Pa. treasurer race pits pro-Trump incumbent against Democratic upstart. Here’s what you need to know.

Running for state treasurer against incumbent Republican Stacy Garrity, Democrat Erin McClelland said the No. 1 question voters ask as she travels the commonwealth is not: What does the treasurer do?

It is: Does this state have a treasurer?

That’s a steep learning curve for a candidate to overcome.

As it happens, state treasurer is a position of power and consequence. But in a year in which Pennsylvania is receiving inordinate attention for its swing-state status in the presidential race — along with significant contests for seats in the Senate and the U.S. House — Garrity, a staunch conservative, and McClelland, a moderate, are not garnering much attention.

“It’s like I’m painting on a blank canvas,” said McClelland, 49, a Harrison Township, Allegheny County, businesswoman who’s worked in substance abuse and mental health counseling. “But when I explain to voters that we do have a treasurer, and what that person does, the information is usually very welcome.”

When candidates find themselves in low-profile elections such as this one, experts say, they will do and say things to make themselves more familiar. This race, which has become contentious, is no exception.

“What you do in a race that most people don’t follow is tie in broader political fights,” said political scientist Chris Borick, director of the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion. “Try to find issues voters do actually care about, and affix them to the campaigns.”

That could be why candidates vying for a job that’s essentially the commonwealth’s CFO have nevertheless been arguing during this campaign season about the Israel-Hamas war as well as the 2020 election, and former President Donald Trump.

“You bring things like that up,” Borick concluded, “and maybe then you drum up interest and support.”

The Pennsylvania state treasurer is the fiscal watchdog for state assets. The custodian of more than $150 billion in commonwealth funds, the treasurer is responsible for the receipt and deposit of state moneys and oversight of all withdrawals and deposits from state agencies. The treasurer has the power to invest up to $50 billion in state money, Garrity said in an interview.

Serving as the state’s banker, the treasurer is also responsible for reuniting citizens with what is now around $4.5 billion in unclaimed state property. The office is also responsible for running career and college savings programs.

The treasurer can serve a maximum of two four-year terms.

Garrity was elected in 2020 after defeating Democratic incumbent Joe Torsella in an upset. She became the first Republican in 16 years to hold the office.

According to the latest campaign finance figures, Garrity’s campaign has raised $1,198,143.21, of which $265,290.75 has been spent. McClelland’s campaign has raised $148,674.21, which includes $100,000 of McClelland’s own money. The campaign has spent $52,499.13.

How is Garrity pitching herself to voters?

Garrity, 60, of Athens, Bradford County, said she doesn’t consider herself a politician. “I just call balls and strikes working in the fiscal interests of the commonwealth,” she said.

On her website, Garrity describes herself as the “Angel of the Desert,” a nickname she got while serving in Iraq in the U.S. Army Reserve in 2004, according to National Public Radio. There, she oversaw a camp of Iraqi war prisoners. None lodged any complaints of abuse, and Garrity was a humane custodian, according to NPR, thereby earning her the sobriquet.

Garrity retired as a colonel and went on to work at Global Tungsten & Powders Corp., where she eventually became a vice president. The company makes industrial ceramic materials designed to withstand high temperatures.

One of the main talking points of her reelection campaign is her assertion that she set a new one-year record returning nearly $274 million in unclaimed property to more than 174,000 Pennsylvania citizens in the fiscal year ending June of 2023.

She also said she revamped the PA 529 college savings program, tossing out the minimum dollar requirement to open an account, and saving families $11 million.

Garrity’s reelection campaign is focused on establishing a public-private partnership that would establish a tax-deductible 401(k)-style retirement savings program for Pennsylvanians without them called Keystone Saves.

Unendorsed by the state Democratic establishment in the primaries, McClelland defeated State Rep. Ryan Bizzarro (D., Erie) in the spring, even as she was outraised 5-1. Bizzarro had already been making ads before the primary about Garrity, noting her support for former President Donald Trump.

“We have an electorate that is very, very fatigued on being motivated by rage,” McClelland said after the election. “They’re looking for all their elected officials to just do their jobs.”

