Josh Shapiro facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Josh Shapiro
Official portrait, c. 2023
48th Governor of Pennsylvania
Incumbent
Assumed office January 17, 2023
Lieutenant	Austin Davis
Preceded by	Tom Wolf
Attorney General of Pennsylvania
In office January 17, 2017 – January 17, 2023
Governor	Tom Wolf
Preceded by	Bruce Beemer
Succeeded by	Michelle Henry
Chair of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners
In office January 3, 2012 – November 17, 2016
Preceded by	Jim Matthews
Succeeded by	Val Arkoosh
Member of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners
In office January 3, 2012 – January 17, 2017
Preceded by	Joe Hoeffel
Succeeded by	Kenneth Lawrence
Member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from the 153rd district
In office January 4, 2005 – January 3, 2012
Preceded by	Ellen Bard
Succeeded by	Madeleine Dean
Personal details
Born	Joshua David Shapiro (1973-06-20) June 20, 1973 (age 51) Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Lori Ferrara ​ (m. 1997)​
Children	4
Residences	Governor's Residence Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Education	University of Rochester (BA) Georgetown University (JD)
Signature

Joshua David Shapiro (born June 20, 1973) is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the 48th governor of Pennsylvania since 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the attorney general of Pennsylvania from 2017 to 2023 and was on the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners from 2012 to 2017.

Raised in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Shapiro studied political science at the University of Rochester and earned his Juris Doctor degree from Georgetown University. After that, he worked as a senior adviser to U.S. senator Robert Torricelli. Shapiro was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 2004, defeating former Republican U.S. representative Jon D. Fox. He represented the 153rd district from 2005 to 2012. Shapiro was elected to the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners in 2011, marking the first time Republicans lost control of Montgomery County. Serving on the board from 2011 to 2017, he held the position of chairman, and in 2015, was also appointed chairman of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency by Governor Tom Wolf.

Shapiro was elected Pennsylvania attorney general in 2016, defeating Republican John Rafferty Jr., and was reelected in 2020. In the 2022 Pennsylvania gubernatorial election, Shapiro ran unopposed in the Democratic primary and defeated Republican nominee Doug Mastriano in the general election by a wide margin. Shapiro has faced criticism from across the political spectrum. The political left has criticized him for his strong support of Israel, school vouchers, and corporate tax cuts, while the political right has opposed his strict enforcement of COVID-19 lockdown measures during his tenure as Pennsylvania's attorney general.

Early life and education

Shapiro was born on June 20, 1973, in Kansas City, Missouri, to a father serving in the Navy, and was raised in Dresher, a town in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. He is the son of Steven Shapiro, a pediatrician. At a young age, Shapiro started a worldwide letter-writing program, known as Children for Avi, on behalf of Russian Jewish refuseniks. He attended high school at Akiba Hebrew Academy, now known as Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy, and then located in Merion Station, Pennsylvania. Shapiro played basketball in high school and was one of the team's captains during his senior year.

He attended the University of Rochester, where he majored in political science and became the first freshman to win election as the student body president of the University of Rochester in 1992. He graduated magna cum laude in 1995. While working on Capitol Hill, he enrolled at the Georgetown University Law Center as an evening student and earned a Juris Doctor in 2002.

Early career

Capitol Hill

After graduating from Rochester, Shapiro moved to Washington, D.C. He started as legislative assistant to Senator Carl Levin, then served as a senior adviser to Representative Peter Deutsch, and then a senior advisor to Senator Robert Torricelli. While working for Torricelli, Shapiro planned foreign affairs tours in the Middle East and Asia, including a trip to North Korea.

From 1999 to 2003, he worked as Chief of Staff to Representative Joe Hoeffel, who represented parts of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania House of Representatives

Shapiro as a State Representative in 2009

In 2004, Shapiro ran for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in the 153rd district. He faced the Republican nominee, former Congressman Jon D. Fox. Shapiro trailed in polling during the beginning of the race, but knocked on 10,000 doors and ran a campaign centered around increasing education funding and better access to health care. He was elected by a margin of ten points over Fox. He was reelected in 2006, 2008, and 2010.

