Hello America, and welcome to the Sean Hannity Show. As you probably know, like most sensible people, Sean is taking his annual year end vacation. Twenty twenty five is almost over with, and Sean will be back and ready to
go when twenty twenty six arrives. So this is Jeffrey Lord, the contributing editor of The American Spectator, filling in for Sean, and I thought with twenty twenty six arriving, we can start to take a look at what will be a big ongoing topic next year, that being the twenty twenty six election for state governors and members of the US
Senate and the House. We have five interesting Senate races in Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, and North Carolina that are going to be up for grabs, and Republicans certainly are going to be pouring everything they can into an effort to win those seats to keep their Senate majority going.
In my own Pennsylvania, and I'll come back to this a little bit more in a bit, but in my own Pennsylvania, we're going to have a very important governor's race with Republican Stacy Garerty, who is our current state Treasurer who won in unbelievable margins when she was elected state treasurer, and she is going to be the Republican nominee for governor running against the Democrat Governor, Josh Shapiro. So we will have State Treasurer Guarity on to talk
about that. And she's she's a very interesting person. I confess she's a friend. But let me let me fill you in a bit on her background. She served in the United States Army Reserve for thirty years, notably with three deployments in the Gulf in Iraq Wars. When she left after those thirty years, she had earned the rank of colonel and earned two Bronze Stars in the Legion of Merit. Moving into the private sector, Stacey served as the vice president of Global Tungsten and Powders Corporation, a
company based in Tiwanda, Pennsylvania. And she was elected the Pennsylvania State Treasurer in twenty twenty and re elected overwhelmingly in twenty twenty four, winning over three point five million votes, the most votes cast for any statewide candidate in Pennsylvania history. Her victory over the incumbent Democrat State Treasurer was the first time a Republican had defeated an incumbent Democrat since
nineteen ninety four. So already Stacy has won the support of Pennsylvania Republicans, a victory that will be formalized in the May nineteenth, twenty twenty sixth Pennsylvania Primary. Then we're also going to have on as a guest. Selina Zeito and Selena is a terrific journalist covering Pennsylvania and politics. She joined The Washington Examiner in twenty sixteen as a Pittsburgh based columnist and reporter covering national politics and culture
from a perspective outside the Beltway. She is the author of the book Butler, The Untold Story of the near assassination of Donald Trump and the Fight for America's Heartland and the Great Revolt. She began her career at the Pittsburgh Tribune Review as a reporter and columnist covering national politics, and she has been a contributor as well to The New York Post and the Wall Street Journal as well as currently the Washington Post. And then we also were
going to have Jeff Bartows. Jeff is also a Pennsylvanian an American real estate developer, A lawyer and a diplomat currently serving by the appointm of President Trump as the US Ambassador to the United Nations for Management and Reform and been serving there since this year of twenty twenty five. So we're going to have an interesting time talking with
all these folks. Things kind of slow down, as we all know in America when we get to that week between Christmas and New Year's as people try and get a fix on what it is their New Year's resolutions are going to be. In this case for twenty twenty six and twenty twenty six, as I've said, is going to be an election year, and from the President Trump perspective, I suspect this is very important in terms of keeping control of the House and Senate, and he is I
believe I am correct in saying this. He's already said he is going to be out there campaigning all across the country for Republican candidates to get them, to get them elected, and to carry the day for a Republican House and a Republican Senate. Not to mention in cases
like Stacey Garrity's a Republican governor. What we're going to be dealing with, I think President Trump has said that the midterm elections are going to be this is his phrase about pricing, quote unquote, and he said, what I think most people out there doing their daily shopping is they not to mention as they got ready for Christmas, and with Christmas shopping, they could tell that the nation's economy was much better this year than it was after
President Biden left it. And the President said that he thought it is going to be about the success of our country, meaning the twenty twenty sixth election, said they gave us high, high, high pricing, and we're bringing it down. Energy is way down, gasoline is way down. And I can tell you from my Christmas experience driving from Pennsylvania to the far end of eastern Long Island where my parents'
family was from. Uh, you can see the difference in prices as you're as you're getting getting your gas here. There is no question about that. So that's a good thing. These elections, I have to say, uh, and I've been through my share of them. They always come down at
the end. And unless there's a you know, a massive World War two style running running crazy, Uh, the economy is always the answer, always, And so I think you were going to find that these candidates, both on both sides are going to be talking about this, although if you are a Republican and a Trump supporter, you're going to want to be talking about this a lot. If you're a Democrat, you're going to probably try and pretend that this doesn't happen. But we will see how this goes.
