Underneath Stacy Garrity’s veneer of apolitical moderation is a far-right operative

Huey Long, the controversial Depression-era governor of Louisiana and U.S. senator, said that “in a political fight, when you’ve got nothing in favor of your side, start a row in the opposition.” Stacy Garrity is already resorting to that cynical playbook in her nascent gubernatorial campaign — and that’s a bad sign for her and her fellow Republican candidates, in Pennsylvania and across the country.

When Garrity launched her campaign on Aug. 18, she hardly mentioned her record as treasurer. That’s because she’s used her time in office to funnel tens of millions of taxpayer dollars into overseas bonds and teachers’ pension funds into questionable investments.

She also barely bothered to contrast her agenda with that of her opponent, Gov. Josh Shapiro, because Pennsylvanians are already reaping the benefits of a governor who’s proven he can bring Democrats and Republicans together to get stuff done.

In the two-plus years since Shapiro first took office, he’s helped Pennsylvania gain more than 130,000 new jobs and expanded apprenticeship opportunities, cut costs for working families, fixed thousands of miles of roadway, got schools the funding they need, and put more cops on the beat — all efforts Shapiro is poised to continue building on.

Garrity’s three-minute-long campaign launch commercial even tried to bury her alignment with Donald Trump and his disastrous, dangerous, deeply unpopular policies.

While in office, Garrity has voiced support for Trump’s job-killing, price-hiking tariffs, cheered the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, echoed debunked claims about the 2020 election, and tried to undermine the will of Pennsylvania voters. She backed Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, putting hospitals across the commonwealth at risk of closure.

But clearly, Garrity now thinks it’s better for her political prospects to dishonestly distance herself from a president whose approval ratings have sunk to new lows.

» READ MORE: Stacy Garrity can’t champion rural hospitals while cheering a bill that will shut them down | Opinion

So, with “nothing in favor” of her own side to trumpet, Garrity instead chose to launch her campaign by dinging her opponent’s imaginary campaign for president. The Kingfish would be proud, but Garrity’s ploy won’t fool Pennsylvanians.

I’ve worked on and around campaigns my entire adult life; I know well that all politics is still local. Shapiro and his fellow Democratic governors have relentlessly focused on delivering for their constituents — protecting their healthcare, lowering the cost of living, improving their schools, keeping their streets paved and their communities safe — because doing so is both good policy and good politics.

But for Republicans, in their MAGA era, all politics is Trump. For almost 10 years now, the only way for candidates like Garrity to win a Republican primary or raise money during a general election has been to call in to Fox & Friends, schlep to Mar-a-Lago, and profess complete and utter fealty to Donald J. Trump and every aspect of his abhorrent agenda.

With Trump’s approval rating underwater and his unpopular policies beginning to raise prices and strangle economic growth, that’s a bad bet for Republican candidates to make in 2026. So just like they did in 2018 and 2020, these Republicans — unable to run on their local or statewide records and increasingly afraid to run on their MAGA bona fides — will, like Garrity, have to resort to dishonest and negative campaigning.

The organization I run, American Bridge 21st Century, is working to ensure these candidates don’t get away with it. Across the country, we’re showing how candidates running on a Trump-first, Americans-last policy agenda are a recipe for higher bills, layoffs, long waits to see a doctor, and compromised elections.

And in states where governors like Shapiro are doing their jobs and putting points on the board for the people who elected them, we’re making the case that they deserve your support.

In Pennsylvania, we’re making sure voters know that underneath Garrity’s veneer of apolitical moderation is a far-right operative — one who’s made clear that, in the governor’s mansion, she’ll just be a rubber stamp for Trump’s bidding.

Long was wrong — in a political fight, when you’ve got nothing in favor of your side, it’s best to bow out of the race with a little dignity intact. Garrity and her MAGA party denizens should take a long look at the red flags already littering their campaigns, and think hard about which strategy to follow.

Pat Dennis is the president of American Bridge 21st Century, the largest research, tracking, and rapid response operation in the Democratic Party, which is focused on holding Republicans accountable and helping deliver Democratic victories.