Category: Pennsylvania Politics

If elected in November, Stacy Garrity would become Pennsylvania’s first female governor in the state’s 238-year history.

Even now, she is one of only two women in history to receive the Republican Party’s nomination for the job.

The state has never had a woman as its governor; no woman has been elected as U.S. senator; and both times a woman ran for president, she lost the state. Over the last two centuries, Pennsylvania’s political glass ceiling has proven stubbornly resistant to cracks.

But on the campaign trail against Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, Garrity, 62, said she doesn’t give that too much thought.

“It’s my least favorite thing to talk about,” she said. “I was the oldest of four daughters, and we were just told that we were expected to work hard.”

Navigating gender dynamics in politics can prove to be a particularly fine balance. Republicans, in particular, often emphasize that candidates should rise on their skills and talent, not personal identity.

Garrity emphasized her attention is on issues like the power grid, education, and reining in spending, though she recognizes the historic significance of a potential win.

“Republicans, for the most part, are based on merit, and that’s how I was raised,” said Garrity, who spent decades serving in the Army Reserve and as an executive in the manufacturing industry before becoming state treasurer. When she was reelected in 2024, she broke the record in Pennsylvania for the most number of votes cast in her favor for a statewide office, a distinction formerly held by Shapiro.

In addition to taking on centuries of male-dominated leadership, Garrity will face other challenges in November.

She is a Republican who has aligned herself closely with President Donald Trump — including campaigning at his Mar-A-Lago Club in Florida — at a time when Trump has been experiencing historic dissatisfaction among voters and the national political environment favors Democrats.

And she is running against Shapiro, a Democratic incumbent with a rising national star who is popular even among independents. He has $38 million banked as of May, vastly outpacing Garrity’s $2.8 million. Shapiro is also counting on a strong showing in the midterms to help Democrats win the majority in the U.S. House.

“I think [voters] are excited to have a first female governor, but I don’t think that is the reason anybody would vote for me,” she said.

In Pennsylvania and 16 other states

It is hard to be what you can’t see. And for voters who have never experienced a woman at the top of the hierarchy, it is difficult to imagine what that could look like, experts said.

It has been 300 years since a woman led Pennsylvania — before it was a state.

Hannah Callowhill Penn led the colony of Pennsylvania, governing first while her husband, William Penn, suffered several strokes, and then alongside a group of trustees after he died. Over 14 years, she settled boundary disputes, appointed and replaced government officials, and navigated relations with the monarchy in England.

Other Pennsylvania women made attempts to break gender barriers but came up short. Barbara Hafer ran as a Republican against Democratic incumbent Bob Casey Sr. in the 1990 governor’s race, but lost with just 32% of the vote.

Former U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz lost to Tom Wolf during the Democratic primary for governor in 2014, and Laura Ellsworth was defeated by Scott Wagner in the 2018 Republican gubernatorial primary.

“It could just be a coincidence, but also it’s very hard to break political traditions, and one of those traditions in Pennsylvania, unfortunately, is male leadership,” said Nichola Gutgold, a professor at Pennsylvania State University’s Lehigh Valley campus, who has researched women in politics.

Pennsylvania, however, is not alone. There are 17 states that have never had a female senator, and 17 states have never had a female governor, according to the Pew Research Center. That distinction spans geographic ranges and party control.

Still, Pennsylvania is one of just four states that has never had either, along with Idaho, Indiana, and Colorado. Among them, only Colorado went for Democrats Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris for president.

“We have certain variables at play in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania that make it more challenging for women to run for elected office,” said Dana Brown, executive director of the Pennsylvania Center for Women and Politics.

The role of the parties on the state and county levels means they have a strong influence on recruiting candidates and pushing them up through the pipeline. Historically, recruiting tended to come from more masculine bases — such as fire stations or township supervisor positions.

Now, though, “both sides of the aisle recognize that women can win here in Pennsylvania, and so Republicans and Democrats have been purposely recruiting more women,” she said.

Women have made strides in other Pennsylvania elected offices.

In Harrisburg, State Rep. Joanna McClinton (D., Philadelphia) is the first woman and second Black person to serve as speaker of the Pennsylvania House. Republican State Sen. Kim Ward of Westmoreland County is the first woman in Pennsylvania history to serve as Senate president pro tempore and Senate majority leader.

When former Democratic U.S. Rep. Susan Wild, the first woman to represent the Lehigh Valley in Congress, was elected in 2018, “it took a real concentrated effort from [political action committees] and from groups that really wanted to see a woman win to make that happen,” Gutgold said.

In other cases, as in neighboring New Jersey or Virginia, women have ascended with a combination of fortunate timing, skill, experience, and deft campaigning.

When Gov. Mikie Sherrill last year became the second woman elected to lead New Jersey, Brown said, “it was a change election for New Jersey, and it was a sign of pushing back against what the federal government is doing with ICE and immigration and also with the economy.”