As a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, he built a reputation as a consensus builder, who was willing to work across the aisle on a bipartisan basis. Following the 2006 elections, Democrats controlled the Pennsylvania State House by one seat, but the party was unable to unite behind a candidate for Speaker of the House. Shapiro helped to broker a deal that resulted in the election of moderate Republican Dennis O'Brien as Speaker of the House. O'Brien subsequently named Shapiro as deputy speaker of the house.

While a state representative, Shapiro was one of the first public backers of then-Senator Barack Obama for president in 2008. This was in contrast with much of the Pennsylvania political establishment, which supported Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary.

From 2006 through 2017, Shapiro also practiced corporate law at the firm Stradley, Ronon, Stevens, and Young in Philadelphia.

Montgomery County commissioner

Shapiro at a tree planting event in 2014

Shapiro won election to the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners in 2011; the election marked the first time in history that the Republican Party lost control of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners. Shapiro became chairman of the board of commissioners, initially serving alongside Democrat Leslie Richards and Republican Bruce Castor.

Shapiro's commission duties centered around social services and administration. Castor, the only Republican member of the board during Shapiro's tenure, praised Shapiro's work, calling him "the best county commissioner I ever knew" and "very good at arriving at consensus." In 2016, Shapiro voted for an 11% tax increase, which was an average increase of $66 in property taxes. During his tenure, the board of commissioners implemented zero-based budgeting and shifted county pension investments from hedge funds to index funds. Democrats retained a majority on the board of commissioners in the 2015 election, as Shapiro and his running mate, Val Arkoosh, both won election.

In April 2015, Governor Tom Wolf named Shapiro the Chair of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.

Pennsylvania Attorney General

Shapiro at Gov. Tom Wolf's inauguration, 2019

Shapiro announced his candidacy for Pennsylvania Attorney General in January 2016. While he had practiced with Philadelphia's Stradley Ronon firm and chaired the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, he had never served as a prosecutor. Shapiro campaigned on his promise to restore the office's integrity following Kathleen Kane's resignation.

His campaign was supported by President Barack Obama, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and businessman and former Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg, who was among the largest donors to Shapiro's campaign. He won the Democratic primary for attorney general in April 2016, defeating Stephen Zappala and John Morganelli with 47 percent of the vote. In November 2016, Shapiro narrowly defeated the Republican nominee, State Senator John Rafferty Jr., with 51.3 percent of the vote.

Shapiro was reelected in 2020, defeating Republican nominee Heather Heidelbaugh with 50.9% of the vote. He received 3,461,472 votes, the most of any candidate in Pennsylvania history, and outran Joe Biden in the concurrent presidential election.

Tenure

Shapiro with Senator Bob Casey Jr., 2021

On May 7, 2019, the Wikipedia Community flagged edits made to this page, saying they may "rely excessively on sources too closely associated with the subject" and could have been written in return for payment, both of which violate Wikipedia's terms of use. Edits were made by paid communications staffers from Shapiro's campaign, according to Lancaster Online.

In 2019, Shapiro led efforts to ensure that insurance holders of Highmark, a healthcare company, could receive treatment at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. The settlement allowed 1.9 million insurance recipients to continue using their existing doctors as in-plan providers rather than being forced to switch either medical providers or insurance providers.

When serving on the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons as attorney general in 2019, Shapiro cast the fewest votes in favor of commutation, denying 24 out of 41 pardons and being one of only two board members to vote against more cases than in favor.

In May 2019, Lancaster County newspaper LNP reported that members of Shapiro's office staff had edited Shapiro's Wikipedia entry to describe him "as a 'rising progressive star' who has 'earned a reputation as a consensus builder eager to take on the status quo and challenge powerful institutions to protect the people of Pennsylvania'". Staffers for Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, Senate minority leader Jay Costa, and Senate majority leader Jake Corman also reportedly edited their bosses' Wikipedia pages. The then-executive director of the Pennsylvania State Ethics Commission said that he did not see this practice as illegal under the state's ethics law.

Shapiro and Governor Wolf at a press conference in June 2019

In August 2021, Shapiro settled the largest prevailing wage criminal case in U.S. history. Under the plea, Glenn O. Hawbaker Inc., paid nearly $21 million to 1,267 Pennsylvania workers.

