by Tyler O’Neil
Vice President Kamala Harris has a shortlist of vice presidential candidates, and her most likely choice appears to be Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.
Both Harris and former President Donald Trump will campaign heavily in the Keystone State, which is seen as crucial to their path to an Electoral College victory in November.
While classic media outlets will likely hail Shapiro as a moderate, that is not the point.
Here are 6 things to know about Shapiro:
1. His CV
Shapiro, a Pennsylvania native, graduated from the University of Rochester in New York and earned a law degree from Georgetown University. He served as a senior counsel Then-Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., won election to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 2004. He joined the Montgomery County Board in 2011 and successfully ran for Pennsylvania Attorney General in 2016.
He was re-elected in 2020 and then won the 2022 gubernatorial election, defeating Republican Doug Mastriano by 14.8 percent of the vote.
He and his wife, Lori, have four children. The family attends Shapiro’s childhood synagogue, Beth Sholom Congregation in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. The synagogue is part of a Conservative movement in Judaism that takes a historical-critical approach to the Torah and is much less classic than other branches of Judaism.
2. Unfulfilled promises regarding school choice
During the 2022 gubernatorial election campaign, Shapiro promised to support school choice by supporting the Lifeline Scholarship, which will directly fund student tuition, enabling parents to choose the best schools for their children.
However, when the House of Representatives passed a bill to include Lifeline scholarships, Shapiro threatened to veto exactly the proposition he promoted during his campaign.
Pennsylvania State Representative Joseph D’Orsie, a Republican, put it this way in an editorial for National Review: “Not only [Shapiro] withdraw from an election promise“has severed ties with the two-thirds of Pennsylvanians who support school choice.”
3. Use of surplus
D’Orsie also criticized Shapiro for spending the budget surplus he inherited when he took office last year.
The official noted that Shapiro “has chaired two annual budget negotiations, neither of which concluded by the June 30 constitutional deadline.” National Review“The budget surplus of over $8 billion that the governor took upon taking office, be completely exhausted by next summer, according to the Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office. That likely means tax increases in the near future, a very unwelcome gift for the 60 percent of Pennsylvanians who live paycheck to paycheck.”
4. Implementation of gender ideology
Under Shapiro’s leadership, state licensing boards passed strict policy statements that gave them the authority to take disciplinary action against licensed therapists who provide “conversion therapy” to “transgender” children. According to these rules, if a boy comes to a therapist saying he has trouble identifying as a girl, the therapist must “confirm” the gender opposite his own and direct him toward experimental transgender interventions. Failure to do so is considered “conversion therapy” and can result in disciplinary action.
As governor, Shapiro worked with staff from the LGBTQ advocacy group Trevor Project to promote the policy, documents show. obtained by The Daily Caller. Emails show Shapiro and Trevor Project office workers complaining that a bill banning “conversion therapy” will not pass the state legislature.
The documents also revealed that Trevor Project employees sent Shapiro’s office a report about alleged conversion therapy “practices” in Pennsylvania. The Trevor Project discovered them by reviewing databases run by Christian organizations such as Restored Hope Network and Focus on the Family.
In an email obtained by The Daily Caller, Ashleigh Strange, executive director of the Shapiro Advisory Committee on LGBTQ Issues, wrote: “We are working with the Trevor Project to amplify the ways in which the public you can report “therapist” conversions.
“It’s disturbing that The Trevor Project is trying to outlaw choice counseling and punish counselors,” Anne Edward, executive director of Restored Hope Network, told The Daily Caller.
Shapiro also opposed a bill aimed at protecting children from experimental medical interventions for transgender peoplefiled a court brief supporting allowing men or women to operate opposite-sex restrooms and invited a drag queen to perform at the governor’s mansion. Between 2015 and 2023 Pennsylvania spent more than $19.8 million on the subject of so-called puberty blockers, sex hormones and gender reassignment surgery for minors.
5. Mixed opinions about Israel
Left-wing activists protested the possibility of Harris choosing Shapiro, launching a campaign calledNo genocide Josh”to link the governor of Pennsylvania to Israel.
Shapiro, a practicing Jew, has condemned the anti-Semitism of some anti-Israel protesters. In April, he compared those protesting against the Ku Klux Klan.
“Students should not be prevented from attending university simply because they are Jewish” Shapiro told CNN in April. “We have to ask ourselves whether we would tolerate it if it were people dressed in KKK attire or regalia making comments about people who are African-American in our communities.”
Shapiro also condemned Liz Magill, then president of the University of Pennsylvania, after he did not condemn anti-Semitism at a congressional hearing. He supports a bill that would penalize colleges that boycott or divest from Israel.
However, the governor of Pennsylvania also supports the two-state solution with both Israel and Palestine and called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “terrible leader” who “has taken Israel to extremes.” He defended Israel’s right to self-defense following the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack and called on Hamas to immediately return the hostages it had taken, but also raised the issue of civilian deaths in Gaza, saying leaders “cannot ignore the deaths and destruction.”
6. Sexual Harassment Scandal
Shapiro has faced criticism for reportedly failing to address sexual harassment allegations against a senior staffer. Last year, his office paid $295,000 in Pennsylvania tax dollars to settle a case by a former staffer who claimed Shapiro’s then-Legislative Affairs Secretary, Mike Vereb, sexually harassed her.
The National Women’s Defense League blamed Shapiro for the alleged harassment. “Americans deserve to know that if appointed to higher office, Governor Shapiro will do more to ensure the safety and dignity of the employees, volunteers and constituents in his office,” Emma Davidson Tribbs, the organization’s executive director, said in a statement Wednesday.
– – –
Tyler O’Neil is the editor-in-chief of The Daily Signal and author of “Does Hate Pay: Corruption at the Southern Poverty Law Center.”
Photo by “Josh Shapiro” Governor Tom Wolfe.