McClelland previously ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. House in Southwestern Pennsylvania in 2014 and 2016 against former Republican U.S. Rep. Keith Rothfus. She also dropped out of the primary elections for U.S. House in 2018 and the Allegheny County executive race in 2023.

Having worked at the Allegheny County Department of Human Services, McClelland also ran Arche Wellness, a mental health and drug and alcohol treatment center in Blawnox, Allegheny County, from 2006 to 2014.

During her successful primary run, she said, it was clear she’d have to win without much cash. “I felt like I was running with nothing,” she said in an interview. “Just my ideas, perseverance, and four good tires.”

In her campaign against Garrity, McClelland says that, if elected, she’ll “fight” against school vouchers all the way to the state’s highest court. McClelland insists aggressive vetting before paying is part of the treasurer’s job.

She said she would make cybersecurity of municipal governments part of the treasurer’s purview, because hacking is “killing our local governments.”

McClelland would also require companies in Pennsylvania to verify that their supply chains are free of goods from countries with records of human rights abuses and deny them state contracts if they can’t show they’ve cut ties with these countries.

Referencing her supply chain stance, McClelland has criticized Garrity for buying $20 million in Israeli bonds a few days after the October 2023 Hamas attack, saying, “We shouldn’t be investing in any country’s foreign wars.”

Asked to respond, Garrity said, “I make no apologies. Israel is our most reliable ally, they have never defaulted, and they pay above market return. It’s a great investment for the commonwealth.”

McClelland has also taken Garrity to task for delivering a speech at a Harrisburg election-denial rally on Jan. 5, 2021, a day before the U.S. Capitol insurrection. At the event, Garrity, who supports former Trump, said last week that people have the “right to question the election’s integrity,” adding, “the election is tarnished forever.” Democrats pounced, saying she used her platform to promote election lies.

McClelland added, “I have no idea why she would say an election she won was fraudulent.”

Garrity responded that she never disputed that President Joe Biden defeated Trump, adding, “my speech was not about the presidential outcome.“ She said she disagreed with then-Gov. Tom Wolf and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court for decisions about how mail ballots had been tabulated.

McClelland denigrated Garrity’s Keystone Saves program as a “scam” in interview, saying it’s high-risk and susceptible to fraud. Garrity, who has called McClelland’s ideas “weird, at best,” dismissed the characterization, saying there’s strong demand for such an initiative, and pointing out that Democrats, including Torsella, have supported it.

Garrity’s campaign circulates a document referencing a February Pennsylvania Capital-Star report that McClelland campaigned and accepted donations months before registering a fundraising committee with the Pennsylvania Department of State, a requirement for any candidate seeking state office.

The Department of State found no violations. McClelland said her campaign had undergone a “whole bunch of systemic learning” to deal with the issue. And Borick of Muhlenberg said the oversight “doesn’t rise to the level of voters being exorcised about it.”

More notable, McClelland has run afoul of leaders in her own party, after endorsing North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper over Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro to be Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate. McClelland referenced a sexual harassment scandal involving a former aide of Shapiro’s.

“I want a VP pick that’s secure enough to be second under a woman, is content to be VP & won’t undermine the President to maneuver his own election & doesn’t sweep sexual harassment under the rug,” McClelland wrote on X in July.

Soon after McClelland’s post, Pennsylvania Democratic Party Chairman Sharif Street said he was “offended” by her comments. Borick said the matter has created “significant tensions” between McClelland and Shapiro. Shapiro’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

Chuck Pascal, McClelland’s campaign chair, said in an interview that McClelland will speak out whenever she has a policy difference with someone, regardless of who.

“Unlike Republicans, we are not in a cult of worshiping personality,” he said, a reference to Garrity’s full-throated support of Trump as “the only man I trust to get the job done.”

Last week in an interview, J.J. Balaban, a Democratic strategist, said, “Once you win a surprise Democratic primary, your first mission is to broaden your base of popular support. It’s not clear to me that has happened based on her [McClelland’s] remarks about the popular governor.”

In early September, the Philadelphia Building Trades endorsed Garrity over McClelland. “Usually, they would endorse a Democrat,” Balaban said. Representatives for the group, an umbrella organization for 50 construction unions, did not respond to requests for comment.

Staff writer Gillian McGoldrick contributed to this article.