Pennsylvania Republican Gubernatorial Nominee Stacy Garrity Working With Acquitted Sex Assault Defendant

A donor and organizer for Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial nominee Stacy Garrity has faced accusations of sexual assault and harassment throughout his time in Pennsylvania politics.

Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania, a right-leaning grassroots group founded and run by Cliff Maloney, has contributed $16,000 to Garrity since 2020.

Maloney, who has denied all sexual misconduct allegations, has also pledged his organization will knock on 750,000 doors for the Republican nominee. Maloney’s PAC contributed to the Garrity campaign just after he attended a fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago in March, Pennsylvania campaign records show.

Garrity, in turn, has appeared in Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania social media videos, on their podcast and at the organization’s events throughout her political career and now as she attempts to defeat incumbent Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a potential 2028 presidential candidate.

Garrity also highlighted Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania’s work on her campaign’s behalf, doing so in a social media video she made in March with Maloney’s group. She said the group “getting out there and knocking on doors is going to be incredibly important to declaring victory.”Maloney, Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania and the Garrity campaign did not respond to NOTUS’ multiple requests for comment.

Maloney has long faced questions about his personal conduct.

Cliff Maloney speaking at AmericaFest in Phoenix on Dec. 20, 2024. Gage Skidmore/Creative Commons

In 2022, he was arrested and charged for allegedly drugging and raping a woman in 2013 while a student at the University of Pittsburgh. According to the criminal complaint, the victim alleged Maloney gave her a drink after the pair left a fraternity party together and she lost consciousness before waking up in his bed.

Maloney has repeatedly denied those claims, and in 2023, a jury found Maloney not guilty of four of six charges he faced and could not reach a verdict on two others — a judge later dismissed the two remaining charges.

Maloney nevertheless surrendered his teaching license because he was “criminally charged in relation to allegations that he engaged in sexual activity with an adult female without her consent,” according to a report from the Pennsylvania Professional Standards and Practices Commission.

In 2021, Young Americans for Liberty, a conservative activist organization that operates primarily at high schools and on college campuses, removed Maloney as its president.

The move came after women within the organization accused Maloney of covering up incidents of alleged sexual misconduct.

Former Young Americans for Liberty staffer Addyson Rae Garner began the series of accusatory posts in January 2021 under the tag #YALtoo.

“Cliff Maloney Jr. fancies himself the godfather of the liberty movement, but instead of sending people to kneecap the goons who assaulted your daughter, he’ll promote the goons — and even help them run for office,” Garner alleged in the post.

Another staffer, Taylor Hall, later alleged on Twitter that Maloney had asked her to bring him food in his hotel room at a conference hosted by the organization, where Maloney asked her to get in bed with him. Hall said that she denied Maloney’s sexual advances and Maloney threatened her position at the organization.

“He lectured me about loyalty to him, and that people who aren’t loyal to him ‘don’t stick around long’ in the organization before asking me to come get in bed with him,” Hall wrote. “I actually gave him a chance, in tears, to take back what he said and apologize. He used that opportunity to make sexually demeaning comments about me instead.”

The Young Americans for Liberty board announced Maloney’s termination in a press release that stated Maloney was “losing the confidence of the board.” The organization also said it would continue its “independent investigation into all allegations.” It’s unclear what the results were.

At the time, Maloney said the “allegations against me are “100% false.”

Maloney’s support for Garrity’s gubernatorial campaign comes at a time when the Republican nominee has struggled to keep financial pace with Shapiro — Garrity raised only $2.5 million ahead of the May primary, Pennsylvania filings show. Shapiro had raised $37 million by comparison, according to state records.

Stephen Medvic, a government professor at Franklin & Marshall College, said that Maloney’s early ground support for Garrity is particularly notable because the Garrity campaign doesn’t yet have a significant on-the-ground door knocking operation.

“The ground game, it hasn’t really ramped up yet,” Medvic said. “I think that’s that’s in part because she didn’t have any opposition for the nomination, so in some ways, you know, she didn’t have to build out a full campaign organization.”

Meanwhile, Garrity’s fundraising has been “extremely anemic, because the incumbent governor is so popular that it seems unlikely that any Republican, that any nominee, could beat him,” Robin Kolodny, a political science professor at Temple University, told NOTUS, adding that it’s unclear if Garrity even has a door-knocking operation outside of Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania.