A candidate vying for one of the nation’s most competitive congressional seats who said he represented the Green Party — but who the Green Party and Democrats both accused of election meddling — has been disqualified from the November ballot, a Pennsylvania judge ruled Friday.
Andrew Tupone, 37, of Northampton County, had gathered nearly 11,000 signatures to run as a third-party candidate for Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District after previously running for local office as a Republican and switching his party registration earlier this year.
His petition for ballot access implied that he had the Green Party’s official support, though the organization said it did not know him and had questions about his motives. His actions denied the Green Party its right as a political body to select candidates who match their values, the organization argued.
“The Court’s analysis respects the internal governance of political bodies and protects political bodies from external forces hijacking those bodies,” Commonwealth Court Judge Stella M. Tsai wrote in the court document.
In a statement to The Inquirer, Tupone vowed to push his campaign forward, despite the significant legal setback.
“The establishment parties are fighting to keep me off the ballot but I’m not backing down,” he said. “I will continue this fight and appeal this decision because the people of the 7th congressional district deserve a real choice and a true progressive candidate who will stand up for them. This fight isn’t over. I’m going to keep fighting for the voters to have an option and for the representation our community deserves.”
Tupone’s quest for ballot access came as Democrats — who have said Green Party candidates pull votes from their nominees — have targeted the Lehigh Valley-based congressional seat as one of the state’s most flippable in their effort to regain control of Congress. Democratic candidate Bob Brooks, a retired firefighter and union leader, is challenging Republican U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, who won his seat two years ago by 1 percentage point.
But while the Green Party of Pennsylvania — which considers itself an ecosocialist party — rejects accusations of spoiling, leaders distanced themselves from Tupone’s candidacy, and the party was among the plaintiffs arguing for his removal.
“It sounds a lot like somebody’s just fooling around and trying to use the Green Party name,” Tim Runkle, co-chair of the state party, previously told The Inquirer.
Democrats have also accused Tupone, who was registered as a Republican until 2025 and said he previously voted for President Donald Trump, of attempting to spoil the contest. They furthered their argument after independent journalist Sean Kitchen identified Tupone’s attorney as Wally Zimolong, a Pennsylvania election lawyer who said on his website that he represented Trump, the Republican National Committee, and other Republican candidates. Zimolong also donated to Mackenzie’s reelection campaign in 2025.
Tupone, however, has said he no longer supports Trump. During his testimony before the state court, he said he became progressive after consuming social media posts from The Young Turks, a left-wing news program. He changed registration to the Democratic Party in February to run in the 7th District’s primary and to the Green Party in April after becoming “fed up with both parties” and wanting “to give voters another choice on the ballot.”
The Green Party, which held its state committee meeting in March, formally supported Lancaster resident Tony Dastra for governor and Philadelphia resident Craig Bolton for lieutenant governor — but they will not appear on the ballot after failing to receive enough signatures.
Tupone, who could not remember the name of the lieutenant governor during the court hearing, was the only candidate who filed to represent the Green Party in a Pennsylvania race for Congress.
A former Republican candidate for local office, Tupone has rejected accusations from Democrats and the Green Party that he was asked by Republicans to run for Congress, or that he paid individuals to collect the signatures to get him on the ballot. Of the 22 individuals who gathered signatures for his Green Party candidacy, only one is from Pennsylvania and multiple have previously worked for Republican campaigns, public records showed.
Tupone also said in court that he did not pay for any nomination papers to be circulated and was not aware of anyone being paid to circulate his papers. He said Runkle called him in July asking “weird questions” and “attempted to intimidate him not to run,” but he did not ask about the party’s process for endorsement or receiving support during the call.
Runkle said in the Green Party has declined to run candidates in the past who are unable to articulate the party’s values or have values that contradict the party’s.
Democrats celebrated the news Friday.
“(Republicans) have now tried and failed twice to meddle in the Lehigh Valley because they know weak incumbent Ryan Mackenzie can’t run on his own record. Firefighter Bob Brooks will smoke him in November,” said Eli Cousin, a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
In the country’s premier battleground state, Pennsylvania Democrats believe they’re in striking distance of a tidal-wave victories that would dramatically shift the balance of power in both Washington and Harrisburg.
For the first time in decades, the party could take full control of the legislature. That would give Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro — seeking reelection with a wide polling gap on his Republican challenger Stacy Garrity— significantly more power to shape the direction of the state as he potentially pursues a White House bid in 2028.
Democrats also see a chance to flip four congressional seats and take control of the U.S. House. Republicans, meanwhile, are prioritizing defending the Pennsylvania seats with their House majority on the line as President Donald Trump, who won the state justtwo years ago, sinks in popularity.
The path forpower in Washington inthe high-stakes midterms runs through Pennsylvania and its results will be closely watched as both parties prepare for a presidential race in two years when the state promises to play a pivotal role.
Voters across Pennsylvania will head to the polls in November to cast their ballots for races that will decide the balance of power in the state and nation.
Here are the races to watch and how to vote.
Shapiro’s November could dictate his 2028
Shapiro, widely viewed as a likely contender for the 2028 presidency, has big ambitions this fall when he’ll stand for reelection against Garrity, the state’s treasurer.
More than just securing his own reelection, Shapiro hopes to run up the margin and carry downballot Democrats across the finish line.
Another double-digits win and a string of coattail victories would be ashow of strength about his ability to perform in a key swing state that his party lost in the last presidential election.In a presidential primary, Shapiro could use that result to make an argument that he’s a strong general electioncandidate who can boost the Democratic brand.
Will Republicans hold on in competitive congressional seats?
There are four U.S. House districts in the eastern portion of Pennsylvania, targeted by both parties as must wins. In each, the Republican incumbents are seeking to fend off highly financed challengers amid deep frustration among voters with the leader of their party that could translate into a wave of Democratic victories down ballot.
7th Congressional District: Freshman Republican U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie narrowly flipped the Lehigh Valley district two years ago and is widely seen as one of most vulnerable incumbents in Congress. He’s facing a challenge Democrat Bob Brooks, a retired firefighter and union leader whose blue-collar campaign has attracted support across the party’s ideological spectrum with endorsements from Shapiro and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders.
10th Congressional District: Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, a close ally of Trump, faces a November rematch against Democrat Janelle Stelson, a former TV anchor, in the Harrisburg area district. Stelson has consistently outraised Perry after narrowly losing in 2024.
In addition to these four races both national parties have targeted, Shapiro has argued that the 9th Congressional District, where Democrat Rachel Wallace is taking on incumbent GOP U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, is flippable — despite the strong GOP lean in the district, which stretches from Berks County to the New York state border. The district is home to two warehouses that ICE was planning to convert into detention centers before abandoning the plan after a backlash from residents.
This year, Shapiro wants to flip the chamber and win a trifecta to push forward his key priorities, such as codifying abortion access, raising the state’s minimum wage, and increasing funding for transit.
Republicans currently hold 27 of the chamber’s 50 seats. Democrats, who currently hold 23 seats, need to win at least two additional seats and the governor’s office to win control of the chamber with the lieutenant governor as a tiebreaking vote.
The seats, drawn advantageously for Republicans, have been stubbornly resistant to political change for decades.
But this year a blue wave could usher in Democratic pickups in Philadelphia suburbs and the Lehigh Valley.
Races to watch include:
Bucks County’s 6th District, where Republican incumbent State Sen. Frank Farry faces a challenge from Democrat Eileen Hartnett Albillar.
Montgomery County’s 24th District, where incumbent Republican State Sen. Tracy Pennycuick is up for reelection against Democrat Chris Thomas.
Bucks and Lehigh County’s 16th District, which will see a rematch race between incumbent Republican State Sen. Jarrett Coleman and Democrat Mark Pinsley, the Lehigh County controller.
What are the important dates to know?
Election Day is Nov. 3.
The deadline to register to vote is Oct. 19. You must be at least 18 years old, a resident of Pennsylvania and a citizen of the United States to vote. You can register online, by mail, at your county elections office, or at one of several other government buildings.
Pennsylvanians can vote by mail with no excuse required. To apply, fill out an application by mail, online, or in-person and send it into your county election office. Applications must be received by Oct. 27 at 5 p.m. and the completed mail ballot must be received — not just postmarked — by 8 p.m. on Election Day.
An application and mail ballot can be completed in one visit at an election office, essentially functioning as early voting.
Staff writer Fallon Roth contributed to this article.
Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro and Republican Treasurer Stacy Garrity, both candidates running to be Pennsylvania’s next governor, have agreed to face off next month in the first and only scheduled televised debate between them.
The debate — scheduled for 8 p.m. on Oct. 7 and hosted by ABC 27 — will be held in Harrisburg and will air live on several stations owned by Nexstar across Pennsylvania, including WPHL-TV in Philadelphia.
Both campaigns said they look forward to meeting face to face to discuss issues important to voters.
“Game on,” said Matthew Beynon, a spokesperson for Garrity.
Manuel Bonder, communications director for Shapiro’s campaign, said “we look forward to continuing to make the choice in this election clear.”
As the November election approaches, Shapiro — who is a rumored contender for president in 2028 — has focused on translating his popularity to downballot Democratic candidates in four, nationally watched congressional districts and those running for seats in the Pennsylvania state Senate, which has been under Republican control for more than 30 years.
Garrity, meanwhile, has struggled to gain traction among voters and to compete with Shapiro’s massive campaign funds. A quarter of likely Republican voters did not know who she was or know enough about her to form an opinion of her, The Inquirer/New York Times/Siena poll found.
Next month’s debate could present Garrity with a fresh chance to introduce herself to voters statewide and make her case on why Shapiro should not be reelected.
October’s debate is the only one scheduled between the candidates, though Garrity’s campaign have proposed several more. In 2022, Shapiro and his Republican challenger, State Sen. Doug Mastriano, did not debate after the two could not agree to terms.
Topics likely to surface during the debate include data centers, the measles outbreak, and President Donald Trump.
Garrity has also blasted Shapiro for his handling of the rollout of public health information in announcing two measles-associated deaths in Pennsylvania, saying he has stepped in front of verified facts. Shapiro has been critical of the Trump administration, saying the nation’s health secretary was responsible for the influx of measles cases by stoking misinformation.
Trump has endorsed Garrity in the governor’s race, and Shapiro has repeatedly sought to tie her to some of his unpopular policies, highlighting her support for his tariffs on imported goods and unpopular war in Iran.
ABC 27 anchor and reporter Dennis Owens will moderate the debate, which will also be available to view on streaming platforms.
Philadelphia’s police union on Tuesday endorsed Gov. Josh Shapiro’s reelection bid, announcing its continued support for the first-term Democratic governor while touting his commitment to law enforcement.
“Every day, he has shown a commendable ability to work with local law enforcement and deliver the resources and support we need to protect and serve our friends, families, and neighbors,” said Roosevelt L. Poplar, president of the Fraternal Order of the Police Lodge 5, which represents over 14,000 active and retired Philadelphia police officers and sheriff’s deputies.
In a statement, Shapiro said he was “honored” by the endorsement.
“I’m going to keep fighting for the brave law enforcement officers who work to keep Philadelphia safe every single day,” he said. “I believe all Pennsylvanians deserve to be safe and feel safe in their communities — and we have focused every day on funding law enforcement and supporting the men and women that protect and serve our Commonwealth.”
It marks the second time the police union has embraced Shapiro for governor after endorsing him in 2022 over Republican candidate Doug Mastriano, who the then-president of the union said couldn’t be trusted to protect their collective bargaining rights. Shapiro, a former state attorney general, was a reliable government official who the union said was “there to help us with whatever we need to do.”
This election cycle, Shapiro holds a commanding lead over his Republican opponent, Treasurer Stacy Garrity, according to a recent poll from The Philadelphia Inquirer, the New York Times, and Siena University. The union has previously supported President Donald Trump, but Shapiro attracted its backing over Garrity, who Trump has endorsed in the Pennsylvania governor’s race.
Shapiro has also received support from other organized labor unions, including the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO and the Pennsylvania Professional Fire Fighters Association. On Monday, he received the backing of the Pennsylvania State Troopers Association.
Shapiro has maintained a comfortable relationship with law enforcement, and his campaign noted that he has signed multiple state budgets funding 2,000 additional officers across Pennsylvania and allocated more than $1 billion in community-based violence prevention grants.
Roosevelt Poplar, president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, on Jan. 26, 2024.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
In his statement, Poplar also commended Shapiro for providing funding for police department needs.
“The Governor has delivered on his promise to invest in public safety, he has shown up with us in times of tragedy, and he has proven his commitment to keeping our officers and the communities we serve safe,” he said.
The police union’s endorsement of Shapiro is notable for an organization that just a few years ago was seen by some Philadelphia Democrats as politically toxic.
In the aftermath of the 2020 Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, protests by racial justice activists swelled in Philadelphia and across the country with many of the movement’s participants calling to “defund” or abolish the police. They pressed local lawmakers to redirect police funding to social services, and Philadelphia City Council in June 2020 canceled a planned increase to the Philadelphia police budget.
