The Minneapolis-based artist can’t unsee the impact ICE and directives from President Donald Trump’s administration’s have had on her hometown in recent months.
“I don’t really know anyone whose life hasn’t been affected by the occupation in a tangible way,” she said. “Many people I know are volunteering to deliver meals, patrol schools, drive folks to work, and serve as peaceful observers — which is what both Renee Good and Alex Pretti were doing when they lost their lives at the hands of ICE agents.”
The independent graphic designer thought about ways she could get involved when it hit her. She’s joining a larger tradition of subversive font design.
Haddican, whose work focuses on typography, branding, and packaging, thought back to Moontype, a font created by designer Olli Meier that autocorrects “bad words,” like hate, into “good words,” like love.
Then she thought about language and its use today.
“It’s become impossible to ignore how blatantly the Trump administration is misusing language in order to control and distort the narrative,” she said. It clicked.
“Wouldn’t it be cool if you could change someone else’s words?” Haddican said. “I decided that the best practical use of this font feature would be a practical joke.”
This month, she launched Times New Resistance, a parody of the commonly used Times New Roman font, which autocorrects a slew of specific words as they’re typed. Notably, Times New Roman is the new (and old) official font of the State Department.
Using Times New Resistance, the term ICE autocorrects to “the Goon Squad.” Trump autocorrects to “Donald Trump is a felon.” Gay becomes “gay rights are human rights.” Illegal alien becomes “human being.”
Kingsley Spencer, a creative director and designer based in Jacksonville, Fla., says using the State Department’s own font is part of what makes Haddican’s font so powerful.
“Using technology as a form of commentary against a political regime that decided to weaponize Times New Roman as a form of culture shaping is sharp for a designer,” he said. “I love how direct and comical it is.”
The font is free, “just like America used to be,” Haddican‘s website says. She said Monday that it has been downloaded about 600 times so far. She describes it as a “social commentary meant to autocorrect the autocrats.”
The hope is that some users might secretly install the font onto the computers of “an ICE apologist,” or “morally bankrupt American” as a way of unleashing mischief.
To the untrained eye, the typeface looks like Times New Roman in the font menu — there’s just a sneaky extra space between the words Times and New. But it’s likely many downloads are by like-minded supporters who want to enjoy the font for themselves.
The technology behind the font is simple.
Haddican modified an existing open-source typeface that resembles Times New Roman and programmed the substitutions. She said the hardest part was deciding which autocorrections to make.
“I know I’ve done an imperfect job. The corrections are a mixture of serious stuff (for example, the word ‘good’ autocorrects to ‘Renee Good was murdered by ICE’) and things that I find funny, like changing ‘Stephen Miller’ to ‘Nosferatu,’” she said.
“The first draft was significantly more profane, but I toned it down. I wanted to offend people by speaking truth to power, not for swearing like a sailor.”
Spencer said the font uses something in the typography world called ligatures, which replaces a set of recognized characters with a single character phrase. An example of this is when you type a fraction or date in a document and it’s automatically formatted.
Haddican joins a group of other typography artists who have made jokes, social commentary, or both through text.
Times Newer Roman is a typeface created by the Brooklyn-based art collective MSCHF (pronounced mischief) in 2018 that looks identical to Times New Roman, except each character is 5% to 10% longer, making essays appear slightly longer without changing formatting rules.
It was billed as a font that could help students cheat on term papers. The font takes jabs at academic productivity culture, using typographic invisibility that’s undetected by the untrained eye.
Sang Mun, a designer and former National Security Agency contractor, created a subversive “surveillance proof” font called ZXX in 2013. The fonts were created to be legible to the human eye, but difficult for surveillance software used by Google and other companies to scan text to read.
More mainstream examples include Shepard Fairey, the artist behind OBEY and President Barack Obama’s iconic HOPE graphic, who is known for his use of single phrases and high-contrast graphics to make political propaganda-style art. In the 2024 presidential election, Fairey made a Kamala Harris poster that said FORWARD in the same style as his Obama art.
On social media, reception for Haddican’s font has been strong, garnering over 6,000 likes on Instagram and hat tips from fellow designers.
“I think just about anything can be a form of resistance, and I believe that humor and playfulness are powerful tools for pushing back against oppression and authoritarianism,” Haddican said. “The trickster (e.g. Bugs Bunny) always beats the martyr (e.g. Elmer Fudd) in the end.”
Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro is racking up contributions from out-of-state billionaires as well as thousands of individual donors across the country.
His likely Republican challenger, State Treasurer Stacy Garrity, meanwhile, is capturing small-donor donations from Pennsylvanians.
That’s according to an analysis of the latest campaign finance filings in the Pennsylvania governor’s contest, as a clearer picture of the race emerges nine months out from Election Day. Shapiro entered 2026 with $30 million on hand — money raised over several years as he has built a national profile — while Garrity raised $1.5 million in her first five months on the campaign trail as she tries to unseat the popular Democratic incumbent. Last year, Shapiro brought in $23.3 million.
Here are three takeaways from the first campaign finance filings in the race, tracking fundraising heading into 2026.
Almost all of Stacy Garrity’s contributors are from Pennsylvania, while 62% of Shapiro’s are in state
Nearly all of Garrity’s individual 1,155 contributors — more than 97% — live in Pennsylvania, and on average gave $889 each.
Shapiro — who has amassed a national following and is a rumored 2028 Democratic presidential contender — had a much further reach and attracted many more donors from around the country. He received contributions from 4,981 individual donors, 62% of whom are from Pennsylvania. The average individual donor to Shapiro contributed $3,461, a number buoyed by multiple six- and seven-figure contributions.
Shapiro received most of his remaining individual donations from California (7.1%), New York (6.3%), New Jersey (2.5%), Florida (2.5%), and Massachusetts (2.4%), according to an Inquirer analysis.
(The analysis includes only donors who contributed more than $50 in 2025. Campaigns are required to list only individual donors who contribute above that threshold.)
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Shapiro’s broad donor base is a result of his status as a popular incumbent governor who is liked among people of both political parties, saidRobin Kolodny, a Temple University political science professor who focuses on campaign finance.
“These amounts that you’re seeing is a very strong signal that ‘This is our guy,’” Kolodny said. “That underscores he is a popular incumbent.”
Kolodny also noted that Shapiro’s state-level fundraising cannot be transferred to a federal political action committee should he decide to run in 2028.But his war chest shows his ability to raise money nationally and his popularity as the leader of the state, she added.
Governor Josh Shapiro during a reelection announcement event at the Alan Horwitz “Sixth Man” Center in Philadelphia on Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026.
Only a small percentage of the population contributes to political campaigns, Kolodny said. And sometimes, it’s the smallest contributions that pay off the most, she said. Small-dollar donations suggest grassroots support that can translate into a person assisting the campaign in additional ways to get out the vote, she said.
Both Shapiro and Garrity have received a significant number of small-dollar donations that illustrate some level of excitement in the race — though Shapiro’s more than 3,000 in-state donors outnumber Garrity’s total by nearly 3-1.
“Think of fundraising as not just a money grab, but also as a campaign strategy,” Kolodny said.
Since announcing his reelection campaign in January, Shapiro has run targeted social media ads and sent fundraising texts, asking for supporters to “chip in” $1 or $5. The strategy worked, bringing in $400,000 in the first two days after his announcement, with an average contribution of $41, according to Shapiro’s campaign. This funding is not reflected in his 2025 campaign finance report.
Most of Shapiro’s money came from out-of-state donors, including billionaire Mike Bloomberg and a George Soros PAC
While Shapiro garnered thousands of individual contributions from Pennsylvania in all 67 counties, according to his campaign, the latest filings show it was the big-money checks from out-of-state billionaires that ran up his total.
Approximately 64% of the $23.3 million Shapiro raised last year came from out-of-state donors.
