Pennsylvania Gov. Shapiro speaks of shooting victim Corey Comperatore
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro spoke on shooting victim Corey Comperatore a day after shots were fired at a Trump rally in Butler, Penn.
With President Joe Biden no longer seeking a second term in the White House, Pennsylvania’s governor has become a source of speculation.
Many of Biden’s delegates at the upcoming Democratic National Convention in Chicago remain bound to his ticket with Vice President Kamala Harris. A possible scenario is that Harris will become the Democratic nominee, and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is a plausible running mate.
USA TODAY reported that Biden quickly endorsed Harris as the Democratic nominee in a statement on X. He said he would speak to the nation later this week to provide more details about his decision.
Alison Dagnes, a professor of political science at Shippensburg University in southcentral Pennsylvania, said she understands why Shapiro is being talked about: He’s shrewd, tech-savvy and a proven winner in the battleground state with the most Electoral College votes.
“His social media game is on point,” Dagnes told the USA TODAY Network. “I have gotten Josh Shapiro TikToks and Instagram Reels and Stories from students, former students who don’t even live in Pennsylvania anymore.”
Who is Josh Shapiro?
Shapiro was born June 20, 1973, in Kansas City, Missouri. He was raised in Pennsylvania’s Montgomery County, graduating high school from Akiba Hebrew Academy in 1991.
After earning a political science degree from the University of Rochester, he went to work in Capitol Hill on the staffs of U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch, U.S. Sen. Robert Torricelli and U.S. Rep. Joe Hoefell.
While in Washington, D.C., Shapiro attended Georgetown University Law Center. He earned a doctorate there in 2002.
Shapiro and his wife, Lori, have four children.
Josh Shapiro’s early career, Obama connection
Prolific campaigning and fundraising has fueled two decades of sustained election success for Shapiro.
He won his first Pennsylvania House of Representatives race in the 153rd District in 2004, serving on the appropriations, finance, insurance, judiciary and state government committees. In 2012 he ran for, and won, a Montgomery County commissioner seat.
Shapiro was an early supporter of Barack Obama, who went on to serve two terms in the White House.
Obama returned the favor, supporting Shapiro in his 2016 bid for Pennsylvania attorney general. He won this office by 2 points over then-state Sen. John Rafferty.
Unopposed in his 2020 primary for reelection, Shapiro secured another term with a 5-point win over Heather Heidelbaugh of the GOP.
Josh Shapiro as attorney general
Shapiro’s tenure as attorney general included several high-profile initiatives:
Josh Shapiro as Pa. governor
Shapiro went again unchallenged in the Democratic primary when he ran for governor in 2022, facing off against state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Adams/Franklin) in the November election.
Mastriano, an arch-conservative endorsed by former President Donald Trump, was relentlessly critiqued by Shapiro’s campaign for his hard-line anti-abortion positions and his presence at the U.S. Capitol during the 2021 riot. Shapiro raised eight times as much campaign cash as Mastriano and won the race by a comfortable 12 points to become Pennsylvania’s 48th governor.
Through this victory, Shapiro running mate Austin Davis earned the distinction of Pennsylvania’s first Black lieutenant governor.
While liberal on social issues, Shapiro has received some applause from conservatives in the divided Legislature for decrees to remove college degree requirements for 65,000 government positions in Pennsylvania and for ordering executive branch employees back to in-person work. He’s also expressed support for Republican-led efforts to expand school choice in the state — though GOP detractors point out Shapiro’s been unable or unwilling to convince Democratic lawmakers to pass legislation to make this a reality.
Nearly two years into his gubernatorial term, Shapiro has made national headlines a few times.
In the summer of 2023 he pushed for a quick repair to a collapsed section of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia. The job was finished within two weeks, and Shapiro’s playbook for a swift resolution to the problem was featured in the Washington Post.
When former President Donald Trump and some of his supporters were shot at a rally in western Pennsylvania earlier this month, Shapiro held a news conference to call publicly for peace and for toning down political rhetoric.
Could a Harris-Shapiro ticket win?
On paper, Shapiro could help a Democratic ticket headlined by Vice President Kamala Harris, at least in Pennsylvania.
Shapiro has a history of winning prominent races in this pivotal swing state. His approval rating as governor— according polling from the Commonwealth Foundation, a libertarian-leaning policy group that often critical of Shapiro — has been as high as 60% and has never fallen below the mid-50s.
Though Dagnes sees a White House run in Shapiro’s future, she’s not certain he would be the ideal choice for Harris.
She noted that his Jewish heritage and vocal support for Israel could be problematic in parts of the country where acts of antisemitism are rising. Additionally, Shapiro may be an unknown outside of Pennsylvania among those who don’t closely follow politics.
“I think that (Harris-Shapiro ticket) sounds great for the biggest of the swing states,” she said.
More: 5 facts about Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer
“Josh Shapiro is very big here. I’m not sure he’s great for national name recognition.”
Bruce Siwy is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network’s Pennsylvania state capital bureau. He can be reached at bsiwy@gannett.com or on X at @BruceSiwy.
Source link : https://www.goerie.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/07/21/josh-shapiro-pa-governor-vice-president-candidate-possibility-2024/74467407007/
Author :
Publish date : 2024-07-21 14:20:54
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.