Amid the calls for reform, the FOP was a major point of contention, as was its bombastic former leader, John McNesby. Activists — and many of their allies in elected office — said the union was too resistant to change and protected bad cops.
Former FOP president John McNesby holds a news conference on Oct. 19, 2022.Joe Lamberti
At the time, Shapiro was running for reelection as the state attorney general, and his campaign presented him as a “progressive reformer” who had established a unit in his office to review criminal convictions that may have been unfairly applied and a council to support people leaving prison with housing and employment opportunities. The FOP endorsed Shapiro’s 2016 and backed his 2020 campaign for attorney general.
Unlike some Philadelphia Democrats, Shapiro — who has rumored ambitions for a presidential run in 2028 — did not embrace the “defund” movement. He argued during a 2020 trip to Philadelphia that addressing structural inequities in the department and having strong law enforcement, especially in communities with high levels of poverty, were not mutually exclusive endeavors.
“We reject that poverty or institutionalized indifference and marginalization should mean that some people don’t get to have a safe community to live in,” he said. “We won’t give up on the belief [of] law enforcement showing up in a community to make people feel safer.”
Gov. Josh Shapiro with Pennsylvania State Police Col. Christopher L. Paris. They were attending the funeral for Philadelphia police officer Jaime Roman at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul on Sept. 19, 2024.Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer
In the years following 2020, public support for police in Philadelphia appeared to grow. The city saw a historic spike in gun violence, and Republicans nationally portrayed Democrats as soft-on-crime. When a half-dozen Democrats were fighting for the mayoral nomination in 2023, polling showed that most voters saw public safety as the No. 1 issue driving the race. None of the candidates embraced “defund,” and most of them supported proposals to provide additional resources to the police department as it sought to solve shootings.
In the end, the tough-on-crime mayoral candidate — then-City Councilmember Cherelle L. Parker — won decisively.
Pennsylvania’s top election official contended in a letter to a cabinet secretary this week that the Trump administration’s own staff does not have “high confidence” in its claims of thousands of noncitizens on the state’s voter rolls.
In a letter to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Secretary of State Al Schmidt said the Department of Homeland Security has still not fulfilled a promise to provide a written copy of its methodology “with a list of specific data sources” for its calculation that there are more than 14,500 noncitizens on the state’s voter rolls — a claim Schmidt and other Pennsylvania officials dispute.
“We await this information,” Schmidt said in the letter, citing a virtual Aug. 13 meeting with DHS staff.
Schmidt, a Republican appointed by Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, told Mullin that during that meeting “DHS representatives explained that they did not have high confidence that the 14,576 individuals… were, in fact, non-citizens who had improperly registered to vote in Pennsylvania.”
The correspondence, shared with The Philadelphia Inquirer, comes amid increased scrutiny of election workers ahead of the consequential midterm elections just over two months away and as President Donald Trump has been pushing for an overhaul of the way Americans vote.
In an email response Thursday after the initial publication of this story, a spokesperson for DHS confirmed the meeting with Schmidt and said the agency “will continue working with Pennsylvania to address additional questions and correct their misunderstanding of the information provided during the meeting.”
Pennsylvania was one of four Democratic-led states — along with California, Nevada and New Jersey — that DHS claimed had a collective total of 250,000 noncitizens on their voter rolls ina July document posted at the same time Trump delivered a prime-time address on election security that waded into conspiracy theories.
The White House and DHS have provided little explanation for how they have arrived at these numbers, and election experts have said the large numbers may likely be pulling from other government data sources and include hits to names from systems that were never meant to identify noncitizen voters.
Schmidt said in the letter that he looks forward to understanding “how you attempted to match registered voters in Pennsylvania with information in DHS’s data sources and how you determined which matches were associated with greater or lesser degrees of confidence.”
Mullin said in a news conference the day after Trump’s address that leaders in any states who resist working with the department to screen for noncitizen voters would be “held accountable by fines, by penalties, and even depending on how far it goes, prison time.”
Mullin claimed on X, following Sherrill’s announcement, that more than 35,000 noncitizens could be registered in New Jersey.
Sherrill’s office has since provided updates to its estimates, sharing Aug. 19 that approximately 5,100 individuals, who were only registered from the error, were removed from voter system and about another 1,450 will undergo additional review. Roughly 340 individuals, her office said, who were registered because of the error cast a ballot at least once.
Sherrill won the 2025 governor’s race, and New Jersey went for Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024. Neither contest’s outcome would have been changed by those 340 votes.
But New Jersey’s disclosure has helped put additional pressure on the other three states targeted by DHS as November approaches. Shapiro, who is seeking a second term as governor this November, and Schmidt have continued to reject Trump’s push for a greater federal role in elections.
In closing his letter, Schmidt said he wants DHS’ additional information to conduct further review and appealed to the high stakes of the potential premature removal of eligible voters.
“The right to vote is sacred, and the cancellation of any voter registration record must be based on reliable data sources and done in accordance with Pennsylvania and federal law,” he wrote.
A Supreme Court decision on mail voting has created uncertainty with 70 days until critical midterm elections, but Pennsylvania Democrats are trying to reassurevoters that they will have the option to cast a ballot by mail.
More litigation over this highly watched issue is expected and further rulings could still come even after November, affecting the next presidential election.
“We will continue to fight at every stage — including in the Supreme Court the moment they attempt to implement this — to make sure every eligible Pennsylvanian can cast their ballot by mail, free from federal interference,” said Montgomery County Commissioner Neil Makhija, a Democrat and an attorney who sits on the county’s election board.
The procedural update, issued Monday, does not rule on the underlying legality of President Donald Trump’s March executive orderthat directed the U.S. Postal Service to help decide which voters should receive mail ballots but rather whether lower courts had the authority, at this stage, to block it.
Pennsylvania was among the states suing to block the order.
“Absolutely nothing has changed here in Pennsylvania. You can vote in person on Election Day or you can vote by mail before Nov. 3,” Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro said Tuesday evening during a visit to the Eagles’ training camp.
“Your vote will be counted. Your vote is safe and secure,” Shapiro said. “No matter how many times the president wants to try and undermine people’s right to vote in this commonwealth, he needs to know that he will be met with a swift rebuke from me.”
Shapiro noted that the election is administered by the state and its counties under the Constitution.
Revival of the debate about the availability and security of mail voting, and the temporary clearance, however, may instill doubt among voters that their ballot will be received and tabulated, Makhija said.
“With just weeks until ballots go out, last-minute federal interference sows chaos for the voters we serve,” he said.
Trump’s efforts to restrict mail voting, part of his long-standing grievance against the system despite repeatedly utilizing the method himself, are still working through the courts, and several experts doubt the proceedings will move fast enough to affect the November elections, whenfour swing districts in Pennsylvania could help determine control of the U.S. House.