Even though Sherrill, a Democrat, shares the same party as her predecessor, Phil Murphy, New Jersey’s vote for a woman represents change, Brown said. “She also worked really, really hard for it, as most women do,” she added.

Sometimes, female candidates succeed by pushing against expected norms for women by emphasizing military experience or work in male-dominated trades, Gutgold said. Garrity has emphasized her military and business experience on the campaign trail, holding a Veterans for Garrity rally last week.

“I think that, rhetorically speaking, it would be easier to elect a woman who appears to hold more conservative views, because of the way we, the electorate, still views women’s role in society,” Gutgold said.

Republican women have scored victories in the Deep South by upholding conservative values such as opposition to abortion and support of gun rights. Kay Ivey holds the governor’s mansion in Alabama, and Nikki Haley previously led South Carolina for two terms. In Tennessee, U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn has represented the state since 2018 and publicly repudiated gender-specific titles, such as congresswoman vs. congressman.

Garrity, on the campaign trail, has also vowed to clean up the “boys will be boys” culture in Harrisburg and has criticized Shapiro’s handling of a sexual harassment case involving a longtime aide.

The aide, Mike Vereb, abruptly stepped down in 2023, while the administration quietly agreed to pay $295,000 to settle claims from an employee in the governor’s office that Vereb had made repeated sexual advances toward her, and made lewd claims about her and other women.

“We don’t need to settle for a governor who will sweep sexual harassment and abuse charges under the rug. We don’t need to accept that our state government is a cesspool where intimidation is the norm and public employees fear retribution,” Garrity said during a news conference this year.

Manuel Bonder, a spokesperson for Shapiro, rejected those accusations.

“Governor Shapiro has a track record of taking on powerful institutions, exposing sexual abuse, and putting predators behind bars — and he continues to fight to deliver real accountability and justice for survivors here in Pennsylvania,” he said.

Could Pa. women give Garrity a boost?

Nationally, women voters tend to lean more toward the Democratic Party, Pew Research Center data show, so it’s unlikely that the Republican Party will attract a huge turnover — even with a female candidate on the top of the ticket.

Sometimes, however, the gender divide can become even more entrenched. In 2024, for example, when the candidates were broadly polling neck-and-neck, Harris saw a 17-point advantage with Pennsylvania women, while Trump led with men in the state by 11 points, according to a Philadelphia Inquirer/New York Times/Siena College poll.

Garrity said she is putting together agendas that speak to various coalitions of voters, such as veterans, Latinos, and small-business owners.

“I don’t think we’ve done specifically females, but that might be a good idea,” she said. A campaign spokesperson added that Garrity would be rolling out women-focused events in the coming weeks.

Campaigns can target women by speaking directly to certain issues. Democrats have often focused their message on support for reproductive access and abortion rights, especially since the 2022 Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

According to a Pew Research Center report in March, 64% of women and 55% of men say abortion should be legal in all or most cases. But Garrity has been inconsistent on the issue. She said “Roe was wrong from the beginning” on the day the ruling came out and sold T-shirts on her campaign website that opposed abortion. But in an interview last September, Garrity said she would “respect” Pennsylvania’s current abortion law and would not support a state ban.

Republicans, meanwhile, often promote public safety and have sought to make women’s sports a wedge issue in recent elections by pushing restrictions on the participation of transgender athletes.

It is a tactic Garrity will use against Shapiro, who has called attempts to silo transgender athletes discriminatory.

“A lot of people think that he’s moderate because he likes to be all things to all people, and they don’t understand, he is really for boys competing against girls in sports,” Garrity said.

There are other issues women candidates are often seen as more trusted on, such as education, healthcare, and children’s needs, Gutgold said.

Amy Widestrom, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania, said top of mind for members of her organization right now is the right to vote. She said some women have expressed concern that requiring documentary proof of citizenship, which Republicans say is meant to ensure immigrants in the country illegally do not vote, could affect those who change their legal name and do not have matching identification records.

Appealing to women on these issues can pay off, as they represent a significant voting bloc. Among registered voters in Pennsylvania, 52% are female. Of registered Democrats, 59% are female, and 47% of registered Republicans are female. Roughly 40% of unaffiliated voters are female, according to Widestrom, via voter data.

But Macy Charles of Concerned Women for America, a socially conservative political nonprofit focused on women, said candidates should speak more expansively when courting women voters.

“It’s pretty offensive to assume that when we’re talking about issues women care about, it’s only women’s specific issues, like abortion,” said Charles, a legislative strategist. “Women care about the economy, women care about the U.S. borders. Because they have maternal instincts, they care about their families, they care about the well-being of America’s future.”

Rather than leaning into identity, Charles said, Garrity is reinforcing her reputation of competence.

“More than just her identity as a woman, she is willing to stand up for common sense and truth and really put families first,” she said.

Still, Garrity recognizes the achievement her potential victory could bring.

To be Pennsylvania’s first female governor, “I think it would be great,” she said, “but I think it will be because I am absolutely the best candidate.”