Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro launched his campaign for re-election at a rally in Philadelphia on Jan. 8.<\/p>\n
The Thursday rally marked Shapiro\u2019s second public announcement of his candidacy, following a speech earlier that day in Pittsburgh. Shapiro \u2014 who serves as an ex officio on Penn\u2019s Board of Trustees \u2014 was joined onstage by Pennsylvania Lieutenant Gov. Austin Davis, as well as a lineup of Philadelphians, labor leaders, and local elected officials.<\/p>\n
During his speech, Shapiro laid out policy goals for his second term in office, including raising the minimum wage, protecting reproductive freedom, and producing more clean energy. Shapiro emphasized his bipartisan record and called on Pennsylvanians to reject divisive politics.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this time when others want to stoke division, let us commit ourselves to the proposition that no American is my enemy and every American is a partner in the greatest experiment in human governance in the history of the world,\u201d Shapiro said.<\/p>\n
Other speakers also spoke to the accomplishments of Shapiro\u2019s first term, including the repair of the I-95 highway, economic growth, and Shapiro\u2019s defense of SEPTA.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe governor has delivered,\u201d Philadelphia Mayor and 2016 Fels Institute of Government graduate Cherelle Parker said in her speech. \u201cThis is what leadership looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shapiro\u2019s response to the federal government \u2014 which he described as \u201cthe chaos, the cruelty, and the corruption in Washington D.C.\u201d \u2014 shaped much of his message.<\/p>\n
Davis positioned Shapiro as a vanguard against federal overreach, citing how Shapiro \u201cspoke truth to power\u201d when the White House \u201ctried to force their chaos and dangerous policies\u201d on Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
Shapiro echoed that sentiment, pledging that \u201cif anyone tries to mess with a Pennsylvanian, restrict our freedoms, take away what’s ours, they’ll have to go through me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, we are in a battle to protect the very foundation upon which the place we call home was founded,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
During his first term, Shapiro criticized Penn\u2019s response to allegations of campus antisemitism on multiple occasions. In December 2023, the governor expressed concerns<\/a> over then-Penn President Liz Magill\u2019s testimony<\/a> before Congress, including an exchange in which she neglected to state that calling for the genocide of Jewish people violates Penn\u2019s code of conduct. He reiterated similar concerns the following year during an event<\/a> hosted by the American Jewish Committee.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the time since Magill\u2019s resignation<\/a>, the governor\u2019s influence at Penn continued to increase<\/a> on a private and public level, particularly regarding the administration\u2019s handling of antisemitic incidents.\u00a0<\/p>\n Shapiro enters the campaign with over $30 million raised<\/a>, a new state record for a gubernatorial candidate heading into an election year. He is currently unopposed in the Democratic primary election and is expected to face \u00a0\u00a0Republican Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity in the general election in November.<\/p>\n Senior reporter Alex Dash leads coverage of politics and can be reached at dash@thedp.com<\/a>. At Penn, he studies history and political science. Follow him on X @AlexBDash<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro launched his campaign for re-election at a rally in Philadelphia on Jan. 8. The…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":514949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,1448,2830,1311,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-514948","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-pa","10":"tag-pennsylvania","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-united-states-of-america","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115892205865454333","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}