“Whatever may ultimately happen in this litigation, I’m pretty skeptical that anything is going to change for this November’s election,” saidBen Geffen, staff attorney at the Public Interest Law Center in Philadelphia, a nonprofit group that monitors election issues.
States across the country will soon begin preparing applications and mailing ballots to voters.
Pennsylvania voters, who can cast a ballot by mail for any reason, must complete an application by Oct. 27, and all ballots must be returned by Nov. 3 at 8 p.m., according to the Pennsylvania Department of State’s website.
“Turning that battleship around in a matter of days is extremely unlikely,” Geffen said.
A spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of State said the ruling does not change state law, and voters should be confident that counties will continue to ensure eligible voters can cast their ballot by mail.
“The USPS action is not lawful, and we will continue to challenge that rule to ensure that Pennsylvania voters can have their voice heard — whether they vote in person, on demand, or by mail,” Geoff Morrow, the department spokesperson, said.
Geffen’s advice for those concerned is to start early. Get your mail ballot application in right away, and as soon as you receive your ballot, fill it out and return it. For now, you can still send your ballot through the U.S. mail. But you can also drop it off at your county election board, and many counties offer satellite locations and drop boxes.
If you prefer to vote in person on Election Day, go in the morning, he said.
“You have options for how to vote, and you will get to vote. Nobody’s taking away the election, and just jump on it early,” he said.
After Trump, through his directive, ordered the Postal Service to withhold mail ballots to individuals who are not on an approved list, which he instructed states to develop in order to prevent noncitizens from voting, Shapiro promised to protect Pennsylvanians’ right to vote by mail. In April, he used his power as governor to join other Democratic states in a lawsuit that argued the order violated states’ constitutional power to carry out elections.
The unions representing postal employees also criticized Trump’s push to restrict mail voting as November approaches.
“Any insinuation that voting by mail is not safe and secure is severely misguided. Letter carriers have securely delivered ballots for decades, and there is no evidence that the existing system requires substantial changes,” NALC president Brian L. Renfroe said in the statement.
Gwen Ivey, president of the American Postal Workers Union, Local 89, which represents between 1,300 and 1,400 U.S. clerks in Philadelphia who process mail, maintenance employees, and drivers who transport mail, also warned against inserting the Postal Service into decisions over voting.
“The Postal Service is a public institution that serves the American people,” Ivey said Tuesday. “It should not be placed in a position of determining who is entitled to participate in elections or becoming an instrument for restricting access to the ballot boxes.”
Trump has long railed against mail voting, referring to the ballots as “crooked” in his State of the Union address and suggesting they amount to cheating. But his 2024 victory in Pennsylvania was thanks, in part, to a higher rate of mail voting by Republicans.
The practice is particularly useful for seniors and voters in rural areas — often with strong Republican bases — where voters may live far from their nearest polling location.
“If you want to win, mail it in, that’s our message to our Republican voters,” then-Pennsylvania GOP chairman Lawrence Tabas said two years ago. The Pennsylvania GOP did not respond to a request for comment for this article.
Pennsylvania Republicans have been more supportive of Trump’s SAVE America Act, an election reform proposal stalling in Congress that he insists will make voting more secure, though most election experts say new guidelines in the legislation would make it harder to vote.
Pennsylvania Democrats, including Gov. Josh Shapiro, are pointing to a stunning upset in a special election for a deep-red state House district as proof that the party has momentum while campaigning this fall for a trifecta in Harrisburg.
Butler CountyDemocrat Brandon Dukes said his apparent victory over Republican Scott Timko, by fewer than 100 votes as of Wednesday afternoon, was thanks to his focus on local issues, such as a major corridor perennially under construction to the frustration of residents.
“We kept it local, we kept it practical, and we kept it common sense,” Dukes said in an interview.
The 12th Pennsylvania House District, just north of Pittsburgh, went for President Donald Trump by more than 18 percentage points just two years ago and had been held by Republicans since 1999.
Dukes’ apparent win attracted national attention Wednesday as both a sign of the backlash to the president’s party heading into November and as a north star for centrist Democrats as they seek a path forward.
“We won that district last night with a middle-of-the-road community leader, who I backed, who won this improbable race,” Shapiro told CBS Mornings, contrasting Dukes with the party’s more left-leaning candidates this cycle.
“What we’re seeing are commonsense folk from the community who, I think, reflect a lot more my values and my approach to governing who are winning and are upsetting Republicans in these deeply Republican districts,” said Shapiro, a moderate Democrat widely expected to run for president in 2028.
Shapiro recorded a robocall urging voters to cast ballots in the race, his campaign confirmed.
Recipe for November
Democrats are aiming to flip four congressional districts in Pennsylvania this fall and win control of the state Senate for the first time in 30 years with Shapiro, a popular governor, at the top of the ticket.
Dukes, who will compete to win the seat again in November in a rematch with Timko, shattered previous Democratic runs in the Butler County district.
“The fact we just flipped this seat tonight is a political earthquake,” U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle, a Philadelphia Democrat, said on X.
The district had been represented for more than two decades by one of the Pennsylvania House’s most conservative members, former State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, who retired in 2023 and was known for his anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and actions.
State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, a Philadelphia Democrat, said that the seat is one the party “should not have had a chance to come within sneezing distance of,” but that Dukes’ performance provides a blueprint that can be replicated throughout the state.
“Winning here means there is not a single safe seat for the GOP,” Kenyatta, a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, said on X.
The Associated Press had not called the race as of Wednesday evening, but both parties made statements indicating that they expected Dukes’ lead to hold.
Chantell McCurdy, the director of Butler’s election bureau, said the initial count has been completed and there is a five-day period to challenge the results.
James Markley, a spokesperson the Pennsylvania Republican Party, said in a statement that the race needs to be a “wake up call for Republican voters,” and warned against policies from the Democratic Party’s more leftward flank.
While expressing confidence that the party would win the seat back in November, he also lamented the party’s inability to turn out voters this election.
“The General Election will come down to which party does a better job getting their voters to participate in the election using any legal means of casting a ballot. Democrats did a better job of this,”he said.
Pennsylvania Republican House Leader Jesse Topper of Bedford County downplayed the significance of the special election, calling the results “disappointing but unsurprising” because of demographic change in the district, the timing of the vote during the summer,and the unpredictable electorate for such contests.
“There is much more yet to unfold in the final months of the 2026 election cycle and we will continue carrying out vision for positive growth in Pennsylvania through November,” he said.
But Democrats noted that Dukes’ victory in the district would not have been possible if he did not work to win over Republican voters.
