PITTSBURGH — Republicans are seeing more and more one of the democrats is supposed to be Running mate of Vice President Kamala Harris Those who are most likely to motivate him and make his efforts more difficult: Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro.
Those Republicans say Shapiro, the first-time governor of a critical state, is someone who can help Harris broaden his appeal to independent voters and traditional Democrats who are drifting away from the party and help him win his home state — a key battleground state on what they say is the presidential map.
In Shapiro, they see a governor who not only defeated state Sen. Doug Mastriano in 2022, but who is seen as an effective campaigner and messenger who hasn’t completely alienated Pennsylvania Republicans in the process.
“I just think Shapiro is very powerful,” said an ally of former President Donald Trump. “And Republicans should be worried about that. If I were in his place, this would be the choice.”
The person added that Shapiro has avoided angry attacks from his Republican colleagues because he is “actually quite moderate,” adding that the governor, who is an observant Jew, can speak to loyal voters who voted Democratic years ago but now feel alienated from the party — and even He may be a stronger candidate than Harris.
“Shapiro creates a super interesting dynamic,” this person said.
A second Trump ally said that while they don’t view Shapiro as a moderate, they see his “really non-threatening” personality as a boost to his credibility among independents and Republicans. The person added that Shapiro was “the one who helped him the most.”
“He’s obvious,” said this person. “So if he’s not, there’s a reason in my mind that he’s not. Be it in an inspection or an identity clash. “Why didn’t you choose that person?” he is the one who is thrown off the page.
Shapiro is one of several people Harris has checked out; he is considered is one of the leading candidates, along with Cooper and Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona. Shapiro told reporters Monday when asked if he would take the job if offered, “he’ll make that decision when he’s ready.” adds that the choice was “deeply personal” and that Harris had to choose who he was most comfortable with.
But the potential gubernatorial pick has clearly drawn the attention of the Trump campaign, which has been trolling the prospect. On Wednesday, Chris LaCivita, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, he tweeted: “🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨 Reliable Sources Confirm Kamala ( @VP ) Select @GovernorShapiro from PA.”
It’s a possibility the Trump campaign has been mulling for some time. Sources told NBC News that the chances of the Harris-Shapiro ticket were enough to factor into Trump’s calculations when he chose Sen. JD Vance of Ohio as his running mate, just as it was just weeks ago.
“The possibility that Kamala could choose Josh Shapiro or another Midwestern Democratic governor as her running mate reinforces the rationale behind the campaign’s selection of Vance as Trump’s running mate,” a source close to the Trump campaign said.
Trump emphasized this point in a conference call with reporters on Tuesday. Asked if Harris replacing President Joe Biden at the top of the ticket would make him reconsider tapping Vance, Trump said: “I would have made the same choice. It works really well. He was caught.”
Meanwhile, a veteran of GOP campaigns in Pennsylvania envisioned a scenario where the battleground state becomes ground zero for his running mates.
“Gov. Shapiro will increase Democratic activity in Philadelphia’s collar counties,” said the person, referring to the suburbs and surrounding areas surrounding the city. “If he runs, I would expect JD Vance to live in Western PA and Shapiro to live in Bucks and Chester counties. “
Shapiro’s brand of bipartisanship in Pennsylvania goes back many years. He beat Biden and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton on the ballot to become the state’s attorney general. in 2022 NBC News exit poll showed that Republicans won 16% in the gubernatorial race. And Philadelphia Inquirer/New York Times/Siena College A May poll put his statewide approval rating at 57%, with 42% of Pennsylvania Republicans approving of his handling of the job.
He left the Democrats by supporting school vouchersspoke in support of school choice on Fox News. He strongly condemned the rise of anti-Semitism. including in some pro-Palestinian protests, while also denouncing Islamophobia. He won praise from Pennsylvania Republicans at all levels of government for managing the aftermath of the assassination attempt About Trump happening in his state this month.
