The Philadelphia Inquirer: “As governor, Garrity would oversee a department that regulates a for-profit insurance company for which she’s currently a paid board member.”
While Garrity celebrates higher costs for Pennsylvanians, she’s using her office to get paid by an insurance company
PENNSYLVANIA — New reporting from The Philadelphia Inquirer exposed Stacy Garrity’s secret role with an insurance company where she collects a second paycheck and stands to profit “$195,000 annually for five years” from insurance companies — in addition to a sweetheart deal where she could stand to purchase stock “at a discount” from a pending acquisition.
This new reporting also found that Garrity secured her secret second paycheck because of “Garrity’s background as treasurer” that “added value to the board,” which makes clear that while being paid by taxpayers to safeguard their hard earned money, Garrity is leveraging her position as an elected official to double her income and personally profit up to nearly $1 million.
From “rak[ing] in massive payments from insurance companies” to saying it was “absolutely the right thing to do” when Trump and his Republican allies in Congress chose to let health insurance premiums skyrocket, Pennsylvanians are seeing they cannot trust Garrity to protect their pocketbooks because she’s too focused on using her office to line her own.
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The Philadelphia Inquirer: Stacy Garrity could make almost $200k from Pa. insurance company board. She’d resign if elected governor.
Andrew Seidman
May 28, 2026
- As governor, Garrity would oversee a department that regulates a for-profit insurance company for which she’s currently a paid board member.
- Garrity, 62, earned $57,290 as a board member last year, her campaign said. If a pending acquisition closes, she stands to make more than three times that amount, according to federal securities filings. Garrity’s annual salary as treasurer is $211,219, according to state records.
- Garrity, who lives in rural Bradford County in north-central Pennsylvania, has also reported income from two natural gas companies. Her campaign said she receives modest royalties — it declined to give a precise figure — and would continue to do so as governor, “as it is part of her private property.”
- Shapiro campaign spokesperson Manuel Bonder accused Garrity of using her public office to “rake in massive payments from insurance companies.”
- He added, “Stacy Garrity cannot be trusted to lead Pennsylvania.”
- Before being elected treasurer in 2020, Garrity was vice president of government affairs at Towanda, Pa.-based Global Tungsten & Powders, where she worked for more than 30 years. It is a big processor of tungsten, a metal used in everything from smartphones to bullets.
- In 2024 she joined the board of ECM Insurance Group, a Bedford County-based firm that was founded in 1913. ECM operates in 48 states and says it is the fourth largest underwriter of farm owners insurance in Pennsylvania and 12th largest in the country.
- Its businesses include Everett Cash Mutual Insurance Co., 1st Choice Advantage Insurance Co., and American Reliable Insurance Co.
- “With her military background, the leadership she had there, and what she’d done from a business standpoint — finding good talent is what I always look for in directors,” ECM CEO Randy Shaw said in an interview. He added that Garrity’s background as treasurer and understanding of finance added value to the board.
- “We talked. She never had served on an insurance board before, but I said, ‘Well, we can educate you on the insurance side of it,’” Shaw said. “‘It’s the business practice, governance side of it that you can bring value to.’”
- In October, Chicago-based insurer Old Republic International Corp. announced that it was acquiring ECM — a deal that requires approval from Pennsylvania regulators and ECM policyholders. Documents filed with the state Insurance Department show Old Republic, a Fortune 500 company, would pay at least $153 million.
- Pennsylvania’s insurance commissioner, Michael Humphreys, signed an order in April approving the deal, subject to certain conditions. ECM policyholders are expected to vote at the end of June, Shaw said. If they sign off on the transaction, policyholders and other stakeholders — including Garrity — could each be eligible to buy up to $350,000 in Old Republic stock at a discount of at least 30%, according to securities filings.
- Garrity’s campaign said that if the transaction closes, she plans to join an ECM advisory board. Corporate records show she would be paid $195,000 annually for five years.
- The deal “is expected to close early in the third quarter 2026 upon receipt of policyholder approval and completion of all customary and regulatory closing conditions,” Old Republic said in a May 1 regulatory filing.
- The governor appoints the insurance commissioner, subject to confirmation by the state Senate.
- Regulators are responsible for monitoring insurers’ finances to try to protect consumers, and approving insurance policy rates. “The governor has a lot of opportunities to influence what the Insurance Department does,” said Teresa Miller, a former state insurance commissioner under Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf.
- “I worked very closely with the Governor’s Office,” she said. “We were in constant communication.”
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