The Race for Governor and The International Ballet Academy

Thank you all for joining us today to unpack the politics and the facts from last night's debate.

We're gonna start by setting the stage on which this political theater was played out.

I'll have each of you give some context on what public polling tells us, where the money is in the race, and on these candidates' larger political aspirations.

Gillian, let's start with you.

There's been a lot of polling done on this race.

What is that data telling us about these candidates and about Pennsylvania's top issues?

Yeah.

Heading into the night, Governor Josh Shapiro had a pretty stunning advantage in public opinion polls.

Um, a Quinnipiac poll published on Wednesday showed that Shapiro has a 25-point advantage over Garrity, um, while, um, Treasurer Stacy Garrity, she's really has struggled to fundraise.

She's not on TV, while Governor Shapiro is spending, um, millions of dollars each week, um, out of his, uh, $60 million war chest.

So it, it sort of came into the, the night pretty imbalanced.

Yeah.

Let's talk about that money.

Hailey, I want to turn to you.

What is the top-line picture of what these candidates have in their coffers?

Shapiro has raised a lot more than Garrity at this point.

Since the beginning of last year, the Shapiro campaign raised more than $55 million, and the Garrity campaign had raised just over five million.

That is a discrepancy.

All right, Kate, let's turn to you.

If Garrity pulls out a major upset victory, she will be the first woman to lead Pennsylvania from the governor's mansion.

But during the debate last night, the real elephant in the room was Shapiro's political ambitions.

Could you tell us what he wants and how that plays into this race or what, uh, role he'll play as governor?

Yeah.

I mean, there was very-- There was a very pointed question about whether Shapiro would stay through all four years of his second term by the moderators.

He did not make that kind of commitment.

Thank you all for joining us today to unpack the politics and the facts from last night's debate.

We're gonna start by setting the stage on which this political theater was played out.

I'll have each of you give some context on what public polling tells us, where the money is in the race, and on these candidates' larger political aspirations.

Gillian, let's start with you.

There's been a lot of polling done on this race.

What is that data telling us about these candidates and about Pennsylvania's top issues?

Yeah.

Heading into the night, Governor Josh Shapiro had a pretty stunning advantage in public opinion polls.

Um, a Quinnipiac poll published on Wednesday showed that Shapiro has a 25-point advantage over Garrity, um, while, um, Treasurer Stacy Garrity, she's really has struggled to fundraise.

She's not on TV, while Governor Shapiro is spending, um, millions of dollars each week, um, out of his, uh, $60 million war chest.

So it, it sort of came into the, the night pretty imbalanced.

Yeah.

Let's talk about that money.

Hailey, I want to turn to you.

What is the top-line picture of what these candidates have in their coffers?

Shapiro has raised a lot more than Garrity at this point.

Since the beginning of last year, the Shapiro campaign raised more than $55 million, and the Garrity campaign had raised just over five million.

That is a discrepancy.

All right, Kate, let's turn to you.

If Garrity pulls out a major upset victory, she will be the first woman to lead Pennsylvania from the governor's mansion.

But during the debate last night, the real elephant in the room was Shapiro's political ambitions.

Could you tell us what he wants and how that plays into this race or what, uh, role he'll play as governor?

Yeah.

I mean, there was very-- There was a very pointed question about whether Shapiro would stay through all four years of his second term by the moderators.

He did not make that kind of commitment.