“He handled the Trump shooting very well. As a statesman,” said Tricia McLaughlin, a Republican strategist who served as a senior adviser to Vivek Ramaswamy’s 2024 presidential campaign. “I’m not convinced that he beat Mastriano mercilessly and was really the coup that the Democrats claimed it was. Mastriano was not a good candidate and 2022 was a bad year for Rs.
Republicans have plenty to criticize Shapiro for — and that pushback is even louder now that he’s set to become Harris’ running mate. On the day Biden announced his resignation, the Commonwealth Fund, a conservative think tank in Pennsylvania, ran an ad in The Washington Post criticizing Shapiro for how many bills he was able to get out of a divided Legislature. (Last month(a think tank poll found his approval rating statewide at 58 percent.)
Republicans who spoke to NBC News criticized Shapiro He failed to get Democrats to go along with the school voucher plan during the first budget negotiations after cutting deals with GOP members, to file an appeal from the annulled decision For participation in and administration of Pennsylvania’s interstate greenhouse gas reduction program allegations of sexual harassment vs. legislative assistant.
“He’s untested at the national level,” Allegheny County GOP Chairman Sam DeMarco said. “And it’s never been tried here, not even in Pennsylvania.”
“So a lot of people don’t think about these things,” he said. “But you can bet people will recognize them with fully funded opposition research [effort] by the Trump campaign.”
Former Rep. Keith Rothfuss, R-Pa., he snapped Shapiro for his energy policies, efforts to legalize recreational marijuana, and his stance on abortion.
“I know there are a lot of Republicans who mistake Shapiro’s smile, his personality and his great wardrobe for some kind of moderate,” he said.
Some of the reasons why Republicans have praised Shapiro in the past or now see him as a potentially strong vice presidential candidate — whether it’s his appeal to moderate voters, his stance on school choice, the support of police unions or his position. on the Israel-Hamas war — led some on the left wing of the Democratic Party to oppose adding him to the ticket.
Most notably, Erin McClelland, the Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania state treasurer. he tweeted On Tuesday, he said he wants “a VP pick who is credible enough to run second under a woman, who is happy to be VP and who doesn’t undermine the President to maneuver his election and who isn’t swept up in a sexual harassment case.”
“I want someone who can talk to rural voters,” he said. “This is @RoyCooperNC.”
As several Republicans discussed with NBC News, traditionally, the nominee rarely makes a difference in presidential elections. They said the election would be up or down for Trump and Harris — and they especially relished the chance to challenge the vice president in Pennsylvania. One Republican who works on Senate races said Harris was “about as terrible as replacing ‘Scranton Joe.’
“For a state like Pennsylvania, I’d rather run against Harris 10 times out of 10 than against Biden,” said state Rep. Josh Kyle, chairman of the House Republican campaign committee. “Biden had roots in Pennsylvania, Biden was perceived as a blue-collar guy.”
One bloc of voters Shapiro could make a difference with is former US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley’s backers for the GOP nomination — voters more likely to vote for Biden than Harris.
“[W]I’m kind of in uncharted waters here,” said Brittany Martinez, a Republican strategist who supports Haley. “A more moderate VP with him might sway some voters who are on the fence.”
Martinez is not among them. While he listed Shapiro and Kelly as the top picks, he said, “I’ll write.”
Moreover, some Republicans began to float the idea that Shapiro would, in fact, reject Harris’s offer, saying it could hurt Harris’ future presidential prospects. Representative Russ Diamond of Pennsylvania, a Republican, he tweeted It said Shapiro would “jeopardize his 20-year undefeated streak and his chance to run in the post-Trump 2028 primary.”
“It’s no secret that he would love to be president someday,” Diamond said in an interview. “And now there are two ways to join this ticket: Either he will lose, and he will share the blame for it. Or he wins and then he’s potentially stuck for eight years … so it’s a dead end for him either way.”
But such calls only serve to indirectly highlight the strength a governor can bring to a ticket.
“If I’m a Republican, the person I’m most interested in is Shapiro,” said Tres Watson, GOP political strategist and founder of Capitol Reins PR. “He may be a moderate, he may be a liberal, but he has the issue of school choice — he’s dealing with some things that could kill Republican votes.”