Who is Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro? • Spotlight PA

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has emerged as a high contender for the vice-presidential nod following President Joe Biden’s beautiful announcement that he’s dropping out of the 2024 race and endorsing Kamala Harris to take his spot on the poll.

Shapiro, 51, was elected Pennsylvania’s governor in 2022 and assumed workplace in January 2023. He’s a average Democrat whose profession trajectory has seen him transfer from congressional aide to Pennsylvania’s chief government, all inside twenty years.

Already, high elected Democrats in Pennsylvania like state Home Speaker Joanna McClinton and get together leaders like Philadelphia Democratic chair Bob Brady have endorsed Shapiro as a potential vice presidential decide, citing his wins in a divided Basic Meeting and electoral success in a key swing state.

At a Monday afternoon occasion in Pittsburgh, Shapiro stated he has spoken to each Biden and Harris, however declined to say whether or not he’s in talks to hitch the ticket.

“We spoke solely about defeating Donald Trump and our shared dedication to that. I instantly gave her my endorsement and stated I’d do the whole lot in my energy to help her right here within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Shapiro stated of his Sunday dialog with Harris.

He added, “This can be a deeply private choice that the vice chairman will make. She is going to make it on her personal timetable and her personal timeline. She wants to decide on somebody that she’s ready to manipulate with, marketing campaign with, and somebody that she feels most snug with, and that call must be made freed from any form of political stress.”

In contrast to different rumored picks, like Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Shapiro didn’t rule out the concept of operating for vice chairman in the course of the Monday occasion.

If Shapiro have been to be tapped as a vice presidential candidate, he would be capable of marketing campaign whereas concurrently serving as governor.

Who’s Josh Shapiro?

The son of a pediatrician and educator who grew up in Philadelphia’s suburbs, Shapiro initially deliberate to comply with in his father’s footsteps and develop into a physician. However a couple of months into his freshman yr at Rochester College, he almost flunked his natural chemistry class. Across the similar time, his dream of enjoying school basketball was shattered when he was minimize from the college’s basketball staff.

A knock on his dorm room door not lengthy after would find yourself launching his profession in public service, and later, politics: It was a fellow scholar, asking him if he would run for scholar authorities. He did — and received.

He hasn’t misplaced a bid for public workplace since.

In his 20s, he labored as a congressional aide on Capitol Hill whereas additionally getting his regulation diploma at Georgetown College in Washington, D.C.

In 2004, he ran for a seat representing Montgomery County in Pennsylvania’s Home of Representatives. He received, and remained within the state Home for 4 two-year phrases, throughout which he got here to be generally known as a coverage wonk and, later, a strategist who helped Democrats cement a razor-thin voting benefit within the chamber.

His first statewide run for workplace got here in 2016 when he launched his profitable marketing campaign to helm the Pennsylvania Workplace of Legal professional Basic, which had simply come off 4 tumultuous and scandal-plagued years beneath Democratic predecessor Kathleen Kane.

He ran for governor in 2022 in opposition to a Trump-endorsed candidate, state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R., Franklin). Shapiro solid the race as a referendum on preserving democracy and constitutionally protected freedoms, together with the appropriate to abortion.

Once more, Shapiro handily received the election and, within the course of, shattered data for essentially the most cash ever spent on a governor’s race in Pennsylvania.

Shapiro, an observant Conservative Jew, has steadily stated that his religion performed prominently into his choice to enter public service.

What are Josh Shapiro’s key achievements?

Lots of Shapiro’s key achievements got here whereas he was Pennsylvania’s lawyer normal.

His workplace investigated the position of pharmaceutical producers and distributors within the nation’s opioid disaster, and prosecuted pure gasoline firms.

However his legacy there was irrevocably formed by his workplace’s scathing grand jury report on baby sexual abuse and its coverup in almost each Roman Catholic diocese in Pennsylvania. The investigation — which Kane, his predecessor, had initiated — sparked comparable inquiries throughout the nation and landed Shapiro on tv screens throughout the globe.

As lawyer normal, Shapiro positioned himself as a foil to the values and insurance policies of Trump and his administration.

He joined different Democratic attorneys normal in suing the administration over its family-separation coverage for migrants on the U.S.-Mexico border; and over a rule that may have allowed employers extra leeway in denying contraception protection mandates beneath the Reasonably priced Care Act.

Shapiro’s workplace was additionally the one in courtroom defending Pennsylvania’s election outcomes, which got here beneath assault by Trump and his surrogates within the weeks after Trump’s loss to Biden within the 2020 election.

Lower than two weeks after Shapiro took workplace as governor, he needed to deal with a disaster when a prepare derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, lower than a mile from Pennsylvania’s border, and launched 1000’s of tons of poisonous chemical substances.

Then, amid state finances talks, an overpass on I-95 all of the sudden collapsed after a truck fireplace. The bridge was utilized by tens of 1000’s of Philadelphia commuters on daily basis, and its failure required Shapiro to coordinate a brief alternative in lower than two weeks whereas beneath nationwide scrutiny.

The pace with which the freeway was rebuilt, and Shapiro’s visibility in the course of the undertaking — hovering over the collapse in a helicopter, organising a development dwell stream, holding enthusiastic media briefings — received him nationwide consideration.