There have been a lot of positive economic reports that have shown that inflation is decreasing, with the White House highlighting the latest data while addressing the cost of living concerns nationwide, and according to a political poll conducted last month, Americans say they are finding that the cost of groceries, utilities, healthcare, housing,
and transportation are too expensive. And so President Trump has been going after this and they are as I say, I certainly have noticed in terms of energy and gasoline that prices have been coming down, and he, the President has added that electricity is down, it's way down. And then he also added, when the gasoline goes down, and when the oil and gas go down, the electricity gap comes down naturally. And so this is always job number
one for a president. And the long ago I worked just to give you an example of how this works. And the long ago I worked for President Reagan in the White House as a political director when I was younger than I am now, and he had an enormous package of tax and budget cuts to reform the country's the economy and get it out of the recession that it had been thrust into in the Carter years. And he got the legislation passed, he signed it in August of twenty twenty two, I believe it was, But the
kicker or twenty twenty one. I'm sorry, but the kicker was it didn't kick in. It takes a while for these things to make themselves felt, and people didn't know what to make of this in the nineteen eighty two elections, and so he had a real problem getting Republicans elected in nineteen eighty two. And then in January or so of nineteen eighty three, then suddenly the economy took off like a rocket and it was just it was just
incredible to behold. And by the time nineteen eighty four rolled around and he himself was up for reelection, he wound up winning a forty nine state landslide because people were in fact, very, very happy with the state of the economy. So that I think is going to be is always going to be a big deal here as we go on, and then I'm seeing a headline on Fox News that the Justice Department is releasing Epstein documents with warning about Trump allegations. And I think we will
we will see. You know, who knows what's going to happen. You know, frankly, I don't think most Americans care about this. Most Americans are concerned, as I was saying, about the economy. That's where their bread and butter is, That's where how they take care of their families. A story like this is titulating to you know, various people out there in the media and Democrats, well maybe Democrats, because some Democrats are not so happy about it. And you know, there's
all kinds of things. There are pictures floating around with former President Clinton that I suspect Democrats don't want to see out there. So I really think that that Epstein episode is not going to be a big deal when it comes to elections because people just don't really care that much. It doesn't affect them. So on we go with all of that, and then we still have to deal and President Trump has to deal with Russia, which claims now that Ukraine attacked the residents of President Putin
with are you ready for this? Ninety one drones and the Kremlin is apparently now changing ceasefire terms and all of this kind of thing. But you know, one of the things that is sort of amazing here, it's always well to remember that this world of ours has been around a very long time, and there are all kinds of rivalries and problems and all of this kind of thing going on with one kind of tree after another
that have been going on for years. I mean, none of us were around, or most of us weren't around when World War One broke out and came to a conclusion, and I imagine people in the day thought, well, that's it,
it's over. We've resolved it. And then of course the rise of Adolf Hitler and Germany, and suddenly there was World War Two, and there was the problems over in the in the Far East with with the Japanese and all this, and so World War two came and we had to fight the America had to fight the war
all over again. So, in other words, I think the lesson and this has been true in all kinds of situations where you think that you ended a situation, a violence situation, and then you find out that lo and behold, there are people out there that still want to continue fight. And I think that that's one of the problems, that
it's basically a humanity problem. And I don't know, you'd like to think that any president of the United States could put their thumb down and say that's it, But I have to say I think that as much as President Trump or any other president tries, it's not always doable, and things come back around to bite us all over again. So you know, we'll be set with that. In the meantime, I hope everybody is getting ready to celebrate New Year's Eve.
