HARRISBURG — Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro outraised Republican Stacy Garrity by more than 15-to-1 in 2025. And the race is just getting started.
Shapiro privately told top donors in January that he aims to raise anywhere from $90 to $100 million for his reelection.
Such a total would break a state record that Shapiro himself set when he raised $68 million for his gubernatorial race in 2022.
The goal also presents a challenge for Garrity, who kept her 2020 and 2024 bids for state treasurer relatively low-visibility, raising a combined $3.7 million for the efforts. She’s already endorsed by the state party and faces no declared opposition in the coming primary as of Wednesday.
All told, Shapiro raised $23 million in 2025 and had $30 million left in the bank as of Dec. 31. Garrity raised $1.5 million in the same period and had $1 million left as of the same date. But the totals aren’t the only things that set the two candidates apart.
Neither the Garrity or Shapiro campaigns replied to Spotlight PA’s requests for comment. But here are a handful of takeaways from the public filings.
From small to big donors
Pennsylvania places few limits on campaign giving and spending. Candidates cannot take money directly from corporations or union treasuries, but they can raise unlimited funds from individuals or political action committees, which corporate employees or union members can fund.
That means that campaign checks can be as big as a person is willing to give.
Shapiro has a deep and varied bench of donors. He’s racked up small-dollar contributions from nurses, teachers, and small business owners, but big checks play an even larger role. His top 100 donors, nearly all of whom contributed $50,000 or more, provided Shapiro with almost two-thirds of his total cash. This group includes well-known billionaires, tech founders, sports team owners, and some of the state’s wealthiest special interests (mostly union PACs).
It also includes a host of business executives from fossil fuels, data center development, and real estate with interests before the state government, as noted by the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Most of his money — 58% — also comes from out of state.
Larry Ceisler, a Philadelphia-based public affairs consultant, told Spotlight PA that he’s “never known a successful elected official or politician who has not been a prolific fundraiser.”
He also argued that Shapiro, to whom he contributed $12,000 in 2025, has a unique ability to attract donations even from people who don’t agree with him on every point.
“People want to give to Josh,” Ceisler said, “rather than Josh asking.”
Christopher Nicholas, a longtime Pennsylvania Republican consultant, said it’s normal for incumbents to have a cash advantage when running for reelection. But raising as much money as Shapiro is “can become a liability” due to the identities of big donors, Nicholas argued.
Garrity has already leaned into this in her own messaging, while also encouraging her smaller donors to keep the cash coming.
“Josh Shapiro thinks he's got this race locked up … sitting on a mountain of cash,” her campaign wrote in a February fundraising email, adding: “Campaigns aren't powered by Harrisburg insiders. They're powered by people like you.”
Eleven percent of Garrity’s fundraising comes from personal contributions of less than $250 in size. That same category accounts for 3% of Shapiro’s funding.
But Robin Kolodny, a political science professor who studies American campaign financing at Temple University, said that while small donations can reflect grassroots support, narratives about their importance can be misleading; campaigns may talk about them just to impress the media.
“Here's the thing that really remains important — it's between 5% to 7% of the citizenry in the United States [who] donate to politics,” Kolodny said. “So this is still a rare event.”
By total donors, Shapiro again has Garrity beat. He accumulated 5,100 unique donors in 2025; Garrity had just 1,200.
One last way to think about it: To match Shapiro’s single biggest check — $2.5 million from billionaire Mike Bloomberg — Garrity would need 10,000 unique donors giving $250. That’s approximately 7,000 more unique donors than she’s had since her first run for office in 2020.
Overlapping donors
Political giving isn’t always partisan. Shapiro and Garrity shared at least nine donors last year.
That includes four law firms, three of which also lobby; three trade unions representing carpenters, laborers, and painters; Bryn Mawr-based Essential Utilities; and Philadelphia venture capitalist Richard Vague.
Vague often gives to Democrats, but has also served on the state’s teacher pension board with Garrity.
In every case, Shapiro received more.
Kolodny argued the donations to both sides showed “an access strategy,” because a campaign donation might “make the winner feel more friendly toward hearing out” an issue from someone who donated than from someone who didn’t. (Spotlight PA has previously covered this dynamic.)
