{"id":273294,"date":"2026-08-27T15:48:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T15:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/273294\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T15:48:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T15:48:11","slug":"pennsylvania-voters-concerned-with-economy-shapiro-leads-garrity-poll-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/273294\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania voters concerned with economy, Shapiro leads Garrity, poll shows"},"content":{"rendered":"

(WHTM)– The latest Franklin & Marshall College poll<\/a> shows that Pennsylvania voters are concerned with the economy and data centers as Shapiro continues to lead Garrity in the race for the Governor.<\/p>\n

The August 2026 Franklin and Marshal College Poll found that Pennsylvania voters are “deeply concerned” about their personal finances and are experiencing significant economic stress. The poll found that 31% of voters say the economy is the most important problem facing the state, with Democrats leading Republicans 47% to 23% as the party that can best handle the issue.<\/p>\n

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According to the poll, more than half of respondents said they are “worse off” financially than they were a year ago.<\/p>\n

Pennsylvanians are having trouble paying for things like bills and groceries, the poll shows. More than half of the state’s voters said it is “very difficult” or “somewhat difficult” to pay utility bills or groceries.<\/p>\n

Despite Pennsylvania voters expressing pessimism regarding the economy, with many considering it the state’s biggest issue, Governor Shapiro’s job approval ratings are holding up.<\/p>\n

The poll shows that 47% of voters believe Gov. Shapiro is doing an “excellent” or “good” job as governor, while the same percentage believe he is doing a “fair” or “poor” job.<\/p>\n

According to the poll, the race hasn’t changed much since the June poll. Gov. Shapiro leads Republican challenger Stacy Garrity 50% to 25%. The Pennsylvania General Election will take place on Nov. 3, 2026.<\/p>\n

The poll also asked respondents about issues concerning Pennsylvania, such as data centers and artificial intelligence (AI). Results show that the majority of voters, 76%, are nervous about developments in AI.<\/p>\n

The poll found that more than 4 in five voters believe AI companies should be more closely regulated by the federal government and that four in five voters oppose having a data center built in their community.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump is struggling to maintain support in the Keystone State, according to the poll. Twenty-seven percent of voters believe the president is doing an “excellent” or “good” job, compared to 73% who believe he is doing a “fair” or “poor” job.<\/p>\n

The poll also found that President Trump’s approval among white voters without a college degree has been declining (31%) and is now lower than Shapiro’s rating among the group (41%).<\/p>\n

According to Franklin and Marshall College, the poll results are based on the findings from interviews with 501 registered Pennsylvania voters, including 213 Democrats, 208 Republicans, and 80 independents.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(WHTM)– The latest Franklin & Marshall College poll shows that Pennsylvania voters are concerned with the economy and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2116,60950,48231,114950,28,30,29,114951,3415,8060],"class_list":["post-273294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-data-centers","tag-franklin-marshall-college","tag-garrity","tag-marshal-college-poll","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-poll-results","tag-shapiro","tag-stacy-garrity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}