And more than half — 57% — of Shapiro’s total raised came from six- or seven-figure contributions by powerful PACs or billionaire donors.
By contrast, only 31% of Garrity’s total fundraising came from six-figure contributions.
The biggest single contribution in the governor’s race came from billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who gave Shapiro $2.5 million last year.
Shapiro also received $1 million from a political action committee led by billionaire Democratic supporter George Soros; and $500,000 from Kathryn and James Murdoch, from the powerful family of media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
Kolodny noted that big contributions from people like Bloomberg are a drop in the bucket of his total political or philanthropic spending.
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“This is not something extraordinary,” Kolodny said. “He’s got nothing but money.”
In Pennsylvania, Shapiro received notably high contributions from Philadelphia Phillies owner John Middleton, who gave $125,000, and Nemacolin Resort owner MaggieHardy, who gave $250,000, among others. He also received a number of five-figure contributions from private equity officials, venture capitalists, and industry executives in life sciences, construction, and more.
Garrity’ssingle biggest donation was $250,000 from University City Housing Co., a real estate firm providing housing near Drexel University and the University of Pennsylvania. Her largest contributions from individuals included $50,000 from her finance chair, Bob Asher of Asher Chocolates, and another $50,000 from Alfred Barbour, a retired executive from Concast Metal Products.
Garrity has served as Pennsylvania’s state treasurer since 2020 and has led the low-profile statewide office with little controversy. She did not join the race for governor until August and raised only a fraction of the funds Shapiro did in that same time. Meanwhile, Shapiro spent 2025 at the political forefront as a moderate Democrat trying to challenge President Donald Trump in a state that helped elect him. Shapiro also benefited from his national name recognition after he was considered for Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate in 2024.
Shapiro has so far outraised Garrity 30-1, and top Pennsylvania Republicans have said they want to see Garrity fundraising more aggressively nationally.
Kolodny said Garrity’s low fundraising is a reflection of the state of the race: Republicans put up a weak candidate in 2022 against Shapiro during his first run for governor, and now many powerful donors want to keep the relationship they have formed with Shapiro over the last three years.
“That will reflect as a lack of enthusiasm for her,” Kolodny said. “Now she could turn that around, but from what I see, I don’t see her that much, only recently. She had the last six months; she could have done a lot more.”
Controversy over donations tied to associates of Jeffrey Epstein
Shapiro’s top contributions from individual donors also included a $500,000 check from Reid Hoffman, the Silicon Valley-based billionaire cofounder of LinkedIn. His name showed up thousands of times in the trove of documents recently released by the U.S. Department of Justice related to the investigation into financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Garrity has highlighted the donations Shapiro received from Hoffman, and has publicly called on Shapiro to return the tech billionaire’s campaign contributions from last year and prior years, totaling more than $2 million since 2021.
Hoffman has claimed he had only a fundraising relationship with Epstein, but publiclyadmitted he had visited his island. He has not been charged with wrongdoing.
A spokesperson for Shapiro said Garrity should “stop playing politics with the Epstein files.”
“Donald Trump is mentioned in the files over 5,000 times. Is she going to ask him to rescind his endorsement?” asked Manuel Bonder, Shapiro’s spokesperson.
Garrity has previously downplayed Trump’s appearance in the Epstein files, and argued that Democrats would have released them much sooner if there was clear evidence of Trump partaking in any inappropriate behavior.
GOP candidate for Pennsylania Governor, Stacy Garrity and Jason Richey hold up their arms in Harrisburg, Pa., Saturday, February 7, 2026. The PA State Republican Committee endorsed the two in their quest for the governor’s mansion. (For the Inquirer/Kalim A. Bhatti)
If Shapiro were to return the funds from Hoffman, it would be bad for Garrity, Kolodny said, because she has made very few other political attacks against him.
The embattled new boss of CBS News, the until-now opinion journalist Bari Weiss, on Tuesday led a town hall-style meeting for editors and reportersat the storied TV network and appeared to understand both the crisis of American media and the values needed to fix it.
“Our strategy until now has been: Cling to the audience that remains on broadcast television,” Weiss told her newsroom. “I’m here to tell you that if we stick to that strategy, we’re toast.” She called for more investigative reporting and pledged to merge the values of a high-tech start-up with “journalistic principles that will never change — seeking the truth, serving the public, and ferociously guarding our independence …”
Meanwhile, the overpowering stench of burning toast filled the room.
That’s because Weiss and her billionaire pro-Trump overlords, the Ellison family, seem to be doing all the wrong things, undercutting those pretty words. Her first concrete move announced in tandem with the town hall was the hiring of 18 thumb-sucking opinion journalists — a ragtag, right-leaning group that includes a medical huckster and an ex-Trump official — even as the newsroom braced for buyouts and feared layoffs that would slash honest shoe-leather reporting.
The move toward more commentators telling you what to think about an America spiraling into chaos and fewer boots-on-the-ground journalists digging up what’s needed to fix that crisis — objective truth — could not happen at a worse time, and unfortunately, this is not unique to CBS News.
As the Washington Post braces for a round of layoffs, staffers bemoan the lack of vision from owner Jeff Bezos and CEO Will Lewis. https://t.co/92VsAGFbaK
The Washington Post — which has lost hundreds of thousands of digital subscribers since a self-coup by its billionaire owner, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, shifted its opinion section to the political right — is also bracing for deep staff cuts that would cripple its international reporting, as well as its sports staff.
The extent of the widely rumored staff reductions isn’t yet known, but a preview came last week when the paper briefly told the newsroom it was axing its long-standing plan to send 12 journalists to next month’s Winter Olympics in Italy, before slightly backtracking and saying four reporters would still go.
Still, that move, and the louder rumors about pending layoffs, has led to deep concern over the future of its metro Washington and international desks. “We urge you to consider how the proposed layoffs will certainly lead us first to irrelevance — not the shared success that remains attainable,” stated a letter from 60 journalists on the foreign desk sent this week to Bezos.
“It’s all very confusing, and no one knows anything,” an anonymous Post staffer told the Guardian. “The anxiety is so sad.”
America has been losing news reporters for years. Nationally, newsroom staff have plummeted a whopping 26% since 2008, and the pace of job cuts has only accelerated in recent years as vast news deserts with no sources of local journalism expand across rural America. It’s been a perfect storm prompted heavily by internet-driven changes in reader or viewer habits, as well as declining public trust in traditional media.
But the looming cuts at the Post and CBS are especially painful both in a symbolic sense and also as self-inflicted own goals that will only heighten public mistrust instead of attacking the problem.
In 1972, with then-President Richard Nixon driving toward a landslide reelection, the Post, under its legendary editor Ben Bradlee, and CBS, with its popular, avuncular anchor Walter Cronkite, were the only two major outlets that took seriously the links between the Watergate break-in and the Nixon White House. Both newsrooms threw major resources into keeping alivethe story that eventually caused Nixon to resign, including a 22-minute special report that Cronkite anchored on the CBS Evening News.
In this undated photo released by Paramount, one of the Free Press’s cofounders, Bari Weiss, poses for a portrait. Weiss is the editor-in-chief of CBS News.
That kind of accountability journalism created a bond with the audience that should have left CBS and the Post better positioned to weather the economic storms that have battered journalism in the 21st century. The current crises were self-inflicted, albeit for slightly different reasons.
In Washington, the Post zigzagged from acknowledging what its readers wanted during Donald Trump’s first term — both in its “Democracy Dies in Darkness” slogan to some solid journalism that backed that up — to billionaire Bezos’ embrace of authoritarianism ahead of Trump’s second coming. The Bezos-ordered spiking of a Kamala Harris endorsement and a rightward editorial shift accelerated a steep decline in subscriptions, including about 300,000 lost readers after the nonendorsement.
