clear the field for her to run unopposed in the party\u2019s primary on May 19. Last month<\/a>, she tapped western Pennsylvania attorney Jason Richey to run as her running mate for lieutenant governor. <\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/The_Morning_Agenda_Logo_Black-Green_RGB-500x329.png\"){kind=logo}
<\/a><\/p>\n