Garrity-Mastriano 2026? Doug Mastriano floats teaming up with Stacy Garrity to beat Dan Meuser in GOP primary for Pa. governor
As Republicans line up to challenge Gov. Josh Shapiro in 2026, Mastriano said he thinks the ticket would be “unbeatable.”
As Republicans line up to challenge Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro in 2026, State Sen. Doug Mastriano has a new ticket he thinks would be “unbeatable” for the GOP: Mastriano and Treasurer Stacy Garrity.
Mastriano (R., Franklin), who ran unsuccessfully against Shapiro in 2022, told conservative radio host John Fredericks on Thursday that he wants to team up with Garrity, a Republican from rural Bradford County who received the most votes of any statewide row office candidate in Pennsylvania history.
Garrity has been a popular pick among Republican insiders to run for governor next year due to her success in November’s election, breaking a record previously held by Shapiro. She has mostly avoided speculation on whether she’d make a run to be the state’s top executive against Shapiro’s high approval ratings until this week, when she told the Delaware Valley Journal that running is “something I’m interested in.”
“With the popularity of Garrity, and the grassroots of Mastriano, who could stop us?” Mastriano said in an interview with The Inquirer following his radio appearance Thursday.
Garrity and Mastriano are both retired U.S. Army colonels, and share President Donald Trump’s brand of conservatism, he noted. Mastriano said he still needs to talk to the treasurer about what their collaboration would look like, but called it a “Garrity-Mastriano” ticket during his radio interview Thursday, suggesting he would be the lieutenant governor candidate. Mastriano has also said he’s considering running for governor in 2026.
» READ MORE: Doug Mastriano is considering another run for Pennsylvania governor in 2026
If they run together, Mastriano thinks he and Garrity would be a stronger Republican option over U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser (R., Pa.), another staunch Trump supporter who is already making his pitch to voters in daily national TV hits and appearing at events outside his district in Pennsylvania.
» READ MORE: Rep. Dan Meuser came to Germantown and made a very Philly pitch for his likely run against Gov. Shapiro
“If we team up, it’s over,” Mastriano said. “No matter how much schmoozing he does with Trump, it’s over. We’ll clear the field.”
Mastriano said he likes Meuser as a person, but he thinks the GOP establishment will back Meuser and forget grassroots supporters that he said Republicans need to win statewide in Pennsylvania. He floated the idea of the two running together in response to Republican failures this week in a Lancaster County special election, where the Democrat won in an upset in a district that Trump won by 15 percentage points in November.
Through a spokesperson, Garrity declined to comment.
In response to Mastriano, Meuser said in a statement: “Establishment? If that means I’ve established myself with grassroots conservatives and other key parts of our party — working for all good Republicans, and with President Trump, the MAGA movement, Trump Force 47, the PA GOP, and the grassroots organizations that helped deliver our winning tickets — then so be it.“
“These kinds of remarks aren’t helpful,” Meuser added. “If we have any hope of reversing the path of Governors Wolf and Shapiro, Republicans need to work together — not against each other.”
A spokesperson for Shapiro declined to comment.
There are logistical issues about Mastriano and Garrity running together in a primary election. In Pennsylvania, lieutenant governors and governors run separately from one another — as exemplified in 2018, when U.S. Sen. John Fetterman beat out former Lt. Gov. Mike Stack in the Democratic primary to run alongside Gov. Tom Wolf in November.
The lieutenant governor candidate and governor candidate are joined on the ticket in November.
However, Shapiro was able to get his endorsed candidate — now Lt. Gov. Austin Davis — nominated in the Democratic primary, so the two could run as a Shapiro-Davis ticket much earlier than November. Alternately, Mastriano’s last endorsed candidate for lieutenant governor, Teddy Daniels, came in third place in the GOP primary in 2022 and Mastriano ended up running with former State Rep. Carrie DelRosso (R., Allegheny).
Staff writer Julia Terruso contributed to this article.