One could argue that staff cuts in such an environment are inevitable, but one might also question the priorities of the Post’s owner, the world’s second-richest person. Amazon — where Bezos remains executive chairman — has just spent $75 million on a White House-fluffing Melania documentary expected to bring back just $1 million at the box office.
The priorities at Weiss-run CBS News seem similarly warped. The money the newsroom is spending on those 18 or so opinion journalists — a motley crew that includes Mark Hyman, who health experts have accused of “quackery,” calling him a “germ theory denialist,” and retired Gen. H.R. McMaster, a key policy adviser in Trump’s first term — could have been spent on new investigative reporters.
But then Weiss’ overlords in the Ellison family, whose recent role in the TikTok takeover and current fight to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery both depend on the blessing of the Trump White House, probably don’t want the stories Leonnig is uncovering.
Tense afternoon in Kenner, outside of New Orleans, as protesters followed Greg Bovino and Border Patrol around a neighborhood around 3pm today. pic.twitter.com/4IcH4OfL2K
This is not a diatribe against all opinion journalism. I am an opinion journalist, and I started moving in that direction in the 2000s when I thought someone needed to be screaming from the rooftops about the lying and the war crimes of the George W. Bush regime. I think commentary and debate are especially needed in the local communities where such jobs have vanished the most, but I also think powerful opinion journalism exists mainly to augment on-the-ground reporting, not replace it.
The greatest irony of the pullbacks at CBS and the Post is that the national crisis over immigration raids in Minnesota and the conduct of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers who’ve killed two citizens has shown that what American democracy needs most is seekers of the truth — much more than people telling you what to think.
The over-the-top lies from the highest levels of the U.S. government about how and why Renee Good and Alex Pretti were gunned down on the streets of Minneapolis have fallen apart because multiple videos have allowed citizens to see the truth of what actually happened.
Most of those videos were shot by citizen observers, but with 3,000 federal agents fanning out across Minnesota and hundreds more conducting immigration raids from Maine to Los Angeles, a web of local and independent journalists has also proved critical in documenting the raids and their many human rights abuses.
Dozens of journalists have been tear-gassed multiple times or struck with rubber bullets or pepper balls, and yet continue to cover protests and ICE activities, often in the most miserable conditions, and keep going out there to create a public record.
CBS News and the Washington Post could have been at the vanguard of this movement, which would have been a fitting tribute to the legacies of Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow, Bradlee and Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, and their many intrepid colleagues. Instead, the supposed keepers of those flames have made a horrible, doomed bet on autocracy.
What I’ve watched in recent weeks coming out of Minneapolis and elsewhere on the front lines of the war for America’s soul has given me more hope for the future of journalism than any time since the ball dropped to launch this cursed millennium. That CBS and the Post chose this exact moment to willingly blind themselves is beyond pathetic.
On Jan. 8, Andre Golsorkhi, founder and CEO of design firm Haldon House, presented plans for a revitalized town center, complete with historic architecture, green spaces, and businesses that “fit the character” of the area. Golsorkhi told a packed school auditorium that Haldon House plans to bring in boutique shops, open an upscale-yet-approachable restaurant, and create spaces for communal gathering.
At the meeting, Golsorkhi also revealed that the project was backed by Jeff Yass, Pennsylvania’s richest man, and his wife, Janine. Golsorkhi said the Yasses want to revitalize Gladwyne as part of a local “community impact project.” Haldon House and the Yasses, who live near Gladwyne, have spent over $15 million acquiring multiple properties at the intersection of Youngs Ford and Righters Mill Roads.
Renderings of a proposed revitalization project in Gladwyne, Pa. Design firm Haldon House is working with billionaire Jeff Yass to redevelop the Main Line village while preserving its historic architecture, developers told Gladwyne residents at a Jan. 8 meeting.
What is, and isn’t, allowable?
For some residents, one question has lingered: Is one family allowed to redevelop an entire village?
A petition calling on Lower Merion Township to hold a public hearing and pass protections preventing private owners from consolidating control of town centers had gathered nearly four dozen signatures as of Friday.
Around 4,100 people live in the 19035 zip code, which encompasses much of Gladwyne, according to data from the 2020 U.S. Census.
“Residents deserve a say before their town is transformed.No one family, no matter how wealthy, should unilaterally control the civic and commercial core of a historic Pennsylvania community,” the petition reads.
Yet much of Haldon House’s plan is allowable under township zoning code, said Chris Leswing, Lower Merion’s director for building and planning.
Plans to refurbish buildings, clean up landscaping, and bring in new businesses are generally permitted by right, meaning the developers will not need approval from the township to move forward. Gladwyne’s downtown is zoned as “neighborhood center,” a zoning designation put on the books in 2023 that allows for small-scale commercial buildings and local retail and services. The zoning code, which is currently in use in Gladwyne and Penn Wynne, ensures commercial buildings can be no taller than two stories.
The developers’ plans to open a new restaurant in the former Gladwyne Market and renovate buildings with a late-1800s aesthetic, including wraparound porches and greenery, are generally within the bounds of what is allowed, once they obtain a building permit.
The Village Shoppes, including the Gladwyne Pharmacy, at the intersection of Youngs Ford and Righters Mill Roads in Gladwyne on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.
More ambitious plans, however, like converting a residential home into a parking lot or burying the power lines that hang over the village, would require extra levels of approval, Leswing said.
The developers hope to convert a residential property on the 900 block of Youngs Ford Road into a parking lot. Lower Merion generally encourages parking lots to be tucked behind buildings and does not allow street-facing parking, a measure designed to avoid a strip mall feel, Leswing said. In order to turn the lot into parking, the developers would need an amendment to the zoning code, which would have to be approved by the board of commissioners.
Various approvals would also be needed to put Gladwyne’s power lines underground, an ambitious goal set by the Haldon House and Yass team.
Leswing clarified that no official plans have been submitted, making it hard to say how long the process will take. It will be a matter of months, at least, before the ball really gets rolling.
Leswing added the developers have been “so good about being locked into the community” and open to constructive feedback.
Golsorkhi said it will be some time before his team can provide a meaningful update on the development, but expressed gratitude to the hundreds of residents who have reached out with questions, support, and concerns.
Map of properties in Gladwyne bought or leased by the Yass family.
From ‘110% in favor’ to ‘a tough pill to swallow’
Fred Abrams, 65, a real estate developer who has lived in Gladwyne for seven years, said he and his wife are “110% in favor” of the redevelopment, calling it an “absolute no-brainer.”
Many Gladwyne residents live in single-family homes that keep them in their own, sometimes isolating, worlds, his wife, Kassie Monaghan Abrams, 57, said.
“Here’s an opportunity for being outside and meeting your neighbors and, to me, getting back to spending time with people,” she said of the proposal to create communal gathering areas.
“I think it’s a very thoughtful, beautiful design,” Monaghan Abrams added.
Some social media commenters called the proposal “charming” and “a fantastic revitalization.”
Others were more skeptical.
Ryan Werner, 40, moved to Gladwyne in 2012 with his wife, who grew up in the town.
“One of the things I’ve kind of fallen in love with about Gladwyne is the sense of community,” said Werner, who has a background in e-commerce sales and is transitioning to work in the mental health space.
“I’m less opposed to just the commercial side of it and more grossed out by the involvement of certain people in it,” Werner said.
Gladwyne is a Democratic-leaning community that voted overwhelmingly for former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.
On social media, some griped about the changes.
“The Village will be just like Ardmore and Bryn Mawr. Can’t undo it once they build it,” one commenter wrote in a Gladwyne Facebook group.
Golsorkhi said in an email that the “enthusiasm, excitement and support” from the community have been “overwhelming.”
This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.