He also joined a lawsuit against ITT Technical Institute, a for-profit educational institute, that resulted in a $168 million settlement (with about $5 million of that going to Pennsylvania students).

Conflicts with Larry Krasner

Shapiro and Philadelphia district attorney Larry Krasner repeatedly found themselves at odds during Shapiro's tenure as attorney general. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Krasner would joke that prosecutors who left his office to work for Shapiro were "war criminals" who had fled to "Paraguay", a reference to escape routes Nazis took in the aftermath of World War II. Shapiro condemned Krasner's jokes as "hateful".

Shapiro reportedly supported a bill in the Pennsylvania state legislature that turned over certain powers of the Philadelphia district attorney to the Office of Attorney General, including "the authority to prosecute the illegal possession, sale, or purchase of firearms". Supporters of Krasner criticized the bill as written in hopes of weakening Philadelphia's home rule authority. Representatives Chris Rabb and Mary Jo Daley, who voted against it, attested Shapiro had privately lobbied in favor of the legislation. The bill passed, but garnered backlash from Democrats who said they were not made fully aware of its contents before they voted for it, and Shapiro faced protests during public appearances afterward.

Actions taken on the state legislature

In December 2019, Shapiro charged state representative Movita Johnson-Harrell with perjury and theft of funds from her own charity for such things as vacations and clothing. Johnson-Harrell served two months in prison before being released on house arrest.

In July 2021, Shapiro charged state representative Margo L. Davidson with theft by deception, solicitation to hinder apprehension, and Election Code violations after stealing public funds by filing fraudulent overnight per diem requests and various other expenses through the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Comptroller's Office, as well as hindering a state prosecution. Davidson resigned from office, paid restitution, and was released without bail.

2022 gubernatorial campaign

Shapiro's 2022 gubernatorial campaign logo

Shapiro had long been expected to run for governor of Pennsylvania, and on October 13, 2021, he announced his candidacy in the 2022 election. In January 2022, Shapiro's campaign reported it had $13.4 million in campaign funds, which was described as a record amount for a candidate in an election year. Shapiro faced no opponents in the Democratic primary, and secured the nomination on May 17, 2022. He faced Republican nominee Doug Mastriano in the general election.

Shapiro ran on a platform of protecting voting rights and raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. His campaign was criticized by some progressives because of his support for capital punishment, his public feuds with Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, and his compromising with police unions to pass police reform bills. Efforts to enlist a progressive primary challenge to Shapiro were unsuccessful. Shapiro later changed his position, now saying he opposes capital punishment and would sign a bill to abolish it.

During the leadup to the primary election, Shapiro's campaign released a statewide televised advertisement calling a Mastriano win "a win for what Donald Trump stands for". The ad was seen as an "endorsement" of the Republican candidate Shapiro would want to face in the general election, with Mastriano seen as too extreme for swing voters to elect. Mastriano won the Republican primary and his closest opponent, former congressman Lou Barletta, later said that Shapiro's ads likely helped. The impact of Shapiro's ads on the primary is disputed as Mastriano was already in the lead.

Platform

Shapiro supports cutting Pennsylvania's nearly 10 percent corporate tax rate to 4 percent by 2025. He has proposed hiring 2,000 additional police officers across Pennsylvania, saying, the "more police officers we hire, the more opportunities we have for them to get out of their patrol cars, walk the beat, learn the names of the kids in the communities".

On efforts to mitigate COVID-19, Shapiro has broken with some in the Democratic Party and opposes mask and vaccine mandates. He prefers educating the public about vaccines' efficacy. Shapiro is also skeptical about Pennsylvania joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a market-based program to reduce some greenhouse gas emissions. He has proposed expanding Pennsylvania's clean energy portfolio for utility companies, greater electric car infrastructure and investing in clean energy research and development. Shapiro supports a Lifeline Scholarship bill, which creates education savings accounts for children in failing public schools that can be spent on approved expenses including tutoring, instructional materials and private school tuition.

