A year ago, only a few people outside of Pennsylvania had heard of Josh Shapiro, 51, the Keystone State’s governor since January 2023.
Today, the proudly Jewish governor who attended a Jewish Day School in suburban Philadelphia, studied on a high school program in Israel, and keeps a kosher kitchen in the governor’s mansion in Harrisburg, is a widely recognized political name in America.
The reason: He was very much in the race to become Kamala Harris’s running mate once US President Joe Biden stepped down in July and Harris’s path to the Democratic Party’s nomination was secured.
In the end, the talented politician who sounds uncannily like Barack Obama when he speaks – down to the cadence and use of terms like “hear me on this” sprinkled through his oratory– lost to Tim Walz.
Only Harris knows why she chose a progressive governor of a state she already has in her pocket (Minnesota) over a more moderate governor of a state she needs to win, but one factor that appears to have come into play is Shapiro’s stalwart support for Israel.
An organized campaign was launched against Shapiro by the Left once his candidacy looked serious, including dredging up an article he wrote in college questioning the viability of the Oslo Accords and saying the Palestinians were “too battle-minded” to live in peace with Israel.
A sad sign of the times
When he emerged as a possible candidate in late July, CNN political correspondent John King matter-of-factly said Shapiro could be a liability because of his faith.
“He’s a first-term governor; he’s Jewish. There could be some risks in putting him on the ticket,” King said.
The risks were not necessarily due to Shapiro’s Jewishness. If Jewish anti-Israel Senator Bernie Sanders had won the election, the radical progressives who fiercely opposed Shapiro would not have protested. Rather, their opposition was because Shapiro was Jewish and unapologetically pro-Israel – a combination that, in a sad sign of the times, will not fly today with certain progressive elements inside the Democratic Party.
Identity politics has overtaken the US. Harris’s identity as a black woman helped catapult her to where she is today. Shapiro’s identity as a Jewish stalwart supporter of Israel is one factor that kept him back this time around.