It was the start of a voicemail from the president to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, received one week after a man firebombed the governor’s residence in Harrisburg in an attempt to kill Shapiro while his family slept inside on the first night of Passover.
Shapiro hadn’t recognized the number Trump was calling from, and at first didn’t answer.
When Shapiro called back, Trump offered well wishes to the governor’s family, his usual braggadocio, and some advice: he shouldn’t want to be president, Shapiro recalls in his new memoir, set to be released later this month.
The book, Where We Keep the Light, which comes out on Jan. 27, has attracted a flood of attention as it signals Shapiro’s potential presidential aspirations and also serves as a retort to the unflattering portrayal of the governor in former Vice President Kamala Harris’ recent memoir.
In the 257-page book, Shapiro details his early life in Montgomery County, his two decades in elected office, his connection to his faith, and his pragmatic leadership approach.
And for the political observers who have watched Shapiro’s rise: He delves into his brief consideration of whether he should run for president after Joe Biden dropped out of the race in 2024, the whirlwind experience of being vetted to be Harris’ running mate, and the unfair scrutiny he felt he faced during that process.
Here are six takeaways from Shapiro’s forthcoming memoir, obtained by The Inquirer.
Trump to Shapiro: ‘He cautioned that I shouldn’t want to be president’
When Shapiro, 52, returned Trump’s call in April 2025, he received the president’s support and some unprompted compliments from Trump, he writes.
“[Trump] said he liked the way I talked to people and approached problems,” Shapiro retells, as Trump went through the list of potential 2028 Democratic Party presidential candidates. “He cautioned that I shouldn’t want to be president, given how dangerous it had become to hold the office now.”
Gov. Josh Shapiro speaks during a news conference, in Butler, Pa., Sunday, July 14, 2024, following an assassination attempt on President Donald Trump.
(It is unclear whether Shapiro tried to call Trump after he experienced his own assassination attempt in Butler, Pa., the previous summer, though Shapiro publicly vehemently denounced the violence.)
Shapiro sells himself as a pragmatist and writes proudly of the times in which he has disagreed with his party or changed his positions.
For example, he recalls being asked by Harris’ vetting team about his past comments criticizing Democrats in federal, state, and local offices for how they handled COVID-19 closures. He stood by his criticism of former Gov. Tom Wolf at the time over business and school closures, and of the mask and vaccine mandates implemented by the Biden administration, he writes.
“I respectfully pushed back, asking if they believed that we had gotten everything right, to which they generally agreed that we had not,” Shapiro writes about his conversation with Harris’ vetting team. “I just had been willing to say the quiet part out loud, even if it wasn’t easy or popular or toeing the line to do so.”
Then-Attorney General Josh Shapiro and Then-Gov. Tom Wolf both go in for handshakes before the start of a press conference on the harmful effects of anti-abortion policies at 5th and Market in Philadelphia on Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021.
He also writes about his journey to change his position on the death penalty over the years. In the days after the Tree of Life synagogue massacre in Pittsburgh, in which 11 Jewish people were killed while worshipping, he had initially supported the death penalty for the suspect. Since then, his views have evolved and he no longer supports capital punishment and called on the legislature to end the practice.
Lori Shapiro is behind most of her husband’s good ideas
Lori Shapiro, 53, mostly avoids her husband’s frequent appearances in the limelight.
But in his book, Shapiro writes that his wife has challenged him as she has supported his political rise, pushing him to question what he really wants, do the right thing, or even help him shape his messaging to voters. She discouraged him from running for U.S. Senate in 2016 after top Democrats approached him, which led him to run for attorney general instead. She was also his first call when Biden dropped out and he briefly considered whether he should run for president, and his voice of reason during the veepstakes.
Josh Shapiro and his wife Lori leave the state Capitol in Harrisburg Tuesday, Jan. 17 2023, on his way to the stage to be sworn in as the 48th Governor of Pennsylvania.
The couple started dating in high school, before breaking up during college when they went to different universities in New York — he attended the University of Rochester, while she went to Colgate University. Shapiro writes that he quickly realized he missed her, and wrote her a letter in an effort to win her back.
“So I cracked my knuckles, and wrote my heart out. I was Shakespeare composing a sonnet. I was Taylor Swift before Taylor Swift. I was Lloyd Dobler in Say Anything, in a trench coat with the boom box over my head,” Shapiro writes. “I was getting the girl back.”
This earned Shapiro the title of “Mr. Lori” from her hall mates at Colgate. He did not win her back until years later, when the two reconnected in Washington after college, and quickly became engaged. The twomarried and had four children together, who each make frequent appearances throughout the book.
Surrounded by his four children, Gov. Josh Shapiro kisses his wife Lori after his is sworn in as the 48th Governor of Pennsylvania during inauguration ceremonies at the state Capitol in Harrisburg Tuesday, Jan. 17 2023.
Shapiro grapples with an early career move that kicked off his reputation as disloyal
Shapiro is not without regret for how some of his career moves and ambitions affected the people who helped him get where he is today, he writes.
Shapiro got his start in politics on the Hill under then-U.S. Rep. Joe Hoeffel, a Montgomery County Democrat. He quickly worked his way up to be Hoeffel’s chief of staff before returning to Abington Township to run for state representative.
But when Shapiro was done with frequent trips to Harrisburg and ready for his next rung on the ladder, Hoeffel was in the way. Shapiro had a plan to run for county commissioner and flip the board for the first time in more than 150 years — making Montco the first Philadelphia collar county to swing into Democratic control. Now all of the Philly suburban counties are controlled by Democrats, and Shapiro is credited for starting the trend. But Hoeffel was not a part of that calculation.
Shapiro writes that Hoeffel was “struggling politically.” He says he told him he would not run against him, but he also would not run with him.
“I knew that I couldn’t win with him, and I knew that it wasn’t the right thing for the party or the county, even if we could somehow eke out the victory,” Shapiro writes.
Hoeffel eventually decided not to run, and was quoted in The Inquirer in 2017 as saying that loyalty is not Shapiro’s “strong suit,” comments he has since stood by, in addition to praising Shapiro for his successes ever since.
“I’d hear about [Hoeffel] talking to the press or to people behind my back about how he thought I lacked loyalty, that I was someone who needed to be watched,” Shapiro writes. “It felt terrible, and of course, I never intended to hurt him in any way and I would never have run against him. I wanted the Democrats to have a shot, and I knew that I could get it done.”
Shapiro initially said antisemitism didn’t play into Kamala Harris’ running mate decision. Now he has more to say
In the days after Harris passed over Shapiro to be her running mate in favor of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Shapiro said “antisemitism had no impact” on her decision.
Now, Shapiro questions whether he was unfairly scrutinized by Harris’ vetting team as the only Jewish person being considered as a finalist, including a moment when a top member of Harris’ camp asked him if he had “ever been an agent of the Israeli government.”
“I wondered whether these questions were being posed to just me — the only Jewish guy in the running — or if everyone who had not held a federal office was being grilled about Israel in the same way,” he writes.
Vice President Kamala Harris visits Little Thai Market at Reading Terminal Market with Gov. Josh Shapiro after she spoke at the APIA Vote Presidential Town Hall at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, Pa., on Saturday, July 13, 2024. The photo was taken eight days before President Joe Biden’s decision to exit the race.
He details his broader concerns with how he was treated during the process, including some perceived insults about his family’s lack of wealth or Lori Shapiro’s appearance.
Since Shapiro’s book was leaked to the media over the weekend, sources close to Walz confirmed to ABC News that the Minnesota governor was also asked whether he was an agent of a foreign government, due to his multiple trips to China.
Shapiro, for his part, has written about his time in Israel, including a high school program in which he completed service projects on a farm, on a fishery at a kibbutz, and at an Israeli army base. He once described himself in his college student newspaper as a “past volunteer in the Israeli army” — a characterization that circulated widely after it was reported by The Inquirer during the veepstakes.
