Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s seat on the short list of potential Democratic vice presidential candidates has given him national recognition. This isn’t any surprise to someone like me who follows Pennsylvania politics closely.
Shapiro is acquainted with the trendy realities of Trumpism within the Republican Party and the exertions of legislating across party lines. A key a part of his rise is his “Get the shit done” mentalitythe expression he likes to make use of to explain his political approach.
Who is Josh Shapiro? And what significance might his experience with consensus constructing within the swing state of Pennsylvania have for the present vice presidential election?
Early political ambitions
Shapiro is the consummate politician. He worked as Employees of several members of Congress before he outdid his competition and his own seat within the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.
During his time within the House of Representatives, Shapiro earned a fame as a practical reformer and bipartisan actor. He was known for his ambition but in addition for his involvement in politics.
His most famous act of consensus constructing was be the main focus the cross-party negotiations in 2007, which led to Republican Representative Denny O'Brien becomes Speaker of the House of Representativesalthough the Democrats had only won a one-seat majority within the chamber.
O’Brien returned the favor in 2022 when he was along with eight other distinguished Republican personalitiessupported Shapiro within the gubernatorial election against his Republican rival.
As a state legislator, Shapiro supported an unsuccessful amendment to the state structure that may have modified Pennsylvania’s partisan judicial elections to a Performance Appointment Systemwhich reflects the Biden administration's current push to reform the U.S. Supreme Court.
And he led a bipartisan effort in 2009 to Reintroduce protection against hate crimes for sexual orientation, gender identity and disability under the Commonwealth Court of the State these protective measures lifted.
Remarkably, this attempt failed and have become a Ongoing debate in Pennsylvaniamost recently after the Murder of transgender teenager Pauly Likens Jr..
From District Commissioner to Attorney General
Shapiro left the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 2012 after win a seat on the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners. The three-member body is basically the legislative branch for the county, and Shapiro's selection passed from Republican to Democratic control.
His track record of “getting shit done” continued as a district commissioner, and he received praise from the one Republican commissionerBruce Castor, for his “the best district commissioner I ever knew” And “very good at reaching consensus.”
Shapiro leveraged his success and national notoriety to successfully win two terms as Pennsylvania's Attorney General in 2016 and 2020 – a position widely considered a stepping stone to the governorship.
As Attorney General, Shapiro was involved within the high-profile investigation of sexual abuse of youngsters within the Catholic Church in addition to Prosecution of former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky for a similar, and former president of Penn State, Graham Spanier to cover it up.
Later he became the Face of the litigation against the Trump campaign's claims of voter fraud in Pennsylvania in 2020.
An anti-MAGA candidate
Shapiro ran for governor of Pennsylvania in 2022. The Democratic Party cleared the sphere for himand he remained true to his anti-MAGA stance in his race against Republican Senator Doug Mastriano.
Mastriano was a Key figure in Republican denial of the election ends in the 2020 race and proved to be a really weak candidate. In fact, Republican donors have largely abandoned Mastriano's campaign.
In the present vice presidential election, some commentators have identified Shapiro’s landslide victory in 2022 as a burdenThey argue that by participating in a difficult race, he has not been sufficiently tested or vetted for a national campaign.
But during his first two years as governor, Shapiro remained true to his role as a consensus builder.
He coordinated the efforts Repairing a serious bridge on Interstate 95 near Philadelphia inside just 12 days after a truck fire collapsed and left the vital highway impassable.
He also appointed Republican Al Schmidt as Secretary of State to oversee Pennsylvania’s electoral system. Shapiro’s argument that “Conducting an election ought to be a non-partisan matter“ was one other rejection of the election denial that emerged within the state in 2020.
U-turn on school vouchers
Shapiro's consensus-building work has at times caused him problems inside his own party.
For example, it seemed as if Shapiro was heading for a timely, bipartisan budget in 2023. This is something his Democratic predecessor Tom Wolf fought with.
An offer to the Republicans who control the Pennsylvania Senate – a $100 million school voucher program – angered his allies within the House of Representatives, which is narrowly controlled by the Democrats.
Shapiro withdrew his support, using his veto right for individual items to remove the voucher program from the budget after Republicans within the Senate passed it.
This step understandably offended Republicans and reduced the probabilities for other compromises based on each Higher Education Spending Act and that Enabling Acts required to spend the cash from the budget.
The result was that government spending, including necessary funds for education and social services, Delayed by 5½ months until the ultimate budget negotiations were concluded and an enabling law was passed.
Moderate and non-partisan credibility
Shapiro has also proven pragmatic on other issues central to Pennsylvania politics, but may not find widespread acceptance amongst more liberal Democrats in other states.
For example, he distanced himself from his predecessor’s try to Pennsylvania joins the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiativean emissions trading system within the Northeast. Shapiro has was skeptical in regards to the initiative for a very long time and be Possible impact on union jobs in one in every of the Top natural gas producing countries within the country.
Shapiro's support for personal school vouchers was not popular together with his party in Pennsylvania and is not going to be with the national Democrats either.
Shapiro has also been on the forefront of several controversies which have rocked the Democratic Party more broadly. He denounced as “shameful and unacceptable” The disastrous testimony of University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill before a U.S. House committee investigating campus protests against Israel's war in Gaza. On the left, the work of the Republican-led committee was largely seen as an attack on higher education.
In a broader sense, Shapiro, who’s of Jewish descent, was a staunch supporter of Israel at a time when the War in Gaza shakes Democratic Party.
However, if Shapiro is on the ballot, he is not going to be running in a partisan primary but in a general election, meaning all of those positions could help bolster his moderate and bipartisan credibility on the national level.
Political chemistry between Harris and Shapiro?
In the top, political scientists will say that the hype surrounding the election of a swing state politician – even a more popular than Shapiro – Is probably won't make a difference within the end result of the election.
But on the subject of Harris choosing her running mate, Shapiro meets two necessary criteria. Most importantly, he appears to satisfy the requirement don’t damage the ticketAs we now have seen in the previous few days with Concern amongst some Republicans A presidential candidate doesn’t need a partner who might drag down Trump's selection of U.S. Senator JD Vance of Ohio as his running mate.
A careful examination and choice of the precise candidate who has the vital qualifications to be only a stone’s throw away from the presidency is one other necessary optic in selecting a running mate. From that perspective, Shapiro seems a protected bet, although campaigns often reveal mistakes that candidates overlook.
The couple also entered politics together. They share a History as Attorney GeneralShapiro took office in 2017 when Harris moved from California Attorney General to the U.S. Senate. But she met for the primary time in 2006 at a nonpartisan seminar for future political leaders sponsored by the nonpartisan Aspen Institute.
Over and beyond supported Harris in her 2019 presidential election campaign.
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