And I think I saw a story somewhere that the ball drop that you see in New York on New Year's Eve is going to be red, white and blue this year. And I think the reason for that is we are kicking off the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the United States of America, and that is going to be quite something. As someone who was around as I'm sure many of you were for the nineteen seventy six bi centennial, I can only imagine what the two hundred and fifty celebration is going to be. It will
be a very very big deal. Indeed, So all right, we'll be back in a bit. We have some great guests. As I say, so, thank you, stay tuned, hope you had a merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, and on we go. All right, welcome back, and I want to a very first thing, this being what we call in the trade talk radio, I want to give you an opportunity to call in and talk and uh, just dial in eight hundred nine four one seven three two six or eight hundred nine four one Sean Sea and we can have
a conversation. There is so much going on here in the world as we speak. Also today President Trump has been meeting with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin b b Bibi Netan Yahoo, and we'll see what comes out of that. I know Sean has been to Israel a number of times, and I've watched these reports and they are on television and they are just amazing to see. I had never been until this year, and it was quite an amazing trip. So maybe we'll talk a little bit about that when
we when we come back. So just hang in there, stay tuned, and we will be right back.
The one thing you can always count on.
Sean Hannity is back on the radio. All right, we are here. This is Jeffrey Lord from an American Spectator and he's Max sitting in for Sean Hannity. You can reach us here at eight hundred nine four one seven, three two six or eight hundred and nine for one Sean if you'd prefer. And I am delighted to have as our first guest one Stacy Garrity, who is the
Pennsylvania State Treasurer who has done just enormous work. And Stacy, before we start, I just want to do a little bio in for our guests, particularly for Pennsylvanians who are looking in and may not be familiar. Before she joined us, as I say, let me fill you in here. She served in the United States Army Reserved for thirty years, notably with three deployments in the Gulf in Iraq Wars. When she left after those thirty years, she had earned the rank of colonel and earned two Bronze Stars and
the Legion of Merit. She moved into the private sector, where she served as the vice president of Global Tungsten and Powders Corporation, a company based and headquartered in Tiwanda, Pennsylvania. She was elected the Pennsylvania State Treasurer in twenty twenty and re elected overwhelmingly in twenty twenty four, winning over three point five million votes, the most votes cast for
any statewide candidate in Pennsylvania history. Her victory over the incumbent Democrat state treasurer was the first time a Republican had defeated an incumbent Democrat since nineteen ninety four. Already, Stacey has won the support of Pennsylvania Republicans and that victory will be formalized on May nineteenth of twenty twenty six and the Pennsylvania Primary. So if I may, Madam Treasurer.
Are you there, Jeffrey, I am, and it is so great to be on with you today.
It's great fun. And I assume you've been like every other Pennsylvania busy with the holiday and all of that kind of thing. But you have, I think this small thing known as an election for governor Pennsylvania upcoming that may be keeping you busy.
Yeah, just a little bit. In addition to my you know, position as treasure where I'm a watchdog for one hundred and eighty billion dollars right, expay money right.
I mean, all of this work is is just incredible and that you have been able to just plunge right in and do this and be such a success as the Pennsylvania State Treasurer. You know, my experience in Pennsylvania politics is that people generally know who the governor is or who's running for governor, and who the US Senator is and who's running for senator. They have a harder time knowing about the state treasurer and the auditor General and that sort of thing because they're lower down on
the ballot and ordinarily it's not something you know. Some of these people, you know, pick up the paper in the morning to see what's up. So tell us a little bit, I think, to explain what the treasurer does, because I think it's it's fabulous. I've known a couple of your predecessors, or at least one or two of them, and I just wow, you really you really got something here when you're doing this. So give us a little talk about that.