“You cannot win a deep-red district like this without getting at least a big chunk of independents and at least some Republicans” who are “rejecting the chaos and high prices of Donald Trump,” said Pennsylvania Democratic chair Eugene DePasquale.
“I think this is a recipe for a big November for the Democratic Party,” he said.
Dukes, a loan administrator, said he listed affordability, infrastructure, and education as the key issues for his campaign.
DePasquale said Dukes’ campaign worked because he “focused on issues that mattered in the district,” such as high prices and cuts to Medicaid andfood assistance under Trump.
But DePasquale dismissed the idea that Democrats should run only certain kinds of candidates to win.
“We need to be a big-tent party, and we need to have candidates that reflect their districts,” he said. “We are embracing candidates that spread the ideological spectrum of the Democratic coalition, and you’re going to see that lead to success this November.”
Statehouse campaigns often do not receive as much money or attention as congressional and statewide races, but Dukes received a boost from several major figures in the party.
He also boasted an endorsement from former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, another possible Democratic presidential contender, who said Wednesday that Dukes’ win “reflects voters’ readiness for change.”
Rematch ahead
After he is sworn in, Dukes will serve a roughly 2½-month term, following the resignation of former State Rep. Stephenie Scialabba, a Republican.
As an incumbent, he will then face a rematch with Timko in November for a full two-year term.
Dukes said he plans to “stick with what worked best” for his November campaign, which will include maintaining face-to-face contact with voters.
A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, Dukes lives with his wife and daughter in Cranberry Township and describes himself as an “avid Star Wars fan” on his campaign website.
House Speaker Joanna McClinton, a Philadelphia Democrat, said Dukes’ win builds momentum for the party to make the case to voters about how electing Democrats achieves their goals on issues like codifying abortion protections and raising the minimum wage.
When state lawmakers return to Harrisburg in September, several issues await, including whether to tax and regulate skill games, finding a long-term funding solution to fund mass transit, and the use of cell phones in K-12 schools.
“When he gets started in Harrisburg in September, he’s going to be a part of the larger House Democratic agenda that’s been focused on affordability and on opportunities for all Pennsylvanians,” she said. “Voters were very motivated to make their values and their frustrations known at the ballot box.”
Dukes will provide votes that he can take back to constituents to further his reelection argument.
“It’s important to tell voters what you’re going to do to make their lives easier because that’s what we did, and we spoke about how we were going to do that,” he said. “It resonated pretty well last night.”
Gov. Josh Shapiro made a declaration in the early days of his administration: Pennsylvania is open for business.
The move would ultimately include promises to slash bureaucratic red tape, cut permit wait times, and offer a new direct line to Shapiro’s office for major corporations hoping to set up shop in Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania would “move at the speed of business” and “get stuff done,” the new mottos used by his administration, he said. He’s campaigning for reelection in November on the same catchphrases, and boasting major successes like the 12-day repair of I-95 in 2023 that traditionally would have taken months to reopen as an example of how he can think outside the box to solve problems.
What’s more: He sees delivering for residents — showing them government can actually solve problems — as the future of the nationalDemocratic Party, while it searches for an effective message and messenger heading into the 2028 presidential primary, which he is widely expected to enter.
It was with this same spirit last summer that Shapiro announced the largest single private sector investment in Pennsylvania history: Amazon committed $20 billion in Pennsylvania that included two data center campuses in Luzerne and Bucks Counties. Pennsylvania scored the project because of its promise to fast-track permitting and use tax breaks for the massive developments.
“Pennsylvania’s gonna be better off. I think America’s gonna be better off, because we’re going to win the battle of AI supremacy and it’s going to be done right here in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said in an interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box on the day he announced the deal.
Gov. Josh Shapiro announces a $20 billion investment by Amazon in Pennsylvania data centers in Salem Township and Falls Township on June 9, 2025.Commonwealth Media Services
But in a year’s time, the politics — and public opinion on both sides of the aisle — have dramatically shifted on data center development. Shapiro’s early welcome of data centers has created an opening for criticism from his gubernatorial opponent and members of his own party.
Yet efforts to cut red tape have proven to be slow and overblown: Only six data centers are actually under construction in Pennsylvania since the announcement, and 10 have received at least one state-level permit approval, according to Shapiro’s office. Still, Shapiro’s popularity is being evaluated by some voters and anti-data center activists on a perception that he moved too quickly and sacrificed the state’s safety in favor of Big Tech.
“I am all about legislators and decision makers getting s— done. This version of it is reckless and it’s irresponsible and it’s not actually serving our people,” said Carrie Santoro, the executive director of progressive advocacy groupPennsylvania Stands Up who has been holding town hall meetings in communities around the state on data centers.
“Governor Shapiro intends to use all the tools available to him to stop the dozens of speculative data center projects that do not meet community needs and Pennsylvania should expect to hear more from him on that in the coming weeks,” said Shapiro’s press secretary, Rosie Lapowsky.
Now Shapiro, who otherwise maintains vast popularity ratings in the state, faces a vulnerability on one of voters’ top priorities as he heads into November, and a particularly sensitive concern among Democrats as he potentially vies for the party’s nomination in two years.
Many states, including Pennsylvania, had already begun welcoming the major projects, and some hyperscale developers plan to spend billions of dollars to build them. Pennsylvania’s General Assembly first approved a sales tax exemption for data center developments in 2021, when Shapiro’s predecessor, Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, was still in office.
Shapiro, for his part, initially embraced data centers as an economic opportunity for Pennsylvania, bringing union jobs for construction workers to build out the physical infrastructure for the computers running AI software. He also wanted to position Pennsylvania to inherit the most benefit from providing space for AI to operate, leading not only other states but also other countries in the race to advance new technology. He and U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick (R., Pa.) appeared together as early embracers of the technology and the massive buildings needed to power it, speaking together during McCormick’s first AI summit in Pittsburgh last summer.
Sen. Dave McCormick shakes hands with Gov. Josh Shapiro at a panel discussing state investment and infrastructure at the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh on July 15, 2025.Kaiden J. Yu / Staff Photographer
But as communities began to push back against the rapid proliferation of data center proposals, in part to protect their water and energy resources, Shapiro adjusted.
Shapiro, like many elected officials, has changed his positions and rhetoric on the unpopular developments. He announced his Governor’s Responsible Infrastructure Standards (GRID) as a way to incentivize developers to follow transparency and environmental requirements in order to receive tax breaks. And when the General Assembly failed to approve his GRID standards or any substantial data center restrictions, Shapiro said he’d act on his own, though it’s still unclear what that will entail.
