Pa. Treasurer Stacy Garrity campaigned with Trump this month. Two Democrats are vying to take her on in the fall.

When Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity took the podium at a Lehigh County campaign event this month for former President Donald J. Trump, the Republican incumbent framed the election as an existential battle.

“Every election that goes by that we don’t get Republicans in office, our state, and our country get closer and closer to being lost,” Garrity told the crowd of thousands.

On Tuesday, voters will decide which Democratic candidate will challenge Garrity for the state’s top financial position, in an election that both parties see as an existential threat.

The treasurer — one of three elected statewide row offices — is the custodian of the state’s vast investment portfolio, as well as its balance sheet. The office oversees more than $160 billion in public funds.

The treasurer’s duties span the financial spectrum; the office decides where to invest state funds, and has bolstered the state’s rainy-day fund and improved savings programs for state residents.

On Tuesday, primary voters will decide which of two Democrats will face Garrity in November: State Rep. Ryan Bizzarro from Erie, or Erin McClelland, a small-business owner from the Pittsburgh area.

Here’s a closer look at the candidates

Bizzarro has served as Erie’s state representative for more than a decade, and is touting his experience in Harrisburg in his bid for treasurer.

The 38-year-old is also running unopposed to retain his 3rd District House seat for a seventh term.

As chairman of the House Democratic Policy Committee, Bizzarro said he regularly makes decisions related to Pennsylvania’s financial matters, and collaborates across the aisle with his GOP colleagues.

Bizzarro said he’d follow the model of treasurers in Democratic-led states who have “figured out how to utilize the treasurer’s office for leverage” to help with economic and community development.

The candidate aims to create an impact investment fund, for example, as well as an infrastructure real estate fund, and would expand the 529 program, which allows parents to invest in their children’s future college education. The effort would yield about $500 million in investments for Pennsylvania’s agriculture and small businesses, according to Bizzarro.

“You have to have the relationships in both the House and Senate, Democrat and Republican, in order to get things done,” Bizzarro said. “You can’t implement a single new program without the OK from the legislature, and that’s going to be important.”

McClelland grew up in the river valleys of Pittsburgh, the city where the 49-year-old candidate said she was first inspired by a treasurer’s work.

As a process improvement specialist with the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative, McClelland worked under former U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul H. O’Neill, whose approach to spotting waste in public services sparked her interest in the role.

McClelland later opened Arche Wellness, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center, and now works in policy for the Allegheny County Department of Human Services.

McClelland’s bid for treasurer is her first. She was the Democratic nominee for the 12th House District seat in 2014 and 2016.

The Democrat has been critical of the legislature’s bipartisan support of reforms to the public sector pension system via the Keystone Saves program, which the candidate worries will leave the door open to privatization of other benefits.

McClelland said that from an investment standpoint, it “wasn’t appropriate” for the Republican-led treasurer’s office to invest in Israeli bonds with state funds as a show of support during the country’s war in Gaza.

The candidate is critical of what she describes as greed from the country’s large investment institutions, citing the mechanics behind the Great Recession. Still, McClelland said she keeps up to date on the industry’s latest financial policies.

“It is very important for our treasurer to be on the details when it comes to what is happening on Wall Street if they are truly going to protect the people on Main Street,” McClelland said.

Garrity, a retired Army Reserve colonel from Bradford County, was elected Pennsylvania’s treasurer in 2020, beating Democratic incumbent Joseph Torsella by less than 1 percentage point

The 59-year-old earned two Bronze Stars across three military deployments in the Middle East, where she was commended for her security record as an officer overseeing an Iraqi internment camp. Garrity later became the first female vice president of Towanda, a global supplier of refractory powders, after working as an accountant.

As treasurer, Garrity has focused on cutting waste and reducing fees, including efforts that cut costs for those contributing to 529 savings accounts and for the PA ABLE program for disabled people.

Garrity’s office introduced an upgrade to the state’s unclaimed property system which fast-tracks simple claims returns, and the treasurer has helped return military decorations in the treasury’s vault to their rightful veteran owners or their families.

“Looking ahead, I will continue fighting for taxpayers, increasing transparency and strengthening Treasury’s programs,” Garrity said.