Topline
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is reportedly one of the top picks for Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate in the presidential election—potentially putting him on the presidential ticket four years after he gained national attention going up against former President Donald Trump in court after the 2020 election.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro speaks during a campaign event for Democratic presidential candidate … [+]
Key Facts
Shapiro is reportedly on the shortlist for vice presidential candidates, along with other prominent Democrats like Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Prior to becoming the governor of Pennsylvania last year, he served as its attorney general, where his office defended the state in court.
Pennsylvania was one of the key states where Trump and his allies launched legal challenges after the 2020 election, alleging widespread issues and challenging voting rules in hopes of throwing out ballots and overturning now-President Joe Biden’s win in the battleground state.
Shapiro and his office successfully defended at least 19 lawsuits before the 2020 election and more than 20 filed after Election Day, he said in a 2021 appearance on The Daily Beast’s “The New Abnormal” podcast, and the then-attorney general became one of the most prominent state officials taking on Trump in court as the ex-president sought to overturn the results.
Those lawsuits include multiple challenges to Pennsylvania’s mail-in ballot rules, including by both the Trump campaign and GOP state candidates, and a major Trump campaign lawsuit—argued in court by Rudy Giuliani—that sought to throw out the state’s results, which a federal district judge said was based on “strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations,” and a federal appeals court ruled “cannot succeed.”
Many post-election challenges involving Pennsylvania made it to the U.S. Supreme Court and were uniformly dismissed—including the Trump campaign’s challenges and a Texas-led lawsuit that sought to throw out Pennsylvania and other battleground states’ results—and an earlier dispute over whether ballots received in the mail after Election Day should be counted was similarly killed by the court.
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What To Watch For
Harris is expected to name her running mate early next week, ahead of a planned tour through battleground states with her VP candidate. That tour is slated to kick off Tuesday in Philadelphia, though the Harris campaign has reportedly said not to read into the venue as a sign Shapiro will be the pick.
Big Number
80,555. That’s how many votes Biden won by in Pennsylvania in 2020, earning 50.01% of the vote to Trump’s 48.84%.
Contra
The sole lawsuit the Trump campaign won in the aftermath of the 2020 election was also in Pennsylvania, as a state court ruled then-Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar should not have extended a deadline for residents to provide proof of identification for their ballot if it was initially missing. That ruling only affected a small number of ballots that had already been set aside as votes were counted, however, and did not have any impact on Biden’s victory in the state.
Tangent
Shapiro’s office also filed a number of legal challenges against Trump while the ex-president was in office before the election, including challenging Trump’s “travel ban” on residents of some Middle Eastern countries and the Trump administration’s weakening of the contraception mandate in the Affordable Care Act. The former AG’s court battles with Trump “were a huge part of raising his profile and cementing a real track record on a lot of important issues,” J.J. Abbott, who was a spokesperson for former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, told NBC News.
Key Background
Shapiro, 51, is a Pennsylvania native who previously served as a state representative and county commissioner in the Philadelphia area before being elected attorney general in 2016. He then won the state’s gubernatorial race in 2022, beating out GOP state Sen. and Trump ally Doug Mastriano with a record number of votes. Beyond his string of wins against Trump in court, Shapiro also gained attention for his work as attorney general in investigating sexual abuse within the Catholic Church, and for his administration’s quick work in repairing a section of the I-95 highway in Philadelphia after a bridge collapsed in June 2023. Critics on the left have taken aim at Shapiro for his pro-Israel stance—though he’s criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—and for moves like initially voicing support for a “school choice” policy, and his office came under fire for a sexual harassment scandal last year.
