Just days into 2026, Pennsylvania’s most important electoral contest of the year — the race to be the commonwealth’s next governor — is taking shape.
Gov. Josh Shapiro, whose name is included in nearly every discussion of potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidates, officially launched his reelection campaign with rallies Thursday, Jan. 8, in Nicetown and Pittsburgh.
A day earlier, state Sen. Doug Mastriano announced that he would not run for governor, seemingly clearing the way for State Treasurer Stacy Garrity, who has already won the endorsement of the Republican Party of Pennsylvania.
Shapiro was elected to his first term in 2022, defeating Mastriano by nearly 15 percentage points and more than 790,000 votes.
A video, published by Shapiro’s campaign to coincide with the start of his reelection bid, opens with news coverage of the deadly 2023 I-95 collapse in Northeast Philadelphia, which occurred when an oil tanker crashed and caught fire. The elevated stretch of highway reopened within two weeks.
“When disaster struck, others underestimated us, but I never did,” Shapiro says in the clip. “We cut through the red tape to get I-95 rebuilt in record time.”
The governor goes on to highlight his efforts to increase school funding; open up state government jobs to individuals without a college degree; and defend abortion access.
Campaign officials said Shapiro raised more than $400,000 in donations in the 48 hours after he announced his intention to seek a second term. He ended 2025 with $30 million of campaign cash on hand, his team added.
Garrity has attacked Shapiro’s fundraising prowess and rumored White House ambitions.
In a video posted to the home page of her campaign’s website, images of Shapiro appearing on The View, the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the Late Show with Stephen Colbert flash across the screen as a narrator speaks.
“While Josh Shapiro has spent his time running for president and fundraising in California and other liberal states, raising money from far-left megadonors like Bloomberg and Soros, critical problems in Pennsylvania have been ignored.”
A self-described “strong ally of President Trump,” Garrity was voted in as treasurer in 2020 and reelected in 2024, receiving the highest vote total ever for a statewide office.
Garrity’s campaign materials tout her military experience – she served three tours in the Middle East – and her work as treasurer, particularly her push to return unclaimed money to Pennsylvanians.
Democrats are attempting to paint Garrity as an extremist, tying her to the more controversial aspects of Trump’s MAGA movement within the GOP.
“Stacy Garrity is a far-right, toxic candidate who is running to bring Trump’s chaotic Washington agenda here to Pennsylvania,” said Pennsylvania Democratic Party Chair Eugene DePasquale, in a statement last week. “She supported cutting health care to pay for tax cuts for billionaires, opposed tax cuts for working families here in Pennsylvania, and attacked our fundamental freedoms.”
While it appears that the gubernatorial race has been set, political hopefuls still have time to file paperwork to run in the May 19 primary. The general election will be held Nov. 3.