“You want to build a data center there? You’ve got to bring your own power; you’ve got to pay for your own power. You’ve got to be transparent with the local community — tell them who the hyperscaler is, tell them what’s going to go on there. You’ve got to have a local benefits agreement to help that community. You’ve got to protect the water sources that are used to cool off those facilities,” he said in a June interview with GZERO.
The Democratic governor has been lauded nationally for challenging PJM Interconnection, which is the electric grid operator for Pennsylvania and 12 other states over its efforts to raise prices on ratepayers. He capped the price Pennsylvania consumers could pay through 2029, as residents fear rate hikes due to the data center boom.
But Shapiro’s plan on data centers is too little, too late, Santoro said.
“I saw the GRID proposal as him moving on this issue, and the thing that I am concerned about is he didn’t move enough to keep up with how much voters have moved on this issue,” she said.
Some of those voters would agree. A Quinnipiac University poll of Pennsylvania voters, conducted in early June, found just 24% of those surveyed — and 40% of Democrats — approved of “the way Gov. Josh Shapiro is handling data centers in Pennsylvania.” It’s a stark contrast to Shapiro’s overall approval numbers, in which he’s maintained above 50% approvals — record-high favorability ratings for a first-term Pennsylvania governor.
People sign in and head into an East Vincent Township supervisors meeting where an agenda item involved a data center proposal at the former Pennhurst state hospital grounds on Dec. 17, 2025, in Spring City, Pa. Marc Levy
Joanna Tenney, 36, of East Vincent in Chester County, held a sign at a June rally in the state Capitol that read: “Shapiro: Amazon’s bootlicker.” A registered Democrat, she voted for him in 2022, and believes he should be held accountable for supporting data center development in Pennsylvania that led to the fast-tracking of a now-stalled 125-acre data center project near where she lives.
She’s so fed up with Shapiro’s approach to data centers that she said will be writing in the name of her state senator, Sen. Katie Muth (D., Chester), who has been on the front lines of advocating for many state environmental issues, for governor on her November ballot. Tenney said she and a few other anti-data center advocates plan to run a write-in campaign for Muth.
“We’ve elected somebody that we thought was going to make the right choices by us, and we don’t really see that happening,” Tenney said.
Muth, who took office in 2018, said she would not be supporting Shapiro or “any elected official who puts the interests of Big Tech ahead of the health, safety, and future of Pennsylvania communities.”
If Shapiro changes his stance on data centers, she would support him, Muth said. She is the prime sponsor of a bipartisan bill to place a three-year moratorium on hyperscale data center development.
“Get right on the issue, Right your wrongs. If you can’t be on the side of science and people, my support is MIA,” she added.
Emily VanFleet, 26, lives in Archbald in Northeastern Pennsylvania, where six data center projects are underway comprising more than 50 buildings that, when completed, will cover 14% of the town. VanFleet, who is an unaffiliated voter, said she also supported Shapiro in 2022. But because of his public support for speeding up data center development in Pennsylvania, she is “certainly not going to vote for him this upcoming election,” she said. She isn’t sure she’s going to vote at all.
“I want Shapiro to stop being a coward,” VanFleet said in June. “I have emailed him, I have called him, I have reached out to him so many times. I have not heard back, not once. I see his videos all over social media that he has an open-door policy, but I have yet to see it.”
(In May, Shapiro’s administration announced that one of the unpopular Archbald developments, Project Gravity, was removed from a fast-track permitting program for failing to properly engage with the community.)
But negative attitudes toward Shapiro’s position on data centers may be limited statewide and his position is unlikely to dramatically knock down his high popularity or reelection odds: The June Quinnipiac poll found 56% of those surveyed approve of the way he is handling his job as governor overall, and recent polling shows Shapiro ahead 53% to 40% against his Republican challenger, state Treasurer Stacy Garrity.
The data center pitfall
Shapiro’s political opponents — both immediate and prospective — are also seizing on the issue.
Garrity, of Athens in Northeastern Pennsylvania, has also led a statewide listening tour on the topic. In June, she convened one of those sessions in Hatfield with a group of commissioners, zoning planners and emergency responders to talk about how they have been impacted by data centers. She blasted Shapiro for his role in attracting Amazon and said his proposed new requirements amount to a “flip flop.”
“Josh Shapiro has failed on this topic. He was the biggest cheerleader for data center development in Pennsylvania, until he wasn’t,” Garrity said at the June 24 meeting.
Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity participates in the podcast “Ruthless” during an event hosted by Americans for Prosperity, Concerned Veterans for America, and the Libre Initiative at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia on Jan. 29. Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
Garrity has her own mixed record on data centers.
At the time of the Amazon announcement, Garrity called the investment “great news” that would bring “historic investment” and “create thousands of jobs.” And her current position remains unclear. She has said she opposes a statewide moratorium but wants “a pause” on development instead.
Like Republicans running in districts that supported Trump in 2024 but oppose data centers, she appears to be attempting to find a pro-business and pro-regulation path.
“We want to make sure data centers are an addition to the grid, not a contraction. If there’s infrastructure that needs to be added to the grid, rate payers shouldn’t be paying for it,” she said. “I’m not opposed to data centers, but we have to do them the right way, and we haven’t done it. It’s because of a lack of leadership from the government.”
Garrity’s “long record of supporting completely unregulated data center development makes it clear that she just can’t be trusted,” said Manuel Bonder, a spokesperson for Shapiro’s campaign.
Local government leaders said at Garrity’s campaign roundtable in June that there has been lack of guidance around issues, especially around power demand, water use, infrastructure, environmental impacts, and community compatibility.
Kathie Doyle, a Republican on the Richland Township Board of Supervisors, said confusion around data centers have “set off a firestorm” in her community. Earlier this year, warnings of a supposed proposal for a data center in the Bucks County township circulated on social media, but turned out to be a “business park” with two buildings.
“Our residents don’t understand that we just cannot say no,” she said. Municipalities in Pennsylvania cannot outright ban data center development.
Santoro said Shapiro’s inconsistency is a liability that could sway some voters away from casting their ballot for him.
“Certainly he is giving her an ‘in’ by staying on the wrong side of this,” she said.
And it’s not just Republicans seizing on Shapiro’s position. The early reputation Shapiro earned as a champion of data centers may become a point of attack among other Democratic contenders for the presidency in 2028, too. In a veiled jab at Shapiro in June, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, knocked Pennsylvania on a businesspodcast for allowing Constellation Energy to restart Three Mile Island nuclear plant just to power Microsoft’s data centers.
“My guess is that’s going to be a reasonably unpopular thing to have done,” Pritzker said, without noting Shapiro by name on the Prof G Markets podcast.
