I've spent years fighting for the values that make Pennsylvania strong.
Hard work. Honest government. And leaders who keep their word. These are a core part of the America First policies I’m always talking about.
Unfortunately, too many Republicans focus all of their energy on the big races and forget that the real battles are won or lost much closer to home.
Josh Shapiro's record as governor is a perfect example of what happens when our side doesn't show up and fight hard enough, from the school board all the way up to the state house.
Let me walk you through three cases that prove exactly why mobilizing locally matters so much.
School choice slipped away because we didn't fight hard enough locally
Back in 2022, before he was governor, Shapiro told business leaders he wanted to protect and grow Pennsylvania's scholarship tax credit program.
That program, called the Educational Improvement Tax Credit, has helped fund more than a million scholarships for low- and middle-income families over the past 25 years. It gave kids a way out of failing schools and into ones where they could actually learn.
Then Shapiro became governor. In 2023, he vetoed a school voucher deal called Lifeline Scholarships. That was the first warning sign. Now he's staying quiet while other states race ahead. Congress recently built a new federal scholarship tax credit program using Pennsylvania's model as the blueprint. 31 states have already signed on or said they plan to. Even Democrat governors like Colorado's Jared Polis and New York's Kathy Hochul got on board. Shapiro refuses to say if Pennsylvania will join them.
That silence has a price tag. Estimates show Pennsylvania could lose out on anywhere from $32 million to almost a billion dollars in funding meant for working-class kids.
This is what happens when the state lawmakers who control these decisions face no real pressure from organized voters back home. Legislative seats decide who sits at the table when programs like this get renewed or killed. If we don't turn out for those state house and senate races, the union bosses get to make the call, and our kids pay for it.
Energy bills prove what happens when we lose the seats that set the rules
Pennsylvania families have watched their energy bills climb higher and higher.
Shapiro likes to talk tough about it now, and he's even picked public fights with the regional power grid operator, PJM, and threatened to pull the state out entirely. He sent a letter to two dozen utility companies telling them to “stop putting profits ahead of people.” He even forced one utility, PECO, to pull back a rate hike request after calling it "pure greed."
Centralized price control never works—only the free market can effectively determine market prices.
But here's the other thing—talking tough after prices have already gone up isn't the same as preventing the problem in the first place. Utility rates are shaped by regulators and lawmakers long before a crisis hits the news, so they bear responsibility for most of the increases PA citizens are facing.
Citizens Alliance spokesperson, Michelle Backus, explains, “Pennsylvania is sitting on a gold mine. The Marcellus Shale formation underlies roughly two-thirds of the state and holds an estimated 250 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. We are an energy exporter. We produce more natural gas than almost any state in the nation. We should be flush with affordable, reliable power.”
Those are the exact kinds of appointments and seats that get decided in elections most people skip.
When our side doesn't stay engaged in those smaller races, the decisions that drive up your power bill get made without anyone in that room fighting for you. By the time a governor is holding a press conference about it, the damage is already done.
Missed budget deadlines show what happens when the wrong people hold the pen
Running a state government on time and on budget shouldn't be too much to ask. But under Shapiro, Pennsylvania has had three late state budgets. One of those delays dragged on for months, tied to a school voucher deal that eventually fell apart due to the delays.
And every one of those budget fights comes down to which lawmakers hold the majority in the state house and senate. Those majorities get built one district at a time, often in races that don't get much attention outside the district itself.
When we give those seats up to the other side without a real strategic fight, we end up with a government that can't even pass a budget on time, and schools, counties, and service providers are the ones left waiting.
This is why we show up for every race, not just the big ones
Josh Shapiro built his image on being a practical, moderate leader who could get things done for everyone, first as a state representative and now as governor. When you look at Shapiro’s record, he’s actually a radical Democrat. His entire strategy is spending our money like a drunken sailor, while smiling and holding a dagger behind his back as he lies to the citizens of Pennsylvania.
This is where you see the real cost of losing ground in the races that don't make national headlines.
Kids lose out on scholarship opportunities because the wrong lawmakers hold the votes on education policy. Households pay more for electricity because the wrong people sit on the boards and in the legislature that sets the rules. Schools and local governments get bogged down in unnecessary bureaucracy and rising costs because the wrong majority controls the budget process.
None of this happens by accident. It happens when our side sits out school board races, state house primaries, and other local contests because they don't feel as exciting as a governor's race or a presidential election. Every one of these Shapiro examples started with a seat somewhere that we didn't fight hard enough to win.
Pennsylvania voters have a governor's race in front of them this year, and plenty of local races that will get far less attention but matter just as much.
If we want a different result than what we've seen under Shapiro, the work starts now, at the local level, in the races that build the foundation for everything else.
There is only one solution to fix the mess Josh Shapiro has got us in: vote for Stacy Garrity on November 3.
Cliff Maloney is the CEO of Citizens Alliance and the author of Run Right: A Complete Election Playbook to Win. You can follow him @maloney on X.
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
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