Vereb had been along for the ride for Shapiro’s time in the state House as a fellow state representative from Montgomery County (though he was a Republican), as a top liaison to him in the attorney general’s office, and eventually a member of his cabinet in the governor’s office until his resignation in 2023.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro questioned whether he was being unfairly scrutinized asthe only Jewish person being considered as a finalistto be Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate — and briefly entertained his own run for the presidency — according to a copy of his upcoming book obtained by The Inquirer.
Shapiro, a popular Democratic governor long rumored to have future presidential ambitions, even briefly entertained a run shortly after then-President Joe Biden unexpectedly dropped out of the race in July 2024, according to his book. The Abington Township resident is now seen as a top contender for the 2028 Democratic nomination as he seeks reelection in Pennsylvania this year.
But before Shapiro ended up in the veepstakes for Harris’ running mate, he wrote in his book that there was a moment right after Biden dropped out of the race where he considered whether he should run for president.
“Well, now what?” Shapiro wrote. “Maybe there would be a process the party would engage in to replace him? Did I want to be part of that?”
He called his wife, Lori, who at the time was out of the country with their two younger kids. “I don’t think we are ready to do this,” Shapiro recalled his wife saying from a Walmart in Vancouver. “It’s not the right time for our family. And it’s not on our terms.”
After that call, Shapiro wrote that he quickly decided he didn’t want to run and would back Harris, as Biden also endorsed her for the top of the ticket.
Once the field cleared for Harris, Shapiro recalled seeing his face on TV as her potential running mate, before he was asked by her campaign manager to be formally vetted.
In the days that followed,Shapiro contended with increasing national scrutiny as he emerged as a front-runner. Some pro-Palestinian protesters began calling Shapiro “Genocide Josh” online, he wrote. And top Democrats questioned whether a Jewish running mate would deter voters from supporting Harris, as Shapiro had been outspoken against some pro-Palestinian campus protests that year.
What was unknown: Whether those same questions — and some even more extreme — were circulating within Harris’ camp, Shapiro wrote in his most detailed retelling of his experience vying for the vice presidency to date.
Gov. Josh Shapiro at a rally for Vice President Kamala Harris at Wissahickon High School in Ambler on July 29, 2024.
Just before he went to meet with Harris at the vice president’s residence in the summer of 2024, Shapiro received a call from Dana Remus, former White House counsel for Biden who was coleading the vetting process for Harris.
“Have you ever been an agent of the Israeli government?” Remus asked, according to Shapiro’s memoir.
“Had I been a double agent for Israel? Was she kidding?” Shapiro wrote in his 257-page book. “I told her how offensive the question was.”
According to the memoir, Remus then asked if Shapiro had ever communicated with an undercover Israeli agent, which he shot back: “If they were undercover… how the hell would I know?”
“Remus was just doing her job. I get it. But the fact that she asked, or was told to ask that question by someone else, said a lot about some of the people around the VP,” Shapiro wrote.
In high school, Shapiro completed a program in Israel that included service projects on a farm, and at a fishery in a kibbutz, as well as at an Israeli army base, which he once described in his college student newspaper as “a past volunteer in the Israeli army.”
Harris’ office could not be reached for comment Sunday evening. Remus also could not immediately be reached for comment Sunday.
Shapiro, more broadly, recalled getting the feeling from Harris’ vetting team that she should pick Shapiro — a popular Democratic governor in a critical swing state — but that they had reservations about whether Shapiro’s views would mesh with Harris’.
In one vetting session with U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D., Nev.), former Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, former associate Attorney General Tony West, and former senior Biden adviser Cedric Richmond, Shapiro wrote that he had been questioned “a lot” about Israel, including why he had been outspoken against the protests at Penn.
“I wondered whether these questions were being posed to just me — the only Jewish guy in the running — or if everyone who had not held a federal office was being grilled about Israel in the same way,” he wrote. (Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who is Jewish, was also vetted to be Harris’ running mate. Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, is also Jewish.)
In his book, Shapiro recalled the whirlwind two weeks as an awe-inspiring window into an opportunity — but ultimately it was one he knew he didn’t want.
When Shapiro finally sat down with Harris in the dining room at the Naval Observatory, he said it became clear that she had a different vision for the vice presidency than what he wanted. He would work primarily with her staff and couldn’t say whether he would have access to her. In her own experience as vice president, she saw the job as mostly to make sure that you aren’t making any problems for the president, he wrote.
Shapiro noted his own relationship with his No. 2, Lt. Gov. Austin Davis. The role in itself has few powers, but Shapiro views Davis as a governing partner and is one of few people who can walk into his office unannounced at any time, he wrote. He wanted the same relationship with Harris, he said, noting that he knew he would not be the decision-maker.
“If we had door A and door B as options, and she was for door A and I was for door B, I just wanted to makes sure that I could make the case for door B,” Shapiro wrote.
But Harris was “crystal clear” that that wasn’t the kind of president-vice president dynamic she envisioned, he said.
In her own book released last year, 107 Days, Harris recalled the meeting differently. There, she wrote that Shapiro had “peppered” her with questions and “mused that he would want to be in the room for every decision.”His ambitions, she said, didn’t align with her view that a vice president should be a No. 2 and not a “copresident.”
Former Vice President Kamala Harris speaks with Dawn Staley (left), while promoting her new book “107 Days,” at the Met on Sept. 25 in Philadelphia. The event was held in partnership with Uncle Bobbie’s Coffee & Books.
As Shapiro tells it, the friction with Harris’ team didn’t stop there.
Shortly after meeting with Harris, Shapiro in his book recalled another unpleasant conversation with Remus, in which he wrote that she said she “could sense that I didn’t want to do this.”
According to the book, Remus said it would be hard for Shapiro to move to Washington, it would be a strain financially for his family who “didn’t have a lot of money” by D.C. standards, and that Lori would need to get a whole new wardrobe and pay people to do her hair and makeup.
It was then that he decided to leave the apartment where he had been asked to wait until Harris could come and talk to him again, he recalled.
“These comments were unkind to me. They were nasty to Lori,” Shapiro wrote. “I hold no grudge against Remus, who I know was doing the job she had to do, but I needed to leave.”
Shapiro went home, he said, and went over the day’s events with Lori at the edge of their bed.
“On one hand, I was still tugged by the prestige of it all. It’s an honor. It’s a big title. But that’s never been enough for me,” he wrote. Still, he struggled with what it would mean to withdraw, concerned about not playing his part in a high-stakes election and letting his supporters down. Ultimately, he decided that it was not his race to win or lose, he wrote.
“People were going to cast their votes for her, or they weren’t,” he added.
Vice President Kamala Harris, Democratic nominee for president, and her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, address a rally to kick off their campaign at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, Pa., on Tuesday, August 6, 2024.
He decided that day he did not want the job, and toyed with the idea about publicly releasing a statement withdrawing himself from the running. He said he also tried to tell Harris he did not think it would be a good fit, but wasn’t able to reach her.
“I was wrung out. I just wanted to be home with my family, to take a walk with Lori, and just be,” he wrote.
Gov. Josh Shapiro takes the stage ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz at a rally in Philadelphia’s Liacouras Center on August 6, 2024.
But when it was time for him to take the stage ahead of Walz and Harris, he was long-applauded by his home city and gave a speech “from my heart” about how he took pride in his faith and his support for Walz and Harris.
Shapiro’s memoir will be released Jan. 27 and is a reflection on his decades as an elected official, including as Pennsylvania attorney general, as well as the firebombing of his home last year. He will tout the book in Philadelphia on Saturday at 3 p.m. at Parkway Central Library. He will also discuss the book at upcoming book tour stops in New York and Washington.
