MADISON, Wis. — New reporting from Pennsylvania’s WITF uncovered that GOP candidate for Pennsylvania governor, Stacy Garrity, who like Tom Tiffany, has denied the legitimacy of the 2020 election, “landed Trump’s support by answering a single question.” Garrity said Trump’s endorsement of her will give her “a boost,” and she refuses to reveal the shady promise she made to Trump.
Trump endorsed Tom Tiffany the same night as Garrity and said he “had been in communication with the White House for a while” before the Trump endorsement through Tony Fabrizio, Trump’s pollster who was hired by the Tiffany campaign.
“Tom Tiffany has been Trump’s number-one election denier, even backing the Texas lawsuit that would’ve overturned the 2020 election. Tiffany has voted with Trump 100% of the time and has been a rubber stamp for the disastrous tariff-taxes, the OBBB and every other cost-raising piece of the Trump agenda,” said Democratic Party of Wisconsin spokesperson Emily Stuckey. “Did Tom Tiffany have to make the same kind of mysterious promise as Garrity to secure the endorsement? What had he been talking to the White House about in the weeks before his endorsement? Tom Tiffany loves to talk about transparency and Wisconsinites deserve answers—it’s time for him to put his money where his mouth is.”
WITF: One question led to Republican Stacy Garrity winning Trump’s endorsement in Pennsylvania governor’s race
Jaxon White
- 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’s governor’s race.
- In her telling, Garrity landed Trump’s support by answering a single question.
- “I was on the phone with some committee people and Scott Perry starts blowing up my phone: ‘Hey, POTUS has a question. Call me,’ ” Garrity said, referencing the 10th District congressman and former chair of the House Freedom Caucus.
- “Thank goodness I called him right back,” Garrity told the audience. Without revealing what the question was, she continued, Perry was evidently pleased by her response. “That’s all I needed to know,” Perry said, according to Garrity.
- Garrity’s campaign did not respond to multiple requests for more information about the question Trump had told Perry to ask Garrity on his behalf.
- Neither did Perry’s campaign, nor the White House.
- She said she didn’t know when Trump would make his endorsement. “(I)s it going to be a week from now, a month from now, six months from now?”
- But about 20 minutes later — just before 9 p.m. on Jan. 27 — Garrity said Trump posted to Truth Social a ringing endorsement of her campaign.
- “A 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,” Trump’s post read.
- He added, “Stacy Garrity has my Complete and Total Endorsement to be the next Governor of Pennsylvania – SHE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN!”
- Winning Trump’s endorsement was a vital step in Garrity’s bid to oust incumbent Gov. Josh Shapiro, a first-term Democrat whose rising national platform has thrust him into conversations about whether he’ll run for president in 2028.
- Garrity, a native of Bradford County, is a longtime ally of Trump.
- At a 2022 rally, she echoed his unfounded claim that he won the 2020 presidential election.
- Democrats have pointed to that moment, along with her support for some of Trump’s policies, to criticize Garrity for what they’ve characterized as her putting loyalty to Trump above fighting for Pennsylvanians.
- Trump has promised to use various levers of his power as president to influence this year‘s 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.
- Earlier this month, Garrity said as governor she would work with Trump on organizing Pennsylvania’s elections, after he said on a podcast that Republicans should “nationalize” them.