HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania — Now that the dust has settled and Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) will not be Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate, it is worth noting that probably the least-liked Democrat running for statewide office in Pennsylvania is Erin McClelland.
The problems with the Democratic candidate for state treasurer have been lingering since she upended party favorite state Rep. Ryan Bizzarro in the Democratic primary, her fifth turn at running for office in the past 10 years, but what really set off members of her own party were the swipes she made at Shapiro that caught national attention. Last week, at a press event for Harris, Pennsylvania Democratic Party Chairman Sharif Street said he was “offended” by McClelland's comments.
McClelland had posted on social media that she had endorsed Gov. Roy Cooper (D-NC), not Shapiro, to be Harris’s running mate. That’s fine enough: She is entitled to her own choice. It was what she said next, however, that didn’t go down well with statewide Democrats.
“I want a VP pick that’s secure enough to be second under a woman, is content to be VP & won’t undermine the President to maneuver his own election & doesn’t sweep sexual harassment under the rug. I want someone that can speak to rural voters. That is @RoyCooperNC,” McClelland wrote in one of several posts she put up criticizing her own party and Shapiro.
Street said at the campaign event everybody’s entitled to an opinion, adding, “Certainly, I think, Vice President Harris, whoever she picks, we’re going to stand behind her, she’s going to do a great job. ... But, I’ll tell you, I’m offended by that … by the post. I’m personally offended, and I’ll have conversations with our nominee for treasurer separately.”
McClelland's line about sexual harassment was a reference to a situation last year in which former Legislative Affairs Secretary Mike Vereb resigned from his position amid harassment allegations and the governor’s office paid to settle the complaint filed against Vereb.
McClelland has always had a bit of a love-hate relationship with her own party. She has run a total of three times in congressional elections, once dropping out before the primary. Last year, she ran in the Democratic primary for Allegheny County executive, dropping out a few weeks before the primary election after she failed to submit signatures to the county election division.
When she ran against Bizzarro this spring, few Democrats thought she would make it through her fifth try. She did, though, surprising everyone. She now will face incumbent Republican Treasurer Stacy Garrity, a former businesswoman and Army reservist who deployed to Iraq three times.
In 2020, when President Joe Biden won Pennsylvania, Garrity, with little money and no name recognition, won the statewide election handily.
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As one well-respected Philadelphia lawyer and Democrat said, “I have no problem voting for Stacy, and that speaks for a lot of Democrats I know.”
State treasurer is the seat that Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D-PA) held that catapulted him into the Senate race in 2006, and it is one of three statewide elected offices traditionally seen as a jumping-up point for elected officials.
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