My late father was a high school teacher and basketball coach who learned a lot about the world around him during his 81 years. I’ll never forget how, when he’d hear me grousing about what could have been, he would always give me a look and sternly warn, “Don’t look back.”
I’ve come to appreciate how wise his words were, but let’s face it, sometimes we don’t need wisdom — we need relief.
Barely a few weeks into Year Two of Donald Trump’s second term, I can’t help but shake my head when I think about how much better off America (and the world) would be if Kamala Harris had won the presidency.
She wasn’t a perfect candidate. Far from it. But once in the White House, I have no doubt she would have led the country with dignity and integrity, values currently in short supply inside the Oval Office.
Under President Harris, the U.S. would not have invaded Venezuela and kidnapped its president, threatened to annex Greenland “the hard way,” or alienated our Canadian neighbors into boycotting American products and selling their Florida vacation homes. Rather than flirting with blowing up NATO, we would be working with our European allies to pressure Russia into ending its war with Ukraine.
Instead of bringing back American imperialism — something nobody voted for — Harris would be focused on improving the lives of everyday Americans.
She would be implementing policies such as allowing Medicare to better cover the cost of home care, and working with Congress to extend insurance subsidies to help keep healthcare affordable for millions of people. Meanwhile, the inflation that bedeviled her predecessor would continue to ease, untroubled by haphazard tariffs that are no less than a tax on every U.S. family.
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency would be a ketamine-fueled figment of the tech billionaire’s imagination instead of the cause of almost 750,000 deaths — most of them children — due to the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development. At home, the roughly 300,000 federal workers who left or lost their jobs because of DOGE would be serving the public, instead of leaving gaps in crucial agencies such as Social Security, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Federal Aviation Administration.
You know who wouldn’t have a job under a Harris administration? The thousands of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who will be hired, to the tune of $30 billion, over the next few years. ICE would be targeting criminals in the country illegally, not inflicting a reign of terror on the American people. Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother of three and U.S. citizen, would still be alive instead of gunned down by an ICE agent in Minneapolis.
FBI agents across the country would be focused on solving and preventing crimes, instead of thousands being reassigned to immigration enforcement. National Guard members would be with their families, not picking up trash in Washington, D.C., or standing around Portland, Ore., waiting for something to happen.
Kamala Harris during an interview while shopping at Penzeys Spices on Market Street in September.
Harris, a former California attorney general, would have kept the long-standing tradition of an independent U.S. Department of Justice, instead of turning it into the president’s law firm and using it to go after political enemies. She would have assembled a cabinet stocked with competent and experienced members, one likely as diverse as America. People like Kash Patel and Pete Hegseth would be far away from power, hawking “vaccine reversal” pills and defending war criminals on Fox News, respectively.
Where would Trump himself be under a Harris presidency? In the same mess of trouble he had gotten himself into.
Special counsel Jack Smith would be zealously pursuing the case against Trump for illegally retaining classified documents and plotting to overturn the 2020 election. Charges that Smith has said he could prove beyond a reasonable doubt.
The once and forever former president would not be $3 billion richer thanks to shady crypto deals and other business ventures he has undertaken since returning to Washington. Neither would he be absentmindedly staring out where the East Wing of the White House once stood and imagining his sprawling ballroom, plastering his name on the Kennedy Center, nor costing taxpayers millions to outfit the $400 million luxury jetliner Qatar gave him.
If anything, he might have found himself with new indictments if he had tried to steal the 2024 election, and the MAGA crowd staged another Jan. 6, 2021-style revolt in protest of a Harris victory. No doubt Harris’ attorney general would have learned a lesson from the previous administration and would not drag his feet, as former Attorney General Merrick Garland didin holding Trump accountable.
Eventually, though, I’m convinced things would have settled down, and American politics would have gone back to being boring again —like they used to be. Fox News commentators would shift back to their old ways of complaining about Harris’ laugh and occasional lapses into word salad.
As things calmed down, so, too, would the excitement surrounding her historic win as the realities of governance asserted themselves.
Signing a bill to restore abortion rights nationwide would have been high on Harris’ agenda, reviving the issue that long fueled a part of the electorate. The culture war over GOP-manufactured concerns about men taking over women’s sports would rage on, never mind that trans people make up only about 1% of the population. So would the debate over the merits of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
On immigration, Harris would be caught between her party’s activist base and trying to limit people from seeking asylum at the southern border. It’s one thing for Harris to have issued her famous edict telling immigrants, “Don’t come,” and a whole other thing to take substantive steps to stem the flow of people desperate to enter the U.S.
With Trump out of office, America would continue to be a bulwark for democracy, but the threats of authoritarianism, antisemitism, and racism would not go away. Neither would the voter malaise and congressional dysfunction that have given rise to people like Trump and his supporters. But Harris would fight the good fight for everyday Americans.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris wave to the audience after addressing the DNC Winter Meeting at the Sheraton Downtown in Philadelphia in 2023.
For a few days last month, I’d allowed myself to feel a tad bit optimistic, sensing that America had turned a corner. Maybe it was the eggnog, but the upcoming midterm elections had me feeling a little hopeful. So did the public opinion and court decisions pushing back against Trump’s excess and overreach. And Congress showing a spine and demanding accountability in releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files. If ever there were a year Rep. Jasmine Crockett could win a U.S. Senate race in Texas, 2026 felt like it could be it.
But then, Trump dropped bombs on an Islamic group in Nigeria on Christmas Day and followed that up by sending troops into Venezuela. Now, he’s staking claims to that country’s oil reserves while looking around to see which nation he can storm next. Will it be Mexico? Colombia? Iran? Greenland? I don’t think even he knows.
Trump isn’t bound by conventional mores or the Constitution. He’s not restrained by Congress or the U.S. Supreme Court. As he told the New York Times recently, the only thing that can stop him is his own mind. His “own morality,” which is downright scary considering his track record.
And yet, even as I am knocked down by the reality we’re facing. I can’t help but stand up. My dad was right to warn about not looking back, but in imagining the leadership of someone who is more than worthy of the office of the presidency, I like to think I’m looking forward.
Pennsylvania’s race for governor has officially begun. And 10 months before the election, the November matchup already appears to be set.
Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro formally announced his reelection campaign Thursday — not that anyone thought he wouldn’t run. And Republicans have rapidly coalesced behind thestate party’s endorsed candidate, Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity.
The racewilldominate Pennsylvania politics through November,but it could also havea national impact as Democrats hope Shapiro at the top of the state ticket can elevate the party’s chances in several key congressional races.
Here’s what you need to know about the high-stakes contest.
Shapiro was elected state attorney general in 2016, a year when Pennsylvania went for Republican Donald Trump in the presidential contest. The position put Shapiro in the national spotlight in 2020 when Trump sought to overturn his loss in the state that year through a series of legal challenges, which Shapiro’s office successfully battled in court.
He went on to decisively beat Trump-backed Republican State. Sen. Doug Mastriano for the governorship in 2022. Despite an endorsement from Trump, Mastriano lacked the support of much of Pennsylvania’s Republican establishment and spent the election cycle discouraging his supporters from voting by mail.
Throughout Shapiro’s first term as governor, he has highlighted his bipartisan bona fides and ability to “get stuff done” — his campaign motto — despite contending witha divided legislature. His launch video highlights the quick reconstruction of I-95 following a tanker explosion in 2023.
A strong supporter of Trump, Garrity is one of the only women that has been elected to statewide office in Pennsylvania history. If elected, she would be the first female governor in state history.
Garrity is a retired U.S. Army colonel who was executive at Global Tungsten & Powders Corp. before she was elected treasurer in 2020. Running a relatively low-key state office, Garrity successfully lobbied Pennsylvania’s General Assembly to allow her to issue checks to residents whose unclaimed property was held by her office, even if they hadn’t filed claims requesting it.
Anyone else?