Absolutely, Tue, as I think you mentioned, it is my very first elected office. Had I not hit my mandatory retirement date in the Army Reserve, I would have never even thought about running because serving was and is the
honor of a lifetime. But I think because I come from the private sector in the military that you know I did, I was able to jump in and get a lot of stuff done, and for example, giving back a billion dollars of taxpayer money, saving parents and grandparents over twenty two million dollars for the College and Career Savings Plan, money that goes right back into their pockets.
I also give back military decorations, and we've been able to give back gosh, over five hundred and thirty including thirteen purple hearts, three bronze stars, and a gold Star medal. And you know, we also implemented Pennsylvanian money Match, so gave back fifty million dollars this calendar year to people that didn't even know they had unclaimed property, and so
much more. We also opened up the books that Pennsylvanian Treasury and made us the most transparent agency in the entire commonwealth, because you know what, it's our money, it's not Harrisburg.
Well, that's right, that's right. My experience with government having worked both in Harrisburg when I started out in the state Senate and then moving on to Washington and working there is the people who run these things think it's their money and it doesn't belong to the taxpayers, the people who are out there every day, you know, getting their kids up and going to work and earning the money that has got a fund, whether it's Pennsylvania or
the federal government of the United States, and you get too many people who just want to sort of be spend thrifts with it.
And exactly there isn't one taxpayer dollar that you know, I have to say, both sides of the aisle they want to spend. And in fact, the last budget that was passed, which was by the way, one hundred and thirty four days late, we are spending just about five billion dollars Jeffrey, more than what we're bringing in effectively blowing through the entire surplus next year. The only thing that's left is the rainy day fund.
Wow. Wow. You know. My first lesson in this really was in Washington. I was working for Congressman Bud Schuster, was a member of the House Budget Committee, and so I had to do this staff work and all of that kind of thing. And one of the things I learned this was in the first part of President Reagan's term first term is that you had Republicans who were great with the rhetoric, but when it came to budget cuts and all of that kind of thing, they didn't
want to go there. And that's when I began to realize, this is an institutional problem with legislators, whether they're state legislators or whether they're members of Congress, is that it's you know, count the guy behind the tree, but don't touch me is more or less the problem with it. So in other words, we've got to have somebody exactly like you in that treasurer's job to be the watchdog.
Well, I agree, and right now, you know, Pennsylvania is going in the wrong direction. We rank thirty eighth economically, we rank thirty ninth in education, and we rank forty first overall. And it just doesn't have to be that way, and it should be that way.
No, And I imagine this will be a grade A number one issue for you as you run for governor this this next year. I mean, now, there's always this sort of lull. So it seems with political campaigns that you know, it takes a while for them to kick off, and then you get to you know, the actual election year, and wow, things things heat up in a sudden here and the work you've got to do is just just incredible.
So you know, I'm I'm glad that you're in this and making this an issue because I think most people don't understand they understand the office of governor better I think than they understand the office of treasure. But now is the time for them to be aware and to understand that your experience, whether it was in the military, whether it's in the private sector, whether it's in government, can play a real role in how you would serve as governor of Pennsylvania.
Absolutely, because you know, just like we expect families to live within their means, our states should be doing the same thing. And unfortunately, because we both know there will be no programs that get caught, what's going to happen is that taxes will be raised. And you know, unfortunately, we have a governor right now that's more interested in Pennsylvania Avenue than Pennsylvania yea. And the fact of the matter is he's never been challenged. In fact, there's never
even been an ad run against him. But there are two sides to every story. And with everybody's help and it is going to be an all hands on deck mission. We're going to be able to tell this to and if that people want to help, they can go to garrityfourpa dot com and check it out. But when people understand what he stands for, and he is a far left liberal, he believes that biological mail should compete against our girls in sports. He believes in gender affirming care
for trans little kids using your tax pay dollars. We talked about the budget and the spending and both in his offices of Attorney General as well as governor. There are many many scandals that will need to come out. So and he has sued Donald Trump over two dozen times and rags about it. And so I think we need a governor that's going to work with the administration, not work against the administration, because, like you and I know,
Pennsylvania should be leading the nation. We shouldn't be falling, you know, so far behind, you know, states like Florida, Texas, the Carolinas, Tennessee.