As governor, Shapiro has negotiated two budgets with Pennsylvania’s divided state legislature — the one within the nation — that dramatically elevated funding for public training.

Funds negotiations throughout his first yr in workplace have been briefly delayed after a politically embarrassing incident. Because the June 30 deadline neared, the governor, in accordance with a number of accounts, privately negotiated a cope with state Senate Republicans to create a taxpayer-funded college voucher plan. Democrats privately stated they have been blindsided by the transfer and refused to present their help to the proposal.

Regardless of Shapiro’s efforts to assuage members of his get together, the governor was compelled to desert the plan.

Shapiro scored a serious win on this yr’s finances, securing $500 million for a program to organize websites for industrial or mixed-use developments. Nonetheless, the ultimate deal didn’t embrace a number of different key points Shapiro advocated for, together with sustainable funding for public transit and the legalization of adult-use leisure marijuana.

“There have been some issues we did not get finished this time,” Shapiro acknowledged throughout a information convention after signing the finances, “however in a productive democracy, that is how progress is made — by shifting previous partisan politics and having actual conversations collectively.”

Has Josh Shapiro been concerned in any controversies?

One of many few controversies of Shapiro’s tenure as governor got here courtesy of one in all his oldest allies, his now-former legislative liaison Mike Vereb.

Shapiro and Vereb, a Republican, are each from Montgomery County and served collectively within the state Home. When Shapiro grew to become lawyer normal, he introduced Vereb on as a high advisor. And when Shapiro was elected governor, Vereb was one of many few Republicans to hitch his workers, this time in a key position because the governor’s emissary to the legislature.

However in September, Vereb resigned. His departure got here shortly after reporters had discovered a staffer had filed a grievance in opposition to him alleging harassment that had begun shortly after the beginning of the administration.

Highlight PA discovered that the administration had quietly paid out $295,000 to settle the grievance three weeks earlier than Vereb’s abrupt resignation. Shapiro wouldn’t talk about the matter in any element, together with his administration saying solely that it dealt with the matter in an expert and well timed method.

That settlement isn’t the one matter about which Shapiro has been notably tight-lipped. Throughout the board, Shapiro’s administration has been markedly extra opaque than earlier governors’.

As Shapiro ready to take workplace, he had members of his transition staff signal nondisclosure agreements and wouldn’t say who paid for inauguration occasions.

In contrast to his predecessor, who launched detailed each day schedules, Shapiro has declined to usually launch details about who he meets with behind the scenes. He additionally categorizes his each day calendars as “private” papers, which exempts them from the state’s Proper-To-Know Regulation.

The governor additionally loosened a notoriously tight reward ban for his workers whereas arguing it might nonetheless shield in opposition to presents from lobbyists influencing his agenda.

Nevertheless, Shapiro has nonetheless accepted free tickets, together with to the Tremendous Bowl, paid for by unknown donors to a little-known fund managed by Group PA, a Harrisburg-based nonprofit of which the governor is a co-chair.

He additionally listed tickets to sporting occasions, from long-time donors and lobbyists, as marketing campaign contributions.

The administration has argued that is all in compliance with the state’s ethics and marketing campaign finance legal guidelines, that are among the many most lax within the nation, and that the reward ban doesn’t apply to Group PA.

Shapiro, one of many nation’s most outstanding Jewish politicians, has additionally taken a central position in condemning antisemitism and what he sees as weak responses to it within the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault on Israel, which killed 1,200 individuals.

“I’m pro-the thought of a Jewish homeland, a Jewish state, and I’ll definitely do the whole lot in my energy to make sure that Israel is powerful and Israel is fortified and can exist for generations,” Shapiro instructed the New York Instances.

As protests in opposition to Israel’s struggle in Gaza — the place the demise toll now tops 39,000 — have escalated, Shapiro has argued some demonstrations have crossed a line into bigotry.

Amid rising protests in opposition to the struggle, the Shapiro administration up to date the workplace’s code of conduct to bar “scandalous” conduct. An e mail accompanying the coverage cited social media posts, boycotts, graffiti, and public confrontations as examples of potential “hate speech” that may not be tolerated.

He additionally backed a bipartisan invoice that may strip state funding from any college that divests from Israel.

What’s subsequent for Josh Shapiro?

Earlier than Biden introduced he was stepping down, Shapiro, who has made many appearances as a surrogate for and supporter of Biden, stated he stood by the president.

Quickly after Biden introduced he wouldn’t settle for the nomination for reelection and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor, Shapiro issued a press release giving her his full help.

“I’ve identified Kamala Harris for almost twenty years — we’ve each been prosecutors, we’ve each stood up for the rule of regulation, we’ve each fought for the individuals and delivered outcomes,” Shapiro stated in a press release launched by his marketing campaign workplace.

“Kamala Harris is a patriot worthy of our help and she is going to proceed the work of generations of People who got here earlier than us to good our union, shield our democracy, and advance actual freedom. She has served the nation honorably as Vice President and he or she is able to be President.”

BEFORE YOU GO… In the event you discovered one thing from this text, pay it ahead and contribute to Highlight PA at spotlightpa.org/donate. Highlight PA is funded by foundations and readers such as you who’re dedicated to accountability journalism that will get outcomes.