Vulnerability for down-ballot Democrats
With a $50 million campaign war chest and high approval ratings, Shapiro is widely favored to win reelection this year. But his record on data centers could prove a liability for those he’s hoping to pull along, some advocates, like Santoro, say.
Shapiro has been staking much of his national political clout on his ability to flip four House districts in Pennsylvania for Democratic control of the U.S. House, drawing voters to the polls with his name at the top of the ticket. He’s also aiming to flip Pennsylvania’s Senate into Democratic control for the first time since 1993, giving him a Democratic trifecta in Harrisburg, as the state’s split legislature has blocked many of Democrats’ priorities from becoming law.
Santoro predicted that could be in jeopardy “if he does not change course.”
“Shapiro’s leadership on data centers will be the thing that costs us the first Democratic trifecta in 31 years, and I think that while he will likely win reelection with this wildly unpopular position on data centers, other elected officials and candidates will not,” she said.
Other Democratic candidates aware of data centers’ deep unpopularity are differentiating themselves on the issue, despite remaining otherwise aligned with Shapiro. Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti, who is running in Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District, released a new ad last month putting data center developers on notice.
“Big Tech needs to pay their own way, not hide behind [nondisclosure agreements]. No tax breaks. Don’t raise our electric bills. Don’t poison our water. And hire local union labor,” she said, in the ad spot. “You can’t meet that? Then get out.”
Cognetti’s stance isn’t vastly different from Shapiro’s — both want to end blanket tax breaks — but her rhetoric is much stronger, and she’s putting the issue at the forefront of her campaign.
Democrats insist Republicans, including those running at the state level, don’t have the moral high ground on data centers after failing to pass through several measures that would have enacted stricter controls for their approval.
Sam Silverman, a former congressional aide and founder of Silverman Strategy Group, a strategic communications firm focused on technology and politics, said Shapiro’s approach to data centers — proposing a plan rather than enacting a moratorium — presents a risk that could either pay off and become the model for other states, or fail to fully address all future concerns and is unpopular.
“Shapiro is going out in front by proposing a bargain now. If the standards protect ratepayers, produce visible benefits, and hold bad actors accountable, Pennsylvania could have a model others can follow,” he said. “But because he is putting forward the deal now, he will be judged on whether it delivers.”
Taking a risk involves trust, though. Shapiro can afford to make a big swing at one of the hottest issues in politics because voters put so much faith in him, Silverman said.
“Most politicians do not have the amount of trust and political capital to take a risk, either,” Silverman said.
Whether the governor is triumphant will come down to what standards go into effect and whether bad actors are held accountable, he said, “and whether Pennsylvanians believe those standards are working.”
It is routine for election officials throughout the country to inspect their voter rolls to ensure people who have moved, died, or not cast a ballot in a while do not linger for years in the data.
But that has not stopped right-wing activists, Republican U.S. senators, and the richest man in the world from suggesting Pennsylvania’s latest update to its voter rolls Monday was a mass expulsion of potentially fraudulent voters as the high-stakes midterm elections approach.
Presler, who six years ago led a two-day demonstration in Harrisburg over the 2020 election results,claimed the numbers showed his effort to “clean the voter rolls is actually working.”
And U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick,Pennsylvania’s highest-ranking Republican, praised Presler for “leading the charge.”
The reality of Monday’s update is that both parties saw voters moved from active to inactive status (meaning they have not voted in a while).
Among Democrats, 55,241 were moved to inactive status on Monday, while 23,832 Republicans also became inactive.
Those voters have not actually been removed from the rolls and can still vote in November, despite Presler’s claims of a purge. Being inactive is not the same as being ineligible.
“Updating these voter records is not a ‘purge’ of voters and does not mean that they were on the rolls improperly,” said Geoff Morrow, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of State.
Morrow called the update a reflection of county election offices’ diligence in their duty to regularly perform maintenance to their lists.
“There are many reasons people come off the voter list, most likely they moved, and this is all part of the normal process,” said Montgomery County Commissioner Neil Makhija, a Democrat who serves on the county’s election board. “There’s nothing particularly special or unusual about this.”
What is happening?
Counties across Pennsylvania have been updating their voter lists, as required under the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. This update must occur no later than 90 days before a federal election. The midterm elections, which will feature the Pennsylvania governor’s race and several competitive congressional contests, are Nov. 3.
As part of the maintenance process, voters who have not participated in five years are moved from active to inactive status. Inactive voters are still registered and can still vote, just like an active voter.
A voter who cast a ballot in 2020 but sat out the following elections, for example, would be considered inactive.
This practice is standard, said Philadelphia City Commissioner Seth Bluestein, the Republican member of the three-person board that oversees the city’s elections.
“Philadelphia conducts regular list maintenance activities in compliance with federal and state laws to determine whether a voter should be marked as ‘inactive’ or removed from the registration rolls,” he said on X.
Voters may also be categorized as inactive if they have submitted a USPS mail-forwarding request or registered to vote in another state, or when a mailing to their registered address is returned as undeliverable.
Montgomery County Commissioner Neil Makhija speaks during a March board meeting. Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer
Becoming an inactive voter is the first step on the path to being removed, which is done if the inactive voter does not participate in the next two federal elections.
“What we’re seeing here is an example of our current process for voter roll maintenance playing out, and it works,” Makhija said. “It’s designed to actually protect people’s registration because it gives them a chance to respond if we mark them as inactive, and it also keeps them on the rolls if they do respond.”
In addition to tracking whether voters are active, Morrow said, election officials in the state regularly review death records, U.S. Postal Service address changes, and other reliable sources “to identify records that may require updating” when a voter dies or moves.
Can inactive voters cast a ballot in November?
Yes. Voters who are inactive can change their status simply by voting. Those who have been removed can reregister, too. Registration must be done 15 days prior to an election, which is Oct. 19 this year.
“Voters with an ‘inactive’ status are still eligible to vote and can be moved back to ‘active’ status if they take an action to update their record or vote before the passage of two federal general elections,” Bluestein said.
To vote in Pennsylvania, you must be a U.S. citizen, a resident of the state for 30 days, and 18 years old by Election Day. It is possible that someone who is eligible to vote has become inactive after years of sitting out elections.
Does this have anything to do with noncitizen voters, like those found in New Jersey?
Presler, who said he “won’t stop until all 67 counties comply,” posted a cartoon image of himself pressing a light switch as cockroaches — labeled with phrases like “illegal voter” and “dead voter” — scurry away.
Presler did not respond to requests from The Inquirer to answer questions about his posts, which appear to conflate inactive voters with ineligible voters.
