{"id":8289,"date":"2026-07-29T09:35:42","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T09:35:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8289"},"modified":"2026-07-29T09:35:42","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T09:35:42","slug":"what-the-midterms-mean-for-pennsylvania-gov-josh-shapiros-2028-hopes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8289","title":{"rendered":"What the midterms mean for Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro\u2019s 2028 hopes"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Democratic sweep of Pennsylvania\u2019s competitive U.S. House and state legislative races could boost the case for Shapiro in his party\u2019s presidential primary.<\/strong><\/p>

Read more Fauci set to face Rand Paul, Senate GOP after release of his covid \u2018diary\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

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Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro speaks during Democratic congressional candidate Bob Brooks’s campaign event on July 26 at a Steelworkers Union Hall in Bethlehem. (Erin Blewett\/AP)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

BETHLEHEM, Pa. \u2014 It was not by happenstance that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) chose a union hall here in the Lehigh Valley to launch the final 100-day sprint toward the midterm election. \u201cThis is ground zero for the battle to control Congress,\u201d the speaker-in-waiting declared.<\/p>\n

The same could be said for the centrality of this state \u2014 and this election \u2014 to the presidential aspirations of a Democrat who shared the stage Sunday with Jeffries: Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.<\/p>\n

Were the popular governor<\/a> to run nationally in 2028, and the current assumption is he will, what happens in his crucial state in November could be a compelling argument not only for his electability but for his ability to carry others over the finish line.<\/p>\n

This year, Pennsylvania holds four of the House races that Democrats consider to be among their top opportunities for flipping Republican-held <\/b>seats. That\u2019s more competitive races than in any other state, according to the House Democrats\u2019 campaign operation.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump carried three of those districts in 2024. But in the 2022 gubernatorial election, Shapiro, then the state\u2019s attorney general, won all four by double digits against a far-right opponent.<\/p>\n

\u201cPennsylvania is always the ultimate swing state, the state that kind of decides it all,\u201d Shapiro, who is running for a second term, said in an interview. \u201cAnd so it is not a stretch to imagine if we win these races here, that\u2019ll create a Democratic majority in the U.S. House.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shapiro is a heavy favorite against the Republican gubernatorial nominee, State Treasurer Stacy Garrity. He has raised more than $50 million to run up the score, and create an updraft that could help candidates lower on the ballot.<\/p>\n

He has also had a hand in who those candidates are. Shapiro endorsed the Democratic candidates in all four of Pennsylvania\u2019s most hotly contested congressional districts in their primaries. One of them, Bob Brooks, spent 20 years as a firefighter in Bethlehem and was Shapiro\u2019s pick in a hard-fought primary to take on Republican incumbent Ryan Mackenzie. In 2024, Mackenzie best Democratic Rep. Susan Wild by 1 percentage point.<\/p>\n

As he prepared to introduce Shapiro here on Sunday, Brooks emphasized his background as an outsider who can relate to the pressures that ordinary people are under: \u201cI have to be honest. Running for Congress was not on my Bingo card. I\u2019m not a politician. Far from it, actually. I\u2019m a regular working person, like so many of the faces that I see in this room.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Keystone State Democrats are also hoping to flip the state senate, where Republicans have a 27-23 majority, while also maintaining their narrow hold on the House. If they can do it, they would be looking at their first unified <\/b>hold on state government in more than three decades.<\/p>

Read more Nationals hang on to beat Blue Jays, stay in wild-card hunt<\/a><\/p>\n

Shapiro has pledged he would use that power to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, from its current $7.25; fund mass transit; build more housing and codify abortion rights into state law.<\/p>\n

All of which could be rolled into a national message, the outlines of which became apparent as the governor talked about his agenda. \u201cWe all need to do our part to stop the chaos and cruelty and corruption of Donald Trump,\u201d he said, \u201cand that\u2019s going to require us here at the state level having a trifecta so that we can pass policies that help the people of Pennsylvania while Trump is hurting them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having seen his state vote twice for Trump, in 2016 and 2024, Shapiro is working to build up the Democratic infrastructure. He recently unveiled a multimillion-dollar effort that party officials say is the largest coordinated midterm operation in the state\u2019s history. It boasts having opened 27 offices across the state and hiring nearly 100 full-time organizers.<\/p>\n

The governor has also addressed one of the more worrisome trends for Pennsylvania Democrats: Their voter registration advantage over Republicans had dropped precipitously over recent election cycles.<\/p>\n

Between 2020 and 2024, the registration gap between the two parties had fallen by more than half<\/a>, to 325,000 Democrats <\/b>from 686,000 Republicans. It was a warning sign that Trump was going to win the state and its 19 electoral votes.<\/p>\n

This year, with the midterms approaching, the numbers are starting to turn around; Democrats have added nearly 25,500 to the registration rolls, while Republican numbers have dropped by more than 4,500, according to voter registration data analyzed by PennLive.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Retooling and professionalizing the party is a project that Shapiro began almost a year ago, he said, and now, \u201cI\u2019m investing millions of dollars in helping elevate other Democrats on the ballot, spending my time campaigning for people like Bob Brooks and others.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Shapiro with Democratic congressional candidate Bob Brooks, center, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) at the July 26 campaign kickoff. (Erin Blewett\/Ap Photo\/Erin Blewett)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

If all of this works as he hopes, it might be the foundation for a presidential campaign. Unknowable at this point, however, is whether the Democratic base in 2028 will be looking for a Mr. Fix-It whose appeal stretches across party lines, or will move further leftward in its fury at the establishment.<\/p>\n

Shapiro insists \u2014 as presidential candidates nearly always do at this stage of the game \u2014 that none of this is his concern at the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019m focused on are these midterms,\u201d which in Pennsylvania \u201cwill be decided on a razor\u2019s edge,\u201c Shapiro said. \u201cFolks are fed up and angry and frustrated. The best way to demonstrate that, the best way to show that we\u2019re against what Trump is doing, is to show up and vote in record numbers.\u201d<\/p>

Read more Trump set to unveil Dulles makeover after months of personal edits<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Democratic sweep of Pennsylvania\u2019s competitive U.S. House and state legislative races could boost the case for Shapiro in his party\u2019s presidential primary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8286,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat the midterms mean for Pennsylvania Gov. 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