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(The Center Square) - For more than a decade, Pennsylvania has had divided government as neither party has held the governor’s mansion and majorities in both chambers at the same time.
However, Gov. Josh Shapiro and State Treasurer Stacy Garrity have their sights set on what they would accomplish if given the trifecta.
"With a Democratic trifecta in Harrisburg, I want you to know I will fight to raise wages," Shapiro said during a rally in the Lehigh Valley on Saturday. "And the first bill that will reach my desk will be to raise the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour."
When Shapiro was elected governor in 2022, Democrats narrowly flipped the state House blue. Since he was sworn in, the party has maintained a razor-thin majority in the lower chamber, while Republicans have held onto the majority in the state Senate.
As multiple Republican incumbents seek reelection in battleground-state Senate districts, Shapiro has made achieving a "trifecta" a key part of his pitch to voters statewide during his reelection campaign.
In addition to promising a raise to the state's minimum wage, Shapiro said, with a Democratic trifecta, he would sign bills to constitutionalize abortion rights, give victims of sexual abuse the opportunity to confront their abusers in court, invest in mass transit across the state, and build more housing.
In advertisements supporting Democratic state Senate candidates Eileen Hartnett-Albilar and Chris Thomas, Shapiro referenced fighting to raise the minimum wage, establishing guardrails on data centers, and protecting abortion rights in his pitch to voters to support their respective campaigns.
In another ad backing Democrat Brian Wrightson for state Senate, he added the proposed lawsuit window for sexual abuse survivors.
For Shapiro to deliver the first trifecta for Democrats in over three decades, he needs to win his race, while Democrats hold onto their 103-100 majority in the state House, and flip the state Senate, which currently sits at a 27-23 Republican advantage.
If Garrity defeats Shapiro, Republicans would need to flip only a few state House seats and maintain their majority to achieve their first trifecta since Gov. Tom Corbett was elected in 2010.
In an interview with The Center Square on Thursday, Garrity said her priority with a trifecta would be "growing the economy to lift everybody up."
"Number one, day one, we lift a moratorium on drilling of public lands," Garrity said.
She argued that move would create jobs and generate revenue needed to address the state's structural deficit. Then, Garrity said she would tackle electric bills by getting rid of the gross receipts tax, ending "some of the mandates of green energy," and revisiting property tax reform.
The Center Square asked both candidates to respond to each other's plans for a trifecta.
"Well, they’re not going to have a Republican trifecta," Shapiro said on Sunday in response at a campaign event in Philadelphia. "I’m focused on helping Democrats up and down the ballot win – win on Tuesday, give us that governing majority in Harrisburg, make Hakeem Jeffries the Speaker of the House in Washington because we delivered those congressional seats, and, of course, get myself and Austin Davis reelected."
"That’s what I’m focused on," he continued. "I’ve been very clear about what I want to accomplish, especially in those first days with our majority."
Briefed about Shapiro's trifecta plans - specifically including the raising of the minimum wage to $15 an hour, legalizing recreational marijuana, and codifying abortion rights into the state's constitution - Garrity said, "you know what? This is my response."
"Under the Shapiro administration, you see more government, more spending, more regulations, more mandates," she said on Thursday at a campaign event in Montgomery County. "What do I want to do?"
"I want to produce affordable energy, create jobs, build things, and I want people in Harrisburg, including the governor, to understand that the money that they’re spending in Harrisburg: it doesn’t belong to them; it belongs to the taxpayers," she continued.
Both candidates have barnstormed the state in the final days before the midterm election and are slated to spend the final full day before the election in the Philadelphia suburbs.
Despite Pennsylvania's battleground status, polls and ratings outlets show Shapiro as the favorite in the 2026 race for governor. He's significantly outraised and outspent Garrity throughout the campaign.
Most public polling shows Shapiro holding a double-digit lead in the race over Garrity, while The Cook Political Report, Sabato's Crystal Ball, and Inside Elections, describe the race as "Solid Democratic."