Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, a popular and ambitious Democrat, drew his most credible Republican opponent to date on Monday as Stacy Garrity, the state treasurer, announced a bid to challenge his re-election.
Ms. Garrity would seem to have the makings of a formidable candidate. In her re-election contest for treasurer last year, Ms. Garrity, a retired U.S. Army Reserve colonel, earned the largest vote total ever recorded by a statewide row office candidate in Pennsylvania.
In a video posted on social media announcing her candidacy, Ms. Garrity highlighted her closeness to President Trump, and said she was running to make the state more affordable, and attractive to younger residents.
But beating Mr. Shapiro — a prolific fund-raiser and experienced campaigner with a record of winning in Trump country — will be no easy feat, especially in a midterm environment, when the party with the presidency typically struggles. Representative Dan Meuser, a Pennsylvania Republican who would have had President Trump’s support in the governor’s contest, announced earlier this summer that he would not enter the race.
Mr. Shapiro has not yet announced a bid for re-election but is widely expected to do so.
And first, Ms. Garrity will need to make it through a primary. State Senator Doug Mastriano, the far-right Republican who lost to Mr. Shapiro in 2022 by nearly 15 percentage points — a staggering margin in such a closely divided state — maintains a following among some in the conservative grass roots and has teased the possibility of another run.
Last time around — apparently with some Democratic assistance — Mr. Mastriano beat out a number of candidates preferred by old-guard Republicans in the primary and ran such a disastrous general election campaign that the national party abandoned the race altogether.
Democrats are already trying to cast Ms. Garrity as cut from the same right-wing cloth, noting that Mr. Mastriano suggested earlier this year that the two team up on a ticket.
Democrats say they will take the race seriously regardless of who emerges from the primary. Mr. Shapiro is one of a number of Democrats seen as potential 2028 presidential candidates who need strong showings in 2026 first.
Ms. Garrity has already released a video that tries to portray Mr. Shapiro as more focused on his future ambitions than on governing, though he has largely stayed out of the national spotlight in recent months compared with a number of other possible 2028 hopefuls.
“I’m super focused on my work in Pennsylvania,” he insisted in an interview in July. “I love doing that work. I think it is important to do that work, to deliver results.”
Katie Glueck is a Times national political reporter.
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