Shapiro has proposed a plan that will allow for a $250 gas tax refund per personal passenger vehicle up to four vehicles per household. He proposed funding the proposal with funds from the American Rescue Plan. On the issue of vocational training, Shapiro has proposed increasing career and technical training in high schools, tripling state funding for apprenticeships and union skills programs, and creating a Pennsylvania office of workforce development. He also supports eliminating four-year degree requirements for state government jobs. Shapiro is a supporter of unions and has vowed to veto any "right to work" legislation.

Endorsements and support

Shapiro defeated Mastriano in the 2022 Pennsylvania gubernatorial election by approximately 15 percent

Before his announcement, term-limited governor Tom Wolf endorsed Shapiro. He received endorsements from former governor Ed Rendell, state senator Anthony H. Williams, and former Pennsylvania Democratic Party chair Marcel Groen. He was endorsed by the SEIU Pennsylvania State Council, four SEIU local unions consisting of over 80,000 SEIU members in the state.

On January 29, 2022, the Pennsylvania Democratic Party endorsed him by voice vote. The committee also endorsed his preferred running mate, state representative Austin Davis. Other union support included the Philadelphia Carpenters Union and Sheet Metal workers, the Western Pennsylvania Laborers' PAC, and the Electricians Union Local No. 5 in Pittsburgh.

Eight former Republican officials, including former Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice Sandra Schultz Newman and former congressman Charlie Dent, as well as the sitting Republican chairman of the Lawrence County Board of Commissioners, Morgan Boyd, endorsed Shapiro, with several calling Mastriano "extreme" and "divisive". Seven more former Republican officials, including former U.S. secretary of homeland security Michael Chertoff, endorsed Shapiro in August 2022 for the same reason.

Results

On November 8, 2022, Shapiro defeated Mastriano with 56.5% of the vote to Mastriano's 41.7%. He won 17 counties. Shapiro's victory was decisive and uniform across the state. The vast majority of President Joe Biden's voters in 2020 voted for Shapiro, as did many independents and a sizable segment of Donald Trump supporters. The only regions where Shapiro did not do better than Biden in 2020 were in "the most economically marginal, heavily minority" parts of cities like Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, where turnout marginally decreased compared to 2020.

Governor of Pennsylvania (2023–present)

Shapiro meeting with members of the Pennsylvania National Guard during training at Harrisburg International Airport, February 2023

On January 17, 2023, Shapiro was sworn in on a stack of three Hebrew Bibles. Long weaving his Jewish identity into his politics, Shapiro is considered part of the new age of Jewish politicians who are open about their identity. He is the third Jewish governor in the history of Pennsylvania, after Milton Shapp and Ed Rendell. He is also the state's first Generation X governor.

Cabinet

On December 6, 2022, during his transition to the governorship, it was reported that Shapiro tapped several of his longtime aides to serve in high-ranking positions, including naming his campaign manager Dana Fritz as his chief of staff. In January 2023, he appointed Akbar Hossain, an executive to his transition team, to be secretary of policy and named his longtime aide Mike Vereb to be secretary of legislative affairs. Vereb was later replaced by Thomas "T. J." Yablonski, a senior adviser in the governor's office.

Fiscal policies

During Shapiro's first two years in office, Pennsylvania's credit rating increased three times (according to Standard & Poor, Fitch Ratings, and Moody's Investors Service). He has proposed lowering corporate income taxes from 8.99% to 4.99% by 2026. At an event with Janet Yellen in July 2024, Shapiro reiterated his support for "aggressive" corporate tax cuts.

In February 2024, Shapiro unveiled his proposed $48.3 billion state budget for the 2024 and 2025 fiscal year, mostly consisting of funding public schools, public transit, higher education and infrastructure, with tax collections projected to increase by $1 billion. Critics argued that the budget would inflate the state's deficit to over $6 billion by 2028 and lead to large tax increases. Ultimately, Shapiro rolled back some of his proposals and signed a $47.6 billion budget in July.

Workforce

As governor, Shapiro said he has focused on expanding Pennsylvania's workforce. The day after his inauguration, he signed an executive order eliminating the four-year college degree requirement for 92% of state government jobs. On July 31, he issued an executive order establishing the Commonwealth Workers Transformation Program (CWTP), which provides grants to ensure that companies and contractors have the skilled workforce required. As part of the program, as much as $400 million could be used for workforce training in Pennsylvania until 2028.