The posts come after President Donald Trump’s administration claimed Pennsylvania was one of four Democratic-led states with thousands of noncitizens on its voter rolls, a claim state officials say the federal government has not provided evidence for.
MAGA influencer Scott Presler energizes people attending a Republican event at the Newtown Athletic Club ahead of the 2024 election. Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
But a change in a voter’s status from active to inactive is not related to citizenship or other issues of eligibility.
Noncitizens would actually be removed from rolls under Pennsylvania law and face potential prosecution and deportation if they had cast a ballot — as the Pennsylvania Department of State noted in a Friday report from WHP on an apparent case of a noncitizen voting in Lancaster County.
Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt, a Republican appointed by Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, has said noncitizen voting “is extremely rare across the country, including in Pennsylvania.”
New Jersey last month revealed 6,600 people — a number later reduced to roughly 4,600 — who were not citizens were improperly registered to vote over a yearlong span ahead of the 2024 election because of a software error in New Jersey’s motor vehicle system.
Schmidt had identified a similar glitch in Pennsylvania in 2017 as Philadelphia’s Republican city commissioner, identifying 168 noncitizens on the city’s voter rolls at the time. They were removed from the rolls and the glitch was fixed.
Why are Elon Musk and senators from other states posting about routine maintenance?
Prominent Republicans who elevated Presler’s post tied it to their efforts to pass the SAVE America Act, a sweeping national voting overhaul that has been championed by Trump ahead of the midterms.
The act would require proof of citizenship to register to vote and mandate all voters show photo identification at the polls, something some conservatives say would prevent noncitizens from voting.
But the legislation has faced significant pushback, including from some elected Republicans, over concerns that it would make it tougher for many Americans, especially married people whose last names may no longer match their birth certificate, to vote.
How do party registrations compare?
According to state data as of Monday, Democrats have more than 3.4 million active voters and Republicans are not far behind, trailing by only 25,811 active voters.
But each party also has hundreds of thousands of inactive voters — 437,330 in the case of Democrats and 256,711 for Republicans — who could potentially vote in November.
Can we say anything about party odds in the midterms?
The Pennsylvania Republican Party celebrated the news of the narrowing gap in active voters as a milestone its “ultimate mission of turning Pennsylvania into a permanent red state.”
Both parties want to win the registration war,but party registrations alone will not predict victory in November.
Just because someone is registered as a Democrat or Republican does not mean he or she will necessarily vote for every candidate in that party on the ballot.
And there are also nearly 1.5 million unaffiliated voters — including inactive registrants — who could sway the state’s elections.
Staff writer Joe Yerardi contributed to this article.
Clad in a royal blue, two-piece suit, Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity stood next to a seated President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Tuesday, in a video message posted to his social media platform, Truth Social.
“Pennsylvania is very lucky because you have somebody running for governor who’s going to do a fantastic job,” Trump said to the camera, while shaking Garrity’s hand. “She really is a spectacular person. And I just want to wish you luck. I think you’re going to win.”
The White House appearance signaled a closer public alliance between Trump and Garrity, and the latest chapter in her campaign challenging Gov. Josh Shapiro as she seeks to draw Trump’s loyal fan base to the polls in November.
Trump, who endorsed Garrity in January, followed the video message by posting a photo with Garrity, writing: “Stacy is running to be the next Governor of the GREAT Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. She has my Complete and Total Endorsement. She will do a fantastic job!”
Garrity’s campaign said in a statement that she was visiting the White House alongside the Penn State wrestling team, which was being honored for its 2026 national championship.
The Oval Office meeting represented a repair of sorts between Garrity and Trump after he has displayed little enthusiasm toward her campaign in recent months.
It was my Great Honor to welcome Highly Respected and very popular Pennsylvania State Treasurer, Stacy Garrity, into the Oval Office. Stacy is running to be the next Governor of the GREAT Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. She has my Complete and Total Endorsement. She will do a… pic.twitter.com/1vROsLLTlM
— Commentary Donald J. Trump Truth Social Posts On X (@TrumpTruthOnX) August 4, 2026
Garrity entered the race against Shapiro, the Democratic incumbent, last summer as Republicans — disappointed with their 2022 performance — sought to consolidate support early around one strong candidate. When Trump endorsed Garrity, he called a “true America First Patriot” who “WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN!”
In March, Garrity hosted a fundraising dinner at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida, where, beneath a wrought-iron doorway at his private golf club, the president said “she should win.”
But when Trump visited Pennsylvania in June and Garrity introduced him onstage, he seemed to forget her altogether.
During a speech meant to focus on manufacturing in Macungie, Trump spent over an hour talking about weight-loss drugs, immigration, firearms, the role of transgender athletes in women’s sports, and the UFC fight recently held on the White House lawn. But Garrity never received a mention, and Trump instead celebrated U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, a Pennsylvania Republican who considered a run for governor before ultimately opting against it. Trump even name-checked Shapiro.
Three months out from Election Day, Garrity has struggled to gain traction among voters. A Quinnipiac University survey of 895 registered Pennsylvania voters in July found 53% would vote for Shapiro, while 40% said they would vote for Garrity.
At right is Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro listening to Stacy Garrity, 78th State Treasurer, Forum Auditorium in Harrisburg, Pa., Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025.Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer
Trump’s latest show of support for Garrity comes as Shapiro — who is rumored to be eyeing a run for the White House in 2028 — has set his sights beyond the governor’s office, lending his time and spending his money to support Democrats up and down the ballot, in an attempt to flip the Pennsylvania state Senate and four swing districts in Congress.
Last month, in another stop in Pennsylvania, Trump attempted to lend more support to Garrity during Republican U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick’s Defense and Innovation Summit.
“I hear things about Stacy, and I’m hearing some poll numbers that are very good,” he said.
Regarding her opponent, however, Trump had stronger words.
“This guy Shapiro is totally overrated. … He doesn’t have what it takes,” Trump said.
President Donald Trump visits Mack Trucks in Macungie in the Lehigh Valley Tuesday, June 23, 2026.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
In Pennsylvania, Trump remains deeply underwater in popularity. The Quinnipiac survey found only 39% of Pennsylvania voters would give him a positive job approval. Elsewhere in the country, Trump has remained Republicans’ most effective energizer to the polls — though some are concerned about GOP successwithout his name on the ballot in November.
Pennsylvania Democrats on Tuesday seized on Garrity’s appearance with the president.
“Stacy Garrity always sprints to any chance she gets to pledge her 100% loyalty to Donald Trump and his disastrous agenda,” Ava Pitruzzello, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, said in a statement.
Last week, Shapiro’s campaign launched a new ad calling Garrity “100% MAGA.” Garrity’s campaign, in a statement, called the ad “a dishonest, lying attack.”