That said, Kolodny added, she thinks common political goals beget donations, rather than donations changing how politicians behave in office.
“Does Pennsylvania's lack of limits make it more enticing for rich people to donate to Josh Shapiro? Yes. Will Josh Shapiro be very grateful, because now it looks like he's unbeatable? Yes,” Kolodny said. “Does that then mean that Josh Shapiro will change positions on issues that he wouldn't in the absence of those donations? I don't think so, because I think that it's the track record that attracts the investment — not the other way around.”
For his part, consultant Ceisler has also given to Garrity, donating $1,000 in 2024. He said he donated because of his opposition to how Garrity’s Democratic opponent, Erin McClelland, criticized Shapiro, and because he heard that Garrity has fans among his circle.
A special kind of giving
Some costs for both Shapiro and Garrity were paid by outside groups rather than their campaigns.
For instance, the state Republican Party paid $18,000 to cover text messages for the Garrity campaign, as well as a staffer’s salary.
This sort of donation is known as an in-kind contribution, in which supporters give goods or services rather than money. Office supplies, advertisements, and food for fundraisers are typical forms of in-kind contributions, and they’re common in politics, Kolodny said. The contributions also allow a candidate to avoid spending their own cash on things like rent, so they can use donor dollars on ads or other more important political expenditures.
Shapiro received almost $180,000 in in-kind contributions from a coterie of lobbyists, interest groups, and big donors for catering, travel, and unspecified event expenses.
Spotlight PA previously covered Shapiro making the unusual move of accepting Philadelphia Eagles tickets from a lobbyist as a campaign contribution in 2023. He did this despite imposing a gift ban on his own office that he said would ensure “no one will be able to buy improper influence with any member of my administration.”
In general, Kolodny said, in-kinds shouldn’t be conflated with gifts — bans on accepting such offerings are supposed to prevent personal enrichment from public office.
But in-kind donations still work “to curry favor,” she said.
Shapiro’s single biggest in-kind contributor is sports apparel baron and native Pennsylvanian Michael Rubin, who has frequently posted pictures with Shapiro on his Instagram. He gave Shapiro $78,000 worth of in-kind contributions labeled as “travel.” The Inquirer reported last year that in-kind contributions from Rubin with similar labels reflected rides on the billionaire’s private helicopter.
Other in-kind contributors to Shapiro include Harrisburg lobby firm Malady and Wooten; UPMC’s chief lobbyist Allison Beam; and Jonathan Kraft, son of Robert.
How did they use their funds?
All told, Shapiro spent $4 million in 2025. Of that, about $1.1 million went to overhead costs big and small, from personnel expenses and compliance fees to office rent and subscription services.
Fundraising consulting and donation processing fees cost about $840,000, while events and associated expenses cost just about $100,000. That includes $33,000 to the Philadelphia Eagles and $20,000 to the owner of the Philadelphia 76ers arena.
Another $1 million was spent on travel. Of that, almost $800,000 of those travel costs went to private planes. That includes $84,000 to Virginia-based Advanced Aviation Team, whose website brags that it provides “presidential-level service in private aviation.”
Shapiro’s campaign also spent on hotel stays in 20-plus locations around the state and country — from Aspen to San Francisco to Scranton — and about $30,000 on meals.
The rest includes $430,000 on traditional campaign activities like polling, research, and ads, as well as $300,000 in donations to the state Democratic Party.
Garrity spent almost $500,000 throughout the year. The single biggest category of spending, $190,000, was fundraising expenses, including $126,000 on direct mail to solicit donors.
If done right, fundraising expenditures like Garrity’s allow a candidate to have their political communications pay for themselves while building a future financial base of campaign activists.
“You can't ask the donor for their second donation,” Nicholas said, “until you find them and get the first one.”
Shapiro has engaged in similar tactics through social media fundraising pushes in recent months. Garrity’s mail-based approach helps her reach the GOP’s older and more traditional grassroots donor base, Nicholas noted.
She also spent $62,000 on events and $32,000 on travel. Her biggest travel payment was about $8,100 in reimbursements to the state. Neither the Garrity campaign nor the treasurer’s office answered questions about the payments.