Josh Shapiro
Won a second term as Pennsylvania governor on November 3, defeating Republican State Treasurer Stacy Garrity; he spent the race also campaigning for a Harrisburg trifecta and four House flips.
Josh Shapiro won a second term as Pennsylvania governor on November 3, defeating Republican State Treasurer Stacy Garrity, with the AP calling the race at 8:01 p.m., shortly after polls closed. He campaigned on job creation and public education against her tax-reduction platform while boosting downballot Democrats. Democratic committees spent a 10-year-high $51 million through October pursuing a trifecta Pennsylvania Democrats have not held since 1992, outspending Republicans roughly 2-to-1, and his New Path PAC, launched to fund Democrats in four of Pennsylvania's most competitive House districts, gives him a vehicle for direct contributions.
He pitched that trifecta as the route to a $15 minimum wage, affordable housing, long-overdue statute-of-limitations reforms, and adding abortion rights to the state constitution. He pledged to "take on those utility companies that keep jacking up our rates here in Pennsylvania." State law bars counting mail-in ballots before polls open, so results for nearly a million cast ballots were unlikely to be final on election night.
On October 26 he signed the bell-to-bell school cell phone ban, which takes effect for the 2027-2028 school year after bipartisan votes of 141-62 in the House and 47-3 in the Senate, along with nearly 60 other bills. A child sexual assault lookback amendment he supports died in the Republican-run Senate after GOP senators tried to tie it to expanded voter ID requirements; it expires November 30 unless a post-election Democratic trifecta revives it.
He is restricting AI data-center development, citing land use, water consumption, and rising power prices, and singling out developers "running roughshod over our communities"; the Legislature ended its session without passing any bill to constrain facility growth. He is also quietly laying groundwork for a potential 2028 presidential run, meeting billionaire megadonors in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area.
On their plate
Shapiro won re-election on November 3, defeating Republican State Treasurer Stacy Garrity in a three-way race that also included Libertarian Ken Krawchuk, with the AP calling it at 8:01 p.m., shortly after polls closed. He led the Democratic push for a trifecta Pennsylvania Democrats have not held since 1992, with party committees spending a 10-year-high $51 million through October and outspending Republicans roughly 2-to-1. He says unified control would clear the way for a $15 minimum wage, affordable housing, long-overdue statute-of-limitations reforms, and adding abortion rights to the state constitution. Pennsylvania's mail-ballot law bars counting before polls open, leaving results for nearly a million cast ballots unlikely to be final on election night. Democrats were also making their first attempt to flip the state Senate since 1994.
He spent the campaign's final stretch leveraging his re-election run to boost downballot Democrats, aiming to flip four GOP-held U.S. House districts. He launched the federal New Path PAC on October 19 to support Democrats in four of Pennsylvania's most competitive House races, giving him a vehicle for direct contributions.
On October 26 he signed the bell-to-bell school cell phone ban, Senate Bill 1014, which takes effect for the 2027-2028 school year after bipartisan votes of 141-62 in the House and 47-3 in the Senate, saying parents and teachers told him kids are too easily caught up by "addictive algorithms." In the same burst he signed nearly 60 other bills, including a mandate to remove DEHP chemicals from hospital IV lines by 2035 and a ban on selling cosmetics tested on companion pets. The child sexual assault lookback constitutional amendment he supports stalled again, passing the Democratic-led state House in June but dying in the Republican-run Senate after GOP senators tried to tie it to expanded voter ID requirements; it expires November 30 unless a post-election Democratic trifecta revives it.
Shapiro has shifted from promoting hyperscale development to restricting it, mandating energy transparency for developers by executive order and citing land use, water consumption, and rising power prices, even as public pension funds including Pennsylvania's booked $138 billion in paper gains on AI-linked stocks. He has branded certain industry actors "speculative troublemakers" and says he is targeting "a whole bunch of developers who were acting in unscrupulous ways" who were "running roughshod over our communities." His executive order setting industry standards spawned a state Data Center Permit Tracker launched August 18, which advocacy groups call "nearly indecipherable" and incomplete, and the Legislature ended its session without passing any bill to constrain facility growth before the November 3 election. He frames the line as wanting technology "developed by the hands of a Pennsylvania worker…not in communist China."
Shapiro is quietly laying groundwork for a potential 2028 presidential run, holding meetings with billionaire megadonors in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area alongside rivals including Gavin Newsom, JB Pritzker, Wes Moore, and Andy Beshear, as the cost of a crowded Democratic primary is expected to exceed $100 million per candidate. Observers read his New Path PAC as part of that groundwork, with a House seat sweep in mind to tout in a future primary.
Key relationships
His Republican challenger for governor, whom he defeated on November 3; she spent the race arguing he used a divided legislature as an excuse for inaction instead of leading.
