Pennsylvania GOP governor nominee has long history of 2020 election denial

By Brentin Mock

Stacy Garrity, the winner of Pennsylvania’s Republican gubernatorial primary (she ran unopposed) has repeated falsehoods about President Donald Trump winning the 2020 election over the past several years.

Currently the state treasurer, Garrity has not only reportedly stated that she believes Trump won Pennsylvania in 2020, but she also spoke at a rally the day before the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riots where she questioned the validity of the national results.

“We know that he won,” Garrity told supporters, referrring to Trump and the 2020 election, at an election night rally in 2022.

According to the Pennsylvania radio news outlet WITF, Garrity also has hinted that her denial of Trump’s 2020 loss was what won her Trump’s endorsement in the governor’s race.

Garrity trails the Democratic nominee and incumbent Gov. Josh Shapiro by double digits. But come November, Republicans’ choice will not only be a 2020 election denier, but one who’s willing to do Trump’s anti-voter bidding – a dim prospect for a swing state that figures prominently in Trump’s quest to take control of elections.

As early as November 2020, Garrity was part of a Trump campaign-led effort to discredit more than 2,200 mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania as Trump worked to overturn Joe Biden’s win there. On Jan. 5, 2021, Garrity spoke at a rally in Harrisburg where she denounced the outcome of the election, saying that it “had been tarnished by unelected bureaucrats who ignored the election law as written.”

Garrity denounced the violence of the U.S.Capitol riot that took place the next day, but then seemed to walk it back in replies to comments on her social media page, saying that she was “proud of our Patriots” and that her Harrisburg rally speech was about “condemning the election.”

In her 2024 re-election race for treasurer, her Democratic challenger state Rep. Ryan Bizzarro criticized her participation in that rally and for supporting Trump’s bid for presidency that year. 

“You actively undermined our democracy and worked to overturn a valid election,” wrote Bizzarro in a press release. “Then you led a rally and spread lies that instigated a bloody attack on the U.S. Capitol and nearly brought our country to its knees.”