On August 28, Shapiro announced that the college education requirement for state police cadets had been eliminated amid a decline in police applicants. In September, he signed an executive order that established an artificial intelligence board to "assist employees in serving Pennsylvanians, keeping our communities safe and growing our economy". In March 2024, he issued a directive increasing Pennsylvania's use of Project Labor Agreements (PLAs). In May, he issued an executive order establishing the Hire, Improve, Recruit, Empower (HIRE) Committee to attempt to fill in roughly 600 open positions in the state government as well as ensuring the retention of high-performing employees.

Pensions and employee contracts

After assuming office, Shapiro pledged to decrease the power outside investment contractors' have over state pension funds. During his first year in office, he appointed financers Wendell Young, Uri Monson, and Bob Mensch to the State Employees' Retirement System (SERS), a $35 billion-asset board that manages pension reform. On November 6, Shapiro appointed Gregory C. Thall, a former budget secretary under Wolf, as the new chairman of SERS after Chris Santa Maria announced his retirement.

Over three days in December 2023, dozens of Philadelphia transit officers staged a strike over a contract dispute with SEPTA, a standoff that had begun over eight months earlier. Shapiro intervened in the strike and negotiated with the officers and SEPTA, leading to a three-year contract that included a 13% raise increase for the officers over the next 36 months. SEPTA chief executive officer Leslie Richards said Shapiro played "a key role bringing people together to forge this agreement".

On several occasions, Shapiro has proposed raising Pennsylvania's minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $15. In June 2023, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives voted to pass a bill that would increase the minimum wage to $15 by 2026, but the Republican-controlled State Senate thwarted the legislation. Shapiro had hinted he would have signed the bill into law if it had passed both chambers of the General Assembly, as Pennsylvania had not raised the minimum wage since 2009. In 2024, Shapiro and other Democratic lawmakers attempted to include a raise in the minimum wage in that year's state budget, but due to Republican criticism, the proposal was withdrawn.

Transportation

Shapiro explaining details of the Interstate 95 highway collapse to President Joe Biden, June 2023

In February 2023, Shapiro criticized the management of the Norfolk Southern Railway after it failed to contact Pennsylvania officials following the derailment of a train carrying harmful chemicals in Ohio, adjacent to the Pennsylvania border. He called for the railway company to take "a safer overall approach" and called on the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to revisit the need for more advanced safety and braking equipment in trains.

On June 11, 2023, Shapiro issued a "disaster emergency" proclamation after part of Interstate 95 collapsed in Philadelphia. As much as $7 million in state funds were provided for reconstruction work. The proclamation also authorized the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, and the Pennsylvania State Police to use available resources to respond to the collapse.

Under Shapiro's leadership, the collapsed portion of I-95 was rebuilt in less than two weeks. Shapiro received praise for his response to the collapse. President Biden said that Shapiro did "one heck of a job" in responding to the collapse; Minority Leader Brian J. O'Neill of the Philadelphia City Council said, "you couldn't ask for more from the governor." A Quinnipiac University poll found that 74% of statewide voters approved of Shapiro's handling of the crisis.

Shapiro proposed investing $282.8 million (a 1.75% increase) in funding for public transit systems in the 2024 budget, which would generate $1.5 billion for transit funding until 2029. The initial funding proposal was dropped from the budget in July, and SEPTA was given an $80.5 million budget extension to keep it solvent until the fall legislative session.

Education

During the drafting of the state budget in mid-2023, Shapiro supported a Republican-led school choice proposal that would distribute $100 million to families for private school tuition instead of sending their children to public schools. Lawyers for several state school districts, along with several progressive organizations, criticized Shapiro and argued his budget proposals had not done enough to benefit low-income schools. He later dropped his support to avoid a protracted budget delay after Democrats in the state House refused to support it.

Early in his term, Shapiro had pledged to permanently extend the Wolf administration's free breakfast program for all Pennsylvania public-school students. The program was permanently extended as a part of the 2023 state budget Shapiro signed into law in August.

