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Attorney General Josh Shapiro makes it official: He’s running for Pa. governor
https://www.pennlive.com/news/2021/10/attorney-general-josh-shapiro-makes-it-official-hes-running-for-governor.html?utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=pennlive_sf&utm_medium=social
Pennsylvania Attorney General Joshua Shapiro, as promised, made the long-expected announcement this morning that he is running for governor.
Shapiro’s campaign had previously said he would announce his candidacy today. He did so in a Youtube video, and is expected to kick off his campaign with an appearance in Pittsburgh today.
The video casts him as the candidate who would protect voting rights and fight efforts to undermine election.
“I understand people feel like our politics are divided and broken right now, but we can’t just take our ball and go home,” he says in the video. “There’s too much on the line. We all have a responsibility to show up, to stand up, and to fight for what’s right.”
The video also touts his work on a grand jury report in 2018 on on sexual abuse of children in six Catholic Church in Pennsylvania. The report spawned similar investigations in other states and stronger laws in Pennsylvania.
Shapiro, who so far faces no opposition from within the Democratic Party, has secured the endorsement of Gov. Tom Wolf and began 2021 with $2.7 million in his campaign account.
By contrast, a large number of potential candidates have emerged on the Republican side, all jockeying to be the party’s nominee in 2022.
The crowded field includes former U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, former U.S. Attorney Bill McSwain, political strategist Charlie Gerow; and Guy Ciarrocci, former CEO of the Chester County Chamber of Business & Industry.
The 48-year-old self-described progressive served as a state representative and chair of the Montgomery County commissioners board before winning election as the state’s top prosecutor in 2016 with no law enforcement background and little practical courtroom experience.
He raised his profile nationally in the wake of the 2020 election when he led the fight to push back against President Donald Trump’s unfounded claims of election fraud in Pa. He’s more recently sued to block a Senate GOP subpoena demanding voter records, including information such as social security numbers, from the Wolf administration.
“We’re at a critical time in America,” he said in his campaign video. “Here in Pennsylvania too. Already there are republicans running for governor who want to lead us down a dark path, undermine free and fair elections, strip away voting rights and permanently divide us.”
Also on the national stage, Shapiro’s office helped lead state attorneys general in settlement talks with big pharmaceutical distributors and major drug manufacturers over their liability for the opioid addiction crisis in the United States.
His office issued a grand jury report slamming how gas drilling is regulated, and criminally charged a drilling company and a pipeline developer. Another driller pleaded no contest and paid $150,000 in penalties.
Shapiro let yet another gas company settle a lawsuit over royalties for $5.3 million in restitution — a fraction of what landowners say they were cheated out of — though he extracted a promise for higher future payments. He also lost a bid in court to sue exploration firms on consumer protection grounds over their mineral rights-leasing practices.
Shapiro and his wife, Lori, have four children and live in the Philadelphia suburb of Montgomery County. A graduate of the University of Rochester and Georgetown Law, he worked as a congressional staffer before launching his own political career in 2004.
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