While Shapiro and Garrity are the likely nominees for their parties, candidates have until March to file petitions for the race. That theoretically leaves the possibility of a primary contest open for both candidates, but it appears unlikely at this point.
The outcome of Pennsylvania’s gubernatorial race could hold wide-ranging impacts on transportation funding, election law, and education policy, among other issues.
The state’s governor has a powerful role in issuing executing actions, setting agendas for the General Assembly, and signing or vetoing new laws. The governor also appoints the secretary of state, the top Pennsylvania election official who will oversee the administration of the next presidential election in the key swing state.
Throughout the entirety of Shapiro’s first term, he has been forced to work across the aisle because of the split legislature. Throughout that time the balance of power in Harrisburg has tilted toward Democrats who hold the governor’s mansion and the Pennsylvania House. But many of the party’s goals — including expanded funding for SEPTA and other public transit — have been blocked by the Republican-held Senate.
If Garrity were to win that dynamic would shift, offering Republicans more leverage as they seek to cut state spending and expand school voucher options (while Shapiro has said he supports vouchers, the policy has not made it into any budget deals under him).
Shapiro coasted to victory against Mastriano in 2022, winning by 15 points. The 2026 election is expected to be good for Democrats with Trump becoming an increasingly unpopular president.
But Garrity is viewed as a potentially stronger opponent to take on Shapiro than Mastriano, even though her political views have often aligned with the far-right senator.
When the midterms conclude, the 2028 presidentialcycle will begin. If Shapiro can pull off another decisive win in a state that voted for Trump in 2024, it could go a long way toward aiding his national profile. But if Garrity wins, it could endthe governor’s chances of putting up a serious campaign for the presidency in 2028.
Every other race in Pennsylvania
The governor’s contest is the marquee race in Pennsylvania in 2026. Garrity and Shapiro have the ability to help or hurt candidates running for Pennsylvania’s statehouse and Congress.
The momentum of these candidates, and their ability to draw voters to the polls could play a key role in determining whether Democrats can successfully flip four competitive U.S. House districts as they attempt to take back the chamber.
Democrats also narrowly hold control of the Pennsylvania House and are hoping to flip three seats to regain control of the Pennsylvania Senate for the first time in decades. If Democrats successfully flip the state Senate blue, it would offer Shapiro a Democratic trifecta to push for long-held Democratic goals if he were to win reelection.
Strong Democratic turnout at the statewide level could drive enthusiasm down-ballot, and vice versa. Similarly, weak turnout could aid Republican incumbents in retaining their seats.
The dates
The election is still months away but here are days Pennsylvanians should put on their calendars.
May 4: Voter registration deadline for the primary election.
May 19: Primary election.
Oct. 19: Voter registration deadline for the general election.
Gov. Josh Shapiro officially announced his widely expectedreelection bid for Pennsylvania governor Thursday, as speculation over a 2028 run for president continues to build. The question now: How will the Democrat’s rumored presidential ambitions bolster or detract from his must-win election at home in 2026?
Shapiro will kick off his reelection campaign with not one but two rallies— first stopping in Pittsburgh, then in Philadelphia. In a campaign video posted to social media Thursday morning, he touted his three years of leading a divided legislature and his bipartisan achievements in a politically split state, via a campaign that has already amassed a record $30 million war chest.
He coasted to victory in 2022, elevating his profile within the national Democratic Party, and is not expected to face a primary challenger. In the general election, he will likely face Republican State Treasurer Stacy Garrity, who largely consolidated GOP support early.
But that’s not the only race on the line in November.
As Shapiro looks to potential parallel runs, he’ll need to continue to build a national profile without outwardly focusing too much on the presidential picture.
Gov. Josh Shapiro is interviewed by TV news in the spin room at the Convention Center following the debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024.
“The challenge, of course, is you have to take care of your next election first,” said Christopher Borick, a pollster at Muhlenberg College. “Of anything he does, he knows this is the most important thing for his potential success in 2028 if he was to run.”
In the governor’s race, Shapiro will likely face a more formidable opponent in Garrity than he did in state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R., Franklin) in 2022, but he’ll also be running in a far more favorable political atmosphere for Democrats amid souring attitudes toward President Donald Trump and the GOP. If he can retain the governor’s mansion decisively and bring a ticket of Democrats vying for the statehouse and Congress to victory with him, that’s a narrative that could be strong in a Democratic presidential primary.
“Having a win, and maybe an impressive one in Pennsylvania, the key swing state heading into that cycle, is about as big of a boost as any that you can have,” Borick added.
Running local
The 2028-curious Democrats include several other sitting governors generating buzz: California’s Gavin Newsom, Kentucky’s Andy Beshear, Maryland’s Wes Moore, Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer, and Illinois’ JB Pritzker. Shapiro has formed alliances with several of them.
But unlike some of his peers, Shapiro hasn’t been a frequent guest on cable news or podcasts with national reach.
On Oct. 4, 2024, nearly a month before Harris lost the presidential election to Trump, Shapiro confidentially requested that the state ethics commission determine whether he would violate any state ethics laws for accepting royalties from a book about his life in public service, according to the filing.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (right) and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer before the Eagles played the Detroit Lions at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday, Nov. 16, 2025, in Philadelphia, PA.
His book, Where We Keep the Light, will publish later this month, recounting his political upbringing, his vice presidential vetting, and the firebombing of his home last year. He’s not alone. Harris published a memoir about the 2024 election last year, and Newsom is due out with Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery in February.
But in the coming months, several Democratic strategists predict Shapiro will be squarely focused on the governor’s race he has to win in Pennsylvania — simultaneously proving he has what it takes to capture the vote of the nation’s most important swing state.
“He’s such a careful politician. He’s not taking anything for granted,” said former Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democrat who also once faced scrutiny for having potential presidential ambitions.
Shapiro is likely to follow the same campaign playbook in Pennsylvania as he did in 2022: Stump in every region of the state, including areas where Democrats don’t usually show up. That helped him run down the margins in longtime GOP strongholds like Lancaster or Schuylkill Counties toward his resounding victory over Mastriano. Those stops in most of Pennsylvania’s 67 countieswon’t give him as much time to visit South Carolina, Iowa, and New Hampshire, as the other Democratic presidential hopefuls start their sojourns.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro waves goodbye to the crowd after speaking during graduation ceremonies at Pennsbury High School in Fairless Hills on Thursday, June 12, 2025.
“The No. 1 caveat is stay focused on the race you’re running,” echoed Alan Kessler, a national fundraiser based in Philadelphia who has supported and fundraised for Shapiro.
Still, the campaign is likely to generate attention beyond the Keystone State.
Shapiro will still court donors in blue states as he fundraises for reelection, Kessler added.
Come November, he will be the only governor with rumored 2028 aspirations up for reelection in a swing state. And his brand as a popular, moderate Democratic governor trying to restore trust in government — as well as his potential to help boost Democrats down ballot — will easily capture a wider audience and bring national media into Pennsylvania.
As Democrats seek to flip control of the U.S. House in 2026, targeting several congressional districts in the state, the election may once again come down to Pennsylvania, and in turn, increase the spotlight on Shapiro. The governor is widely seen as someone who can boost the congressional Democratic candidates also on the ballot, having won three of the four districts that Democrats are targeting in the state by double digits in 2022.
Republicans have targeted several weaknesses to try to erode Shapiro’s popularity in Pennsylvania and boost Garrity. They point to a lack of rigorous electoral challengers in his past. They question his record of “getting stuff done” — his oft-repeated motto — including three late state budgets. And they’ve harped on a lack of transparency as governor, including claims he used tax dollars for political benefitas well as a sexual harassment scandal involving a former top aide. They’ve also criticized his support for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who recently dropped his third gubernatorial bid following a fraud scandal among the state’s Somali refugee population totaling $1 billion, according to federal prosecutors.
