Stacy Garrity talks AI, skill games and measles in Pennsylvania's governor race

Ahead of Election Day on Nov. 3, Republican Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity sat down with KDKA-TV to talk about issues like AI, SNAP and measles.

For about 30 minutes, Stacy Garrity answered every question KDKA-TV's Josh Taylor asked her about her campaign for governor, including one concerning a political ad about incumbent Josh Shapiro. The ad is made completely with AI and shows Shapiro touting his biggest controversies as governor.

"Every single thing in that ad is correct, unlike the ads that the governor has run against me, which are categorically false, and full of lies," Garrity said. "Everything in there is true."

"Do you feel any kind of sense of irony of using AI to create an ad that emphasizes the use of AI when there's so many people now that are starting to attack the use of AI in ads because they feel like it's not ethical?" Taylor asked. 

"What I think the irony is is that he took $5.7 million from data center developers and used that money to run ads against me," Garrity said. 

Garrity said that ad says "right up front" that it's AI-generated, "so we're very transparent."

Garrity also hammered Shapiro on the state's decision about skill games, allowing the deadline to come and go without a resolution to keep those games in the businesses that held them for years.

"Because the issue wasn't addressed by Oct. 13, our American Legions, our VFWs, our fire halls and so many small businesses like gas stations, convenience stores, even some local pharmacies, they had to pull these machines out," she said. 

"These are thousands of thousands of jobs, and they give back millions of dollars into the community," she added. "Our American Legions, our VFWs, our fire halls, our small businesses are the backbone of our communities. And so, what real leadership would've done was address this issue before the deadline of Oct. 13."

Garrity also discussed affordability on multiple fronts, from small businesses to rising costs, and also the federal cuts to programs like SNAP and Medicaid that affect millions of Pennsylvanians. 

"First of all, we need to get our error rate down so we don't have to pay so much, right?" Garrity said. "I mean, that's ridiculous. Nobody that ever worked for me would have over a 10% error rate in anything. And so as far as Medicaid and SNAP, we're going to make sure that it's there for the people that it was intended to help, and that is pregnant moms, it's single parents, it's caretakers, it's people with disabilities."

She was also asked about how she would handle the measles outbreak after nearly 1,300 cases were reported by the Pennsylvania Department of Health along with the state's first measles-related deaths in years.

"So, first of all, I would not have done what the governor did, which was run to a camera before he had all the facts," she said. "So a real leader, what you do is first thing: go console these families. And then secondly, you've got to get boots on the ground. You've got to get the facts and then be fully transparent."

"It all comes down to common sense," she added. "It comes down to leadership, and then working with these agencies to make sure you're doing the right thing for Pennsylvanians."

KDKA has also invited Shapiro to sit down for a one-on-one interview before election day, but he has not accepted.