The Pennsylvania Primary is on Tuesday, April 23.

 

Democrat and Republican candidates are vying to see who will represent their party in the General Election in November.

 

When voters look at their ballot, they will see a plethora of candidates ranging from county positions to the President of the United States (though that race has essentially already been decided as Biden vs Trump).

 

BUT THERE ARE A TON OF OTHER LOCAL AND STATE ELECTED OFFICIALS TO VOTE FOR!!

 

We asked candidates for state-wide offices to answer a series of questions. Below you will find full interviews with those candidates, as well as a general description of the office for which they are competing.

 

Behold, a link to an interview with Ryan Bizzarro.

May I interest you in a link to an interview with Erin McClelland?

 

State Treasurer

Pennsylvania’s Treasury Office manages the physical exchanging of money in the Commonwealth— overseeing withdrawals and deposits of Pennsylvania’s $163 billion. The Treasurer makes investment choices for the state’s savings and assets, and sits on the board for state retirement programs likes PSERS (Pennsylvania Public School Employees Retirement System) and SERS (State Employees Retirement System).

The Treasurer’s Office also runs a plethora of financial help programs, from the 529 funds for college savings to PA ABLE Savings to returning unclaimed property.

(They also have a nifty way to track how much each state department has spent to date)

The office is currently held by Republican Stacy Garrity. There are no other Republicans running against her. There are two Democrats running for the office, who will be on the ballot on Tuesday’s Primary.

Recently, Garrity has earned criticism from Pro-Palestine advocates for her choice to invest Pennsylvania savings into Israeli accounts.

 

The Candidates

Ryan Bizzarro (D) hails from Erie and has served as the State Representative for District 3 since 2013. He currently chairs the Majority Policy Committee. If elected to State Treasurer, his priorities are to expand and raise awareness about current programs- like the 529 college funds and returning unclaimed property. He also wants to establish impact investment funds, and infrastructure and real estate funds.

[Click here for full video interview + transcript]

 

Erin McClelland (D) has owned a small business and studied under a former U.S. Treasurer Secretary in her career as an addiction counselor and systems administrator. Her priorities if she gets in office is to update cybersecurity in local government across the state, revamp pension regulations, and avoid foreign investments.

[Click here for full video interview + transcript]