(The Center Square) – Continuing a theme of linking State Treasurer Stacy Garrity to President Donald Trump, Gov. Josh Shapiro is out with a new ad calling his GOP challenger “100% MAGA.”
The 30-second spot released on Friday titled “100 percent,” begins with conservative talk show host John Fredericks calling Garrity “100% MAGA,” followed by GOP state Sen. Doug Mastriano, the 2022 GOP gubernatorial candidate, saying that he wants her to win the 2026 race for governor.
The ad also features a clip of Garrity on stage with Trump at a previous rally and accuses Garrity of putting the president’s agenda “ahead of Pennsylvania.” The spot references comments by Garrity praising Trump’s tariff policy and supporting the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
“Stacy Garrity. 100% MAGA. Extremely wrong for us,” a narrator says at the conclusion of the ad.
Shapiro promoted the ad on social media Friday morning.
“Stacy Garrity has made it clear — she’ll put Donald Trump’s agenda of chaos, cruelty, and corruption ahead of Pennsylvanians 100% of the time,” Shapiro wrote. “Garrity is wrong for Pennsylvania.”
Garrity’s campaign has not released a comment responding to the ad via social media, although her pinned post on X for the past few months remains a post promoting Trump’s endorsement of her campaign – among the first he made in this current cycle, she has said in the past.
“Josh Shapiro has done everything he can to stand in President Trump’s way, suing his administration more than two dozen times,” Garrity wrote in that post. “Josh Shapiro is President Trump’s number one adversary, and I am looking forward to working with President Trump and his team to defeat Josh Shapiro this November.”
Garrity’s campaign, however, has responded to Shapiro’s latest ad with a fundraising pitch to supporters with an email headlined “Shapiro just went negative. That tells you everything.”
“Ask yourself: why would a sitting governor with tens of millions of dollars and the entire national Democrat establishment behind him go negative? Because he’s scared,” Garrity’s campaign writes in that email.
Later in that email, before asking for campaign donations, Garrity’s campaign writes that “Shapiro is going to spend millions trying to define Stacy before Pennsylvanians get to know her. He’s going to use his massive war chest to flood the airwaves with attacks because he can’t run on his record.”
Friday’s ad appears to be the first from the Shapiro campaign to go after Garrity directly.
His two previous ads highlighted his administration’s support for universal free breakfast for K-12 public school students, plus investments made into apprenticeship programs.
Polling has consistently shown Shapiro to be the frontrunner for a second term.
A Quinnipiac University poll conducted from July 9-13 showed Shapiro maintaining a positive job approval rating and leading Garrity by 13 points in the race for governor.
That same poll shows trouble for Trump, despite the president winning the state’s 19 electoral votes in 2024.
Fifty-eight percent disapprove of Trump’s handling of his job as president, while 39% approve, and 3% had no opinion. The latest poll is slightly worse than February’s survey, which showed that 40% approved of Trump’s job performance, while 55% disapproved.
Since accepting his party’s nomination for a second term, Shapiro has constantly criticized the Trump administration and has noted his support for Garrity’s bid.
The Cook Political Report, a national ratings outlet, describes the race as “solid Democrat.”