Among the emerging attacks: Republicans want to highlight Shapiro’s presumed presidential ambitions, as they try to cast him as an opportunist more interested in a future White House bid than the problems of everyday Pennsylvanians.
“Josh Shapiro is more concerned with a promotion to Pennsylvania Avenue than serving hardworking Pennsylvanians,” Garrity said in a statement, noting the state fared poorly in U.S. News and World Report rankings on the economy and education. “In the military, I learned the importance of putting service before self. Pennsylvanians are the hardest-working, most compassionate, strongest people in the nation, and together we will return Pennsylvania to our rightful place as a national and global leader.”
State Treasurer and Republican candidate for governor Stacy Garrity holds a rally in Bucks County Sept. 25, 2025 at the Newtown Sports & Events Center.
Mastriano, the far-right Republican state senator who announced Wednesday he won’t run for governor, said in a statement earlier this week that Shapiro “owes [Pennsylvanians] straight answers” over his use of the state plane, security updates to his personal home in Abington Township, and more.
“Pennsylvanians deserve accountability, not ambition,” he added, making a nod to Shapiro’s potential longer-term plans.
House Speaker Joanna McClinton, back center left, Gov. Josh Shapiro, front center, and State Rep. La’Tasha D. Mayes, right, celebrate the signing of the CROWN Act, which prohibits discrimination based on a person’s hair type, during a press conference at Island Design Natural Hair Studio, in West Philadelphia, November 25, 2025.
Borick, the pollster, was skeptical that attacks on Shapiro’s potential wider ambitions could reverse hislargely positive public sentiment.
“If that’s all they got, they don’t got a lot.”
Republicans insist they see a path to victory for Garrity in a politically divided state with months to go until the election. But behind the scenes, some Republicans are already acknowledging the goal is to lose by less and prevent big losses in state legislature or congressional races.
If Shapiro does look poised to cruise to victory, it might mean less media attention on the race, and it could mean he’s less vetted ahead of a much bigger stage.
“I think Josh is better served if the [Republican Governors Association] puts $100 million into this race because then it’s nationalized,” said a Democratic political strategist based in Pennsylvania who did not want to be named speculating on Shapiro’s presidential run. “If it’s a cakewalk, CNN’s not gonna cover it …If he wants to be governor for another four years, he should pray for a cakewalk. If he wants to be president, he should pray for a difficult campaign.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, for example, the strategist noted, cleaned up in his 2022 reelection, but failed to gain traction in the GOP presidential primary that Trump dominated.
Beyond 2026
Shapiro speaks Pennsylvanian very well. Raised in Montgomery County, he’s lived here almost all of his life, and has built an image as a popular moderate focused on problem-solving in a purple state. That’s earned him the support of about 30% of Trump voters in the state.
But winning a general election in Pennsylvania is different than winning a Democratic presidential primary.
He’s tried not to alienate the MAGA base, focusing on issues with bipartisan appeal like funding for apprenticeship and vocational-training programs. He’s taken on Trump in court, but has picked his personal battles with the president more carefully.
But being a strategic, self-described “progressive pragmatist” can end up alienating voters on both sides.
Gov. Josh Shapiro leaves after an event at the Port of Philadelphia Thursday, Apr. 10, 2025, the day after President Trump paused some tariffs.
Becky Carroll, a Democratic political consultant in Chicago who has worked with Pritzker, said Shapiro seems less on the radar of voters in the Midwest. As she’s followed Shapiro’s career, she said she sees a “damn fine governor,” but someone who’s taken a more muted approach to Trump than blue state governors like Pritzker and Newsom.
When it comes to a Democratic primary, candidates may be judged in part on their pushback to Trump, she said. “I think we’re in a moment where you can sulk in a corner and hope it’ll all go away or fight …,” Carroll said. “And if you’re gonna put yourself out there for a primary battle, you better show you have battle scars to prove you can fight for the most vulnerable in the country right now.”
Gov. Josh Shapiro is interviewed by TV news in the spin room at the Convention Center following the debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024.
But other national strategists see Shapiro’s moderate appeal as a potential asset in 2028. Jared Goldberg-Leopold, a former communications director for the Democratic Governors Association, thinks Shapiro’s biggest asset is his electoral track record in a state the nation knows is critical on the path to the White House. Primaries have previously been won by moderates whom the party thinks have the best chance at winning the general.
But the first step, Goldberg-Leopold stressed, is the governor’s race ahead.
“It would be easy for the Eagles to look past the 49ers to the next week of playoffs, but they’ve gotta focus on only one thing. And the same is true for the governor,” he said. “You can only prepare for what’s ahead of you, and the way people get in trouble in politics is planning too many steps ahead.”
Staff writer Katie Bernard contributed to this article.
A protest at an event honoring Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over his antigay policies. The right has targeted trans people, in particular.
Meanwhile, the abundance of research demonstrating that transgender people suffer disproportionate violent victimization, homelessness, and suicide has remained largely unaddressed.
Moderate politicians’ concern with appealing to wider audiences in thesedivisive times exacts a cost: to trans kids’ health, safety, and dignity in their schools and communities.
Ambivalent Democrats
Rather than forging alliances to protect the safety and constitutional rights of transgender citizens, some of the most influential members of the Democratic Party — from Kamala Harris to Pete Buttigieg to Rahm Emanuel to Gavin Newsom — have at least partially capitulated before the political tidal wave of anti-transgender disinformation, complete with all of the red herrings it washes ashore.
More importantly, by keeping to the intentionally distorted discourse about transgender people — rather than countering sensationalized falsehoods and vitriolic rhetoric with integrity and conviction — politicians end up appealing to and emboldening constituencies who lean into disinformation out of fear. This isn’t only cynical, it’s dangerous. FBI hate crime statistics tell a bleak story of the rise in vigilante violence against transgender Americans, coinciding with a steep rise in political antagonism and targeted scapegoating.
A recent effort led by U.S. Reps. Sarah McBride (D., Del.), Mark Takano (D., Calif.), and members of the Congressional Equality Caucus calls upon House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) to enforce the rules of decorum in Congress by holding those who defame and denigrate the trans community to account. As of this writing, no response has been issued.
A path forward
The only ethical and effective path forward demands that we fundamentally reframe the political conversation about transgender people in factual terms that are grounded in foundational democratic principles, credible science, and a commitment to the protection of civil rights and civil liberties of all Americans.
There is some hope to be found in the lawsuit filed this week by 19 Democratic states to block the federal government’s efforts to ban gender-affirming care nationally.
Ideally, we would see more leadership on both sides of the aisle to protect the safety, freedom, and human dignity of all LGBTQ+ people, as demonstrated in the introduction of the bipartisan Global Respect Act by McBride and U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R., Pa.) to protect LGBTQ+ people around the world from identity-based violence, torture, and persecution.
Regressive political forces have always sought to isolate and villainize minoritized groups, to paint them as threats to the majority by virtue of whatever marks them as somehow “different” from those in power — and therefore less deserving of the same rights and protections.
Consider that during the civil rights movement in the 1960s, boycotts of segregated lunch counters and department stores were underway in Southern communities when New York U.S. Rep. Adam Clayton Powell famously corrected a reporter who queried if he was advocating for “Negroes” to stay out of segregated national chain stores in solidarity with the boycotts.
A genuine commitment to our democracy demands that we shift our discursive paradigm from one that impugns the existence of transgender people to one that impugns the de jure and de facto denial of transgender people’s humanity, dignity, civil rights, and personal safety.
It is long past time to reset the terms and reclaim the narrative on the equal protections and constitutional rights of transgender Americans. The political leadership we need in this moment requires the clarity, intentionality, and fortitude to do just that.
Ashley C. Rondini is an associate professor of sociology at Franklin and Marshall College.
