HARRISBURG — In the first three months of 2026, the two major party candidates for Pennsylvania governor traveled the country to meet with donors and build their cash reserves ahead of November’s election.
So far, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro has been much more successful at raising those dollars than Republican Treasurer Stacy Garrity.
Shapiro, who has consistently set Pennsylvania fundraising records over the past few years, outraised Garrity 10 to 1. His campaign brought in $10.5 million between Jan. 1 and March 30, as he held fundraisers while traveling to promote his memoir. He ended the period with $36 million in the bank.
Garrity has also officially hit the campaign trail. She held a sold-out fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump’s Florida club, at the end of March, which a GOP source told PennLive cleared six figures. Other Garrity public events were lower-key, including a lunch with supporters in Somerset County and an appearance at the Scranton St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
She raised $1 million during the same three months and ended the period with $1.5 million in the bank.
Money isn’t everything in politics, and candidates with a cash edge are not guaranteed victory. Garrity raised relatively little money during her two successful bids for treasurer. Still, it does pay for ads, travel, and campaign staff that aid in waging a successful political campaign.
“A lot of it is symbolic at this point, but symbolic in some really important ways,” especially when the general election candidates are a “foregone conclusion,” Jennie Sweet-Cushman, a political scientist at Chatham University, told Spotlight PA.
(Neither Garrity nor Shapiro faces a primary challenger, though there’s a fledgling write-in campaign for Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano.)
Shapiro’s campaign spent almost $4.6 million in the first three months of the year, including $1.6 million on digital advertising — the biggest category of spending. Another $491,000 went to travel and hospitality, including planes, trains, hotels, food, and reimbursements for such items; 78% of the total, or $381,0000, was spent on private aviation (including to a firm that promises “presidential-level service).
Garrity, meanwhile, spent just $527,000, 55% of which went to direct mail fundraising efforts. She spent just $7,000 on travel.
Sweet-Cushman said more funds at this stage of the campaign can help build momentum among potential donors to compound more dollars. Not having a competitive amount banked could have the opposite effect, Sweet-Cushman said — driving potential donors away from “lost causes.”
She noted it’s still early in the campaign, and Garrity could pull support from some national groups that have yet to prioritize her race, like the Republican Governors Association.
But at this point, Sweet-Cushman said, “This race certainly does not have a competitive energy around it.”
Added one executive at a conservative advocacy group who requested anonymity to discuss the race candidly: “Why would an organization put itself in peril by endorsing against the incumbent when the challenger has no chance?”
Billionaires, unions, and some donors with records
Neither Garrity nor Shapiro’s campaigns replied to specific questions about the candidates’ donors.
But plenty of information about them is public. GOP fundraiser Adam Kidan spent nearly $10,000 on Garrity’s behalf for food and drinks, per her campaign finance report. Kidan pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges in 2005 in connection to his work with former business partner and disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. It’s unclear which event the money helped pay for, but it arrived just days before Garrity’s fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago.
Republican influencer John Strand, who a jury found guilty of charges related to storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, attended the Florida fundraiser. Strand gave $1,500 to Garrity’s campaign.
Several elected Republicans contributed to Garrity’s campaign, including state House Minority Leader Jesse Topper and U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, who had weighed a gubernatorial campaign of his own before endorsing Garrity.
Garrity’s single largest donor was Republican power player Bob Asher, a former member of the Republican National Committee and co-chair of Asher’s Chocolates’ board of directors. Asher gave Garrity more than $29,000, while a political action committee connected to him (PA Future Fund) gave her $20,000.
Nearly 40 years ago, Asher was sentenced to one year in prison for his involvement in a bribery scandal that included Treasurer R. Budd Dwyer, who died of suicide.
Garrity also received $25,000 from Building Together PAC, which is run by an ally of GOP U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick and is funded by establishment business and legal interests in the Philadelphia suburbs; $10,000 from Commonwealth Leaders Fund, a PAC that’s historically been funded by billionaire Jeff Yass; and $10,000 from the conservative Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania, which has often backed challengers to the state’s GOP establishment.
Her fundraising at this point is similar to that of the Republican Party’s 2022 gubernatorial nominee, Doug Mastriano. He ended March that year with nearly $1.1 million on hand during a competitive GOP primary.
Shapiro, meanwhile, continued to flex his big money muscle, including a single March check that matched Garrity’s entire three months of fundraising.
That $1 million check came from California cryptocurrency billionaire Chris Larsen, who has given Shapiro a combined $2.2 million since 2023. (Garrity’s own crypto-related donor, Oregon-based entrepreneur Jay Sykes, gave her $20,000.)
Other billionaires who backed Shapiro include Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, gambling and real estate magnate Neil Bluhm (who is a partner in the parent company of Rivers casinos), and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.
Shapiro also received smaller checks from an array of notable people in business, entertainment, and sports. That includes venture capitalist Josh Kopelman; Hollywood writer Damon Lindelof; Philadelphia Phillies owner John Middleton; and college basketball coach John Calipari.
It’s not uncommon for donors to the candidates to have business or interests before state government.
For instance, Shapiro’s campaign received $125,000 from Bill Weisberg, who owns nursing homes in Pennsylvania and led a group of industry donors in an effort to bend Trump’s ear on regulations, the New York Times reported. Keystone Seniors, a new PAC that is running ads advocating for more state dollars to go to nursing home reimbursements, also provided Shapiro $100,000.
Shapiro has strongly supported a bill to regulate private equity in health care, which the nursing home industry opposes.
Kansas City-based developer NorthPoint Development, which is developing a former suburban Philadelphia steel mill into a data center complex for Amazon, gave the campaign $100,000.
Shapiro appeared with the firm's executives last year at an on-site news conference, saying in a release at the time that, “When we work together, we can bring game-changing projects like this Amazon data center campus to Pennsylvania.” The governor has more recently promoted a plan to incentivize data centers to be more environmentally friendly and community-minded, and has said they should pay for their own power.
His campaign took $25,000 from three members of the Kroh family, who run a western Pennsylvania energy firm that is seeking a state permit for a new mine. The firm has benefited from a politically popular program to subsidize the burning of waste coal.
The campaign also received $50,000 from two executives at Andruil Industries, a Virginia-based defense contractor developing artificial intelligence-enabled weapons and surveillance systems. The firm has advertised for jobs in Pennsylvania.
A spokesperson for Shapiro told Spotlight PA that the governor “doesn’t make his decisions based on political contributions or the positions of any donor or interest group.”
Labor unions, particularly the politically influential construction trade unions, continued to pour dollars into Shapiro’s coffers. Combined, those unions gave Shapiro $1.4 million in the time period. Previously, these groups had helped Garrity raise political funds, but none have provided her a check since July 2025.
The Pennsylvania State Education Association, the commonwealth's largest teachers union, also gave Shapiro $100,000.
One individual gave money to both candidates — David Jaindl, a turkey farm owner and scion of a wealthy Lehigh Valley family. He gave Shapiro $25,000 on March 18 and Garrity $10,000 about a week later. Two law firms that operate lobby shops — Cozen O’Connor and Duane Morris — also gave money to both.
Approximately half of Shapiro’s donations over $50 in value came from Pennsylvania, compared to approximately 90% of Garrity’s. (Donations of less than $50 are not itemized on campaign finance reports.)
“I would much rather be Shapiro in these numbers than I would be Garrity,” Sweet-Cushman said, “because it never hurts to have more money.”
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