Reporters packed the room Thursday for a Monitor Breakfast event with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. And there were plenty of national issues to discuss – immigration raids, political violence, rising antisemitism.
But when a reporter introduced herself as having “Pittsburgh roots,” Governor Shapiro couldn’t resist going local.
“Great, another Yinzer!” he said, using Pittsburgh slang for a city resident. “Are you still a Steelers fan?”
Yes, she assured him. “Stillers,” Mr. Shapiro threw in, again shifting to Pittsburghese. (He’s from Philadelphia, but is apparently bilingual.)
The governor is on a book tour, promoting his memoir, “Where We Keep the Light.” The book paints a self-portrait of a man who’s all about his family, his Jewish faith, and “getting stuff done.”
But for the media, the interest is all about 2028 and the widely held assumption that Mr. Shapiro, a Democrat, will run for president. At a time of deep national division, he prides himself on his ability to work across the aisle.
Still, ask Mr. Shapiro straight up if he’s running, as the reporter from Pittsburgh did, and he demurs. Because he has to. He’s up for reelection this November, and while he’s strongly favored to win, the midterm elections are on a razor’s edge – both for control of the U.S. Congress and his state legislature. Pennsylvania is the nation’s biggest swing state, and he enjoys high approval ratings.
“I don’t think we should be thinking about anything other than curtailing the chaos, the cruelty, and the corruption of this administration,” Mr. Shapiro says, as quoted in the Monitor’s coverage.
But the governor’s book did make waves earlier this month, pre-release, when a reporter got an advance copy and highlighted the controversy over his vetting by Kamala Harris’s team for the vice-presidency in 2024. Mr. Shapiro expressed upset over this question: “Have you ever been an agent for the Israeli government?”
In the book, Mr. Shapiro cries antisemitism. The issue of vetting came up last week in our Monitor Breakfast event with another prominent Jewish Democrat, former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Mr. Emanuel expressed sympathy with both sides, saying the question was “not artful, but you have to ask.” Yet another top Jewish Democrat, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, also defended the process as “tough” but necessary.
Notably, all three men are widely viewed as eyeing the presidency. And thus the issue of rising antisemitism could be a dominant theme in 2028. Indeed, the night before our roundtable with Mr. Shapiro, a motorist rammed his car multiple times into a major Jewish institution, the Chabad-Lubavitch world headquarters, in Brooklyn, New York. The incident is being investigated as a hate crime.
In fact, I told Mr. Shapiro after our event had ended, I have personally experienced antisemitism. I have received nasty emails from people who assume I’m Jewish, I said. “Lovely, just forward them to me,” Mr. Shapiro responded.
On a lighter note, in our post-roundtable chit-chat, we got back to the subject of football. The night before, while doing a book event in Boston, Mr. Shapiro mentioned visiting with Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots who is also working to fight antisemitism. My ears perked up.
“I’m so sorry,” I said, “but I’m from Boston. Go Pats!”
After several bad years, the Patriots are back in the Super Bowl. Mr. Shapiro was gracious, given that his hometown Philadelphia Eagles, who won the Super Bowl last year, won’t repeat.
“I lived through those lean years with the birds, with the Eagles,” the governor said, “and so it’s kind of neat to see them [the Patriots] as good as they are.”
