(WHTM) — Pennsylvania State Senator and former candidate for governor Doug Mastriano (R-33) responded to State Treasurer Stacy Garrity’s gubernatorial campaign announcement.

“The issue I have here is that we want the state party out of the way and let the people decide,” Mastriano said on the John Fredericks Show on Monday morning. When asked about his timeline to decide whether to run for governor, Mastriano said it’s a big decision to make and that he and his wife are still praying about it.

Mastriano says the state party won’t drive his timeline to make a formal decision and mentioned that he has been preparing, so he doesn’t have a cold start.

When asked about Garrity, Mastriano said he would love for her to be his Lieutenant Governor.

Garrity, also a veteran, has become increasingly popular among Pennsylvania voters. In the 2024 General Election, she broke Shapiro’s record for the most votes received by a statewide candidate in Pennsylvania.

While he hasn’t announced a campaign, Mastriano has teased on multiple occasions that he will run again. Mastriano recently revealed an updated version of his Doug4Gov.com website. The new website did not explicitly state whether he was running, but it did include his previous campaign slogan, “Walk as Free People.”

Mastriano introduced or co-sponsored various legislation in the 2025 State Senate session, including the “Save Women’s Sports Act,” a vaccine exemption for members of the Pennsylvania National Guard, and the establishment of a “Green Alert System” to notify the public of missing veterans.

The retired Army colonel and combat veteran previously stated in May that he believes he would win the Republican primary again if he were to run a second time. Mastriano won a nine-candidate primary with 44%, but lost to Josh Shapiro (D) by 800,000 votes in 2022.

After his defeat in 2022, the State Senator has since reviewed his performance and said there were “several places where we missed strategically.”