Tamala Edwards interview with Stacy Garrity

The polling seems to suggest he's got about 59%, you've got about 34, he's got a ton of money, over 30 million, you've spent about one and a half. What is your path to winning? So I go to all 67 counties. I'm all over the place 24-7 and when I meet voters, they're not happy. They're tired of being ranked 47th out of 50 economically, tired of top 10 in spending for education. Our results are terrible. Our infrastructure is rated a C minus. And we're spending $5 billion more every single year than what we bring in. And I think voters are understanding it doesn't have to be this way. We have so many blessings, best, hardest working people, natural resources that are the envy of the world, world class industries. And there's no reason that we shouldn't be leading the nation. Instead, we're trailing. You talk about the economy and you've heard it. People upset about inflation, gas prices, pick a topic. But we know a lot is set in Washington. Kevin Warsh is going to set interest rates, Scott Bessent is going to do things at Treasury. What exactly can a governor do and how soon would people feel the difference? So first of all, we have in Pennsylvania 25% higher inflation rate than the national average. You can't blame that on the administration. We have the fifth highest tax burden in the nation. And what that means is that a family making $70,000 in Pennsylvania It pays $3,000 more every single year in taxes than that same family making $70,000 in Florida, and you can't blame that on the administration. So first of all, if we unleash our energy, which we will when I'm governor, immediately $200,000, good pay, family-sustaining jobs, generating $5 billion to $6 billion annually in revenue that we desperately need because that addresses the structural deficit. We have a plan to address property taxes, and we have a plan to reduce electric bills by 20%. Right off the bat, and that's by eliminating the gross receipts tax, ending the tax on tax stacking on your bills, as well as reducing or getting rid of some of the mandates. They're costing ratepayers $700 million every single year. So I mean, as I listen to you talk about the numbers, you have a command of this. You make a lot of good arguments. But what many people are seeing is the AI ad with Governor Shapiro, and it's an interesting moment because we're used to ads that say you did that, but it's usually a campaign making the charges. That ad makes it look as though he is making the charges about himself, which of course his campaign is saying this is not true. Do you are you comfortable with crossing that line? So what's interesting is his His campaign, they don't like it because it's AI generated, but they have not said anything about all the charges that we lay out. For example, the sexual harassment cover up, you know, taking $2.1 million from Jeffrey Epstein's partner, you know, taking $5 million from data centers. They don't say anything about that. They just don't like it that it's AI, but we say it's AI. And you know what? The difference is what's in that ad. That's all completely factual. If you look at the $30 million she spent against me, complete fabrication, like cutting, clipping like half sentences. So yeah, I'm comfortable with it. Because I think voters in this moment, it feels like we've fallen through the looking glass and AI makes us all so uncomfortable. Like would you want him to do that, to have an ad against you where it looks like you're saying, yes, I did these things. If it's factual, go ahead. Let's talk a little bit about data centers. When people look at that issue, you and the governor, You both at one point were welcoming. Then you said, wait, we need regulation. Now you're both saying the other guy isn't doing enough. How are voters supposed to distinguish between the two of you? Oh, I think it's very confusing for them. But what I did was what a leader should do is get the stakeholders around the table, which he didn't do. He did the 20 billion dollar Amazon deal, didn't get the community involved, didn't put any guardrails up and people's electric prices did go up, didn't put. any guardrails around water usage about noise and then took 5.7 million dollars from out of state data center developers and then irony of all ironies went ahead and took that money and told them they were greedy and ran ads against me now i talked to i held five listening sessions all around the state and i talked to township supervisors county commissioners community leaders local solicitors even first responders and they all said the same thing stacy We're not against data centers, but we need some time to update our zoning. And that's why in May, he didn't come out until August, by the way, in May, I set up some parameters. Bring your own energy. Data centers need to be an addition to the grid, not a subtraction. Bring your own water. They should be closed loop systems so that they're recycling the water. Community engagement agreements so that data center developers have skin in the game. They should be helping with property taxes with schools. And where should they be? Not on our precious farmland. There are hundreds of brownfield sites, industrial sites, blighted areas that are appropriate. But the bottom line is it's up to the community. If they want one, great. If they don't, that's up to them. He's tried to paint you as a MAGA extremist, tying you to President Trump. You do have a picture with President Trump on your website. How would you lay it out for the voter? Three areas where you have separated from the president that you can say that's not necessarily true. So first of all, I'm for Pennsylvanians. 100% for Pennsylvanians. And I would say tariffs is a perfect example. I would have never done that, you know, a broad-based tariff solution. When you're in the private sector, you can apply for a miscellaneous tariff bill, and I did that all the time when I worked in manufacturing. And that means if raw materials aren't... I mean, the governor has sued this administration over 26 times using our taxpayer dollars. Think about if we had a little bit of cooperation. It might have been different. So that's one area. What are two other areas? Oh, gosh. You know, I hope we're out of the war in Iran quickly. I served in the military for 30 years, so nobody, you know, understands this more than I that, you know, this is really tough on our service members and our families. But you know what? And I hope we get it wrapped up really quickly. And that last area where there's some daylight between you and the White House? Well, I would say data centers because I called for the pause. But I think if the president came and they spoke to the communities, I think he'd understand. Well, thank you so much for coming and spending time with us.