Shapiro proposed a $1.1 billion boost for public school operations and instruction during the drafting of the 2024 budget, a 14% increase from the previous year. Through the 2024 budget, about $144 million would financially aid students, a roughly 33% increase, some through existing programs and some through new efforts. A new State Board of Higher Education was established that created performance-based criteria for funding state-related universities. Additionally, the budget initiated over $900 million for special education.

Immigration

In January and February 2024, the Republican-controlled State Senate urged Shapiro to send the Pennsylvania National Guard to the U.S. southern border to help Texas resolve the growing numbers of migrants entering the country, but he declined to do so. In March, after the Senate passed a resolution to send troops to the border, a spokesperson for the governor's office said that it was up to Congress, not Shapiro, to resolve the issue.

Other issues

Shapiro with Maryland governor Wes Moore at the Preakness Stakes in Baltimore, May 2023

On September 19, 2023, Shapiro announced Pennsylvania would enact automatic voter registration effective immediately. The process will include voter registration when voting-eligible persons receive their driver's licenses, with the choice to opt out.

Shapiro condemned the attempted assassination of Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where a stray bullet killed one rally goer. Shapiro said the man "died a hero" protecting his family at the rally and ordered that flags be flown at half-mast in his honor.

In the 2024 Pennsylvania state treasurer election, Shapiro declined to endorse Democratic nominee Erin McClelland in her campaign against Republican incumbent Stacy Garrity. McClelland had criticized Shapiro when he was being considered as Harris's running mate.

When the results of the 2024 Senate election between incumbent Bob Casey and David McCormick showed McCormick ahead by less than one percentage point, the race went to a statewide recount. Shapiro supported the recount, but rejected calls by some, including the Bucks County Board of Commissioners, to count undated or incorrectly dated ballots, which the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had previously ruled against doing.

In November 2024, Shapiro signed an executive order to create the Pennsylvania Permit Fast Track Program, which will streamline and speed up the permitting process for large-scale infrastructure projects that require multiple permits.

2024 vice-presidential consideration

Shapiro and President Biden at a small business in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, January 2024

After Biden's June 2024 debate performance against Trump sparked speculation that he would not seek reelection, some speculated that Shapiro might run for the Democratic presidential nomination in that case. Shapiro denied any interest in running for president and declared his support for Biden. After Biden withdrew on July 21, Shapiro endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, Biden's pick to replace him, and encouraged Democrats to unite in supporting Harris.

His quick endorsement of Harris led to speculation that Shapiro could become her running mate. He had initially been seen as the top contender, but faced criticism from progressives for some of his positions, most prominently his stance on Israel amid the Israeli counteroffensive in Gaza. Despite public backing from several prominent Pennsylvania Democrats, including Philadelphia mayor Cherelle Parker, Senator John Fetterman intervened in the vice-presidential selection process, advising Harris on August 3 not to pick Shapiro because he was "excessively focused on his own personal ambitions".

Harris would ultimately select Minnesota governor Tim Walz on August 6. Upon Harris's loss in the general election, Shapiro has been seen as a potential candidate in the 2028 presidential election.

Views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Shapiro has been described as a "mainstream" liberal Zionist whose views on the conflict and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement are similar to those of North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper.

Shapiro's support for Israel during the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been criticized by left-wing critics and attributed to his being denied the vice-presidential nomination. Shapiro's supporters allege that his critics unfairly scrutinized his position on the conflict due to his Jewish identity. Critics of Shapiro reject this assertion, pointing to the relative lack of criticism leveled at J. B. Pritzker, another possible Harris running mate who is Jewish, and insisting that the differences between Shapiro's stance and those of governors such as Walz and Andy Beshear are more pronounced than his supporters claim.

Shapiro has supported cutting off state ties with entities that engage in boycotts of Israel, such as BDS, or of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. In 2021, after Ben & Jerry's announced that it planned to end sales in Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem while seeking to continue sales in Israel through a different arrangement, Shapiro supported calls to apply Pennsylvania's anti-BDS law to Ben & Jerry's. He said that BDS was "rooted in antisemitism" and praised Pennsylvania's anti-BDS law, which was enacted five years earlier. The organizations J Street and T'ruah have opposed similar laws on the ground that they violate the First Amendment. In 2024, according to a spokesperson, Shapiro pledged to sign a bill to block state funding of colleges and universities that engage in a "boycott or divestment from Israel", a term the bill defines to include any activity "intended to financially penalize the State of Israel".

