Who is Josh Shapiro? What to know about the Pennsylvania governor and possible VP pick

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, is rumored to be under consideration to serve as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate in the 2024 presidential election.

Prior to shaping headlines about the contentious 2024 race for the White House, Shapiro, 51, was elected to a four-year term as the 48th governor of Pennsylvania in 2022.

Before winning the state’s gubernatorial election, Shapiro – a native of Kansas City, Missouri – previously served as Pennsylvania’s attorney general from 2017 to 2023.

During his tenure as the Keystone State’s chief law enforcement officer, Shapiro targeted former President Trump’s administration with a variety of lawsuits and legal challenges.

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Shapiro was also one of several left-leaning state attorneys general to condemn Trump’s 2017 travel ban, which was upheld by the Supreme Court and affected several mostly Muslim countries.

Shapiro attended the University of Rochester in New York, where he majored in political science and won election to serve as the school’s student body president in 1992. Shapiro later moved to Washington, D.C., where he worked on Capitol Hill for former Rep. Joe Hoeffel, D-Pa., and enrolled as a student at Georgetown University Law Center.

Shapiro was elected in 2004 to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Shapiro served four terms in the state House before leaving in 2012 to serve as a member of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners, of which he served as chair from 2012 to 2016.

Shapiro took office as the state’s 50th attorney general in January 2017 after narrowly defeating state Sen. John Rafferty Jr., the state’s GOP nominee, in the election with 51.3% of the vote. He was re-elected to the role in 2020 by an even smaller margin – capturing 50.9% of the vote to defeat Republican nominee Heather Heidelbaugh.

In 2022, Shapiro sought the Democratic Party’s nomination for governor of the state. At the time, his candidacy received endorsements from term-limited Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and other Democrats throughout the state who supported his campaign messaging on abortion and raising the minimum wage.

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Raised in a Jewish household, Shapiro is the third Jewish governor in the history of Pennsylvania.

Shapiro, who is largely supportive of Democratic policies and proposals, has attempted to portray himself as a moderate in a state Trump carried in the 2016 presidential election and narrowly lost in 2020.

Earlier this year, amid requests from the Republican-led State Senate to do so, Shapiro declined to send the Pennsylvania National Guard to the southern border to assist with a massive influx of migrants. At the time, Shapiro’s office insisted it was up to Congress to resolve the issue.

Shapiro has also called on the Pennsylvania General Assembly to abolish the death penalty, a move his Republican critics have expressed opposition to.

Shapiro is viewed by many political strategists as a safe move for Harris as she considers who will appear alongside her on the November ballot.

Shapiro has already received support from several Pennsylvania Democrats to fill the role as Harris’ running mate, including Pennsylvania Speaker of the House Joanna McClinton and Philadelphia Democratic Party Chair Bob Brady.

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Three days after President Biden announced his decision to step aside in the 2024 race for the White House, Shapiro praised Harris, saying she had "done an extraordinary job" garnering support for the party’s presidential nomination.

"For anyone calling for any open process, I'll tell you, we had one and you know what, she kicked butt and she earned the support and she earned the nomination. And I'm proud to support her," he added at the time.