Well, you know, sometimes when I had to discuss this topic, I say that his role model is as a Pennsylvanian is James Buchanan. And for people in our audience who may not know who that is. James Buchanan is the only Pennsylvanian elected president of the United States. It didn't go so well. He is generally rated by historians as the one before Lincoln, and it just wasn't a good
time for the country. And I think that Josh's ambition is very much directed towards twenty twenty eight and twenty twenty six is the hurdle that he has to get through or over before he gets there, as does anybody in this situation. But I do think that that affects how you do your job as governor if you're more interested in running for president.
Absolutely, he's really a career politician, and he's really only chose to serve himself. He's always been in one position looking to jump to the next position, and he has always had his eyes on the White House. That's like the worst kept secret in Pennsylvania. And we all know that Pennsylvania is the ultimate swing state and the key to the Democrats blue wall. Excuse me, just look at
you know twenty sixteen and twenty twenty four. Democrats don't win nationally if they don't win Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania it's incredibly important and so again we need everybody to be united and make sure that you know, we kick this guy out of Harrisburg and away from the White House.
They don't call Pennsylvania the Keystone State for nothing, and there is a reason for that. For those who may not know. If you look at a map of Pennsylvania from the early colonies, it was right dead center between north and south. And yeah, because of its size and it's history, the steel industry and coal and mining and all of these things that energy that have played such
an enormous role in Pennsylvania history. And what role do you do you see as a governor in terms of working with these these kind of folks who run these industries.
Oh my goodness, there's a tremendous opportunity. We could be the hub of AI. As you know, twenty five percent of all natural gas in America is in Pennsylvania. And the governor is constantly you know, attacking fracking and you know,
dancing around the edges. I mean, if you look at our neighbors, look at Ohio, look at Virginia, if you look at data centers, they're really you know, they're doing so much better than us because we are the twelfth highest regulated state in the nation, and it is very, very difficult to do business in Pennsylvania. And again it does have to be this way. We could be leading
the nation. We have the best, hardest working people, We have world class industries and abundant natural resources that are the envy of the entire world.
Yes, yes, that is exactly right. And you know, the state has such wonderful opportunity. And I must say, having been around America a little bit, you go to places, you know, if you live in Pennsylvania, and you go to places like Texas and Florida, and you see that the leaps and bounds they've made in terms of their economy and free markets and all of that kind of thing using their natural resource. It truly is astounding in terms of comparing it with what is not done here
in Pennsylvania. And that's a big task. And when you were elected, and note I didn't say if when you were elected, you're going to have a lot on your hands. And I think you're going to have a lot of pennsylv Vanians we're going to want to pitch in and help you.
I think so as well. I visit all sixty seven of our counties every single year, so I've done it five times now. And what Pennsylvanians tell me, and it doesn't matter which county they're from, that the government just isn't working for them. They feel left behind, and Pennsylvania right now is mediocre at best. We have a once
in a lifetime opportunity to change our state around. And if we don't, you know, I'm concerned, you know, with the situation with the budget and just the lack of support of unleashing you know, the natural resources that we have right under our feet that you know, it's it's going to take a generation to.
Get all right. Well, Stacey, I'm getting the break sign here, So it was wonderful to have you on. Have a happy new Year. Doubtless our past will cross somewhere when I'm back home in Pennsylvania.
And great, good luck and thank you, Jeffrey, Happy news, New Year, Thank you.
Bye bye. Okay, this is Jeffrey Lord sitting in for Sean Hannity. You can reach us here at eight hundred nine for one seven three two six or eight hundred nine four to one Sean and uh, we'll be back very shortly. Just there was just breaking news Prime Minister net in Yahoo, and President Trump for holding a press conference this minute in mar A Lago. So things are happening out there, so we'll be back very shortly.