Shapiro has repeatedly voiced support for Israel in the Israel–Hamas war. He called on people and governments to condemn the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, calling it a moment "to recognize what is so clearly wrong, the acts of Hamas, and what is right, and that is Israel, our key ally's right to defend herself in the face of this barbarism." Shapiro faced criticism for his remarks in a letter written by CAIR and signed by 43 Pennsylvania Muslim organizations, which said that Shapiro did not "recognize the structural root causes of the conflict" and "chose to intentionally ignore the civilian loss of life in Gaza". In an interview, Shapiro agreed that the Palestinian population is distinct from Hamas and said, "There are so many peace-loving Arabs and peace-loving people in that region, no question."

On December 3, 2023, a pro-Palestinian protest accused Jewish-owned Philadelphia restaurant Goldie of supporting the alleged genocide of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip by sending the restaurant's profits to a provider of protective gear and training for the Israel Defense Forces during the war. Shapiro visited the restaurant in a show of support and said, "The purposeful gathering of a mob outside of a restaurant simply because it is owned by a Jewish person, well, that's antisemitism, plain and simple." He also criticized University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill for "failure of leadership" and pressured the university to compel her resignation after she sidestepped questions during the 2023 United States Congress hearing on antisemitism. On December 13, Shapiro gave more detailed remarks on the war, saying, "Israel not only has a right, they have a responsibility to rid the region of Hamas and the terror that Hamas can perpetrate." He called on the U.S. to "help support the Israeli people once the battle is over in finding their footing again."

Shapiro has repeatedly criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his handling of the conflict. In November 2023, he called Netanyahu "a terrible leader" who "has driven Israel to an extreme that has been bad for Israel and bad for the stability in the Middle East." In January 2024, he said "I personally believe Benjamin Netanyahu is one of the worst leaders of all time and has steered Israel in a wrong direction, and made Israel less safe and made their future less bright because of his leadership."

In a March 2024 interview, Shapiro voiced sympathy for Palestinian civilians and peaceful protesters, saying, "we also can't ignore the death and the destruction that's occurred in Gaza. For those who are peacefully protesting, I support their right to do that and I'll defend that, and I want to make sure they feel heard. And I think in Pennsylvania, they do feel heard." In April 2024, Shapiro condemned pro-Palestinian protests at American colleges after a prominent rabbi at Columbia University urged Jewish students to leave campus and said the university could not guarantee their safety. He called on local officials to "step in and enforce the law" to protect students.

In May 2024, Shapiro called for a police crackdown on the pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Pennsylvania, but later said he was already aware of police plans to disband the encampment after police made arrests less than 24 hours after Shapiro's statement. Critics of Shapiro have said that he has exaggerated and misrepresented the threat student demonstrators pose to their peers. Rafael Shimunov wrote, "The leap of logic in which Shapiro engaged by suggesting they posed a threat to Jewish safety relies on a perception of Jews who are pro-Palestinian as less Jewish than Jews who are pro-Israel, and a belief that any ideological disagreement with pro-Israel Jews is a kind of violence." First Amendment advocates have criticized Shapiro for a revision to the state employees' code of conduct prohibiting "scandalous" behavior. Pro-Palestinian and Muslim groups raised concerns that the order was intended to chill speech related to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

In an interview with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show, Shapiro reiterated his support for a two-state solution and said that the Israeli and Palestinian people want a peaceful solution to the conflict that both Netanyahu and Hamas oppose. He also said he was not drawing a false equivalence between Netanyahu and the "terrorist group" Hamas.

Personal life

Shapiro met his wife, Lori, in ninth grade as they both attended Akiba Hebrew Academy, now Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy, then in Merion Station. They dated in high school and reconnected after college while both were living in Washington, D.C. Shapiro proposed to her in Jerusalem in 1997. They married on May 25 of that year.

Shapiro and his wife have four children and reside in the Governor's Residence in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Shapiro is an observant Conservative Jew who keeps kosher.

Electoral history

See also

• List of Jewish American jurists