Who is Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro? Full biography, key accomplishments, controversies and more

Budget negotiations during his first year in office were temporarily delayed after a politically embarrassing incident. As the June 30 deadline neared, the governor, according to multiple accounts, privately negotiated a deal with state Senate Republicans to create a taxpayer-funded school voucher plan. Democrats privately said they were blindsided by the move and refused to give their support to the proposal.

Despite Shapiro’s efforts to assuage members of his party, the governor was forced to abandon the plan.

Shapiro scored a major win in this year’s budget, securing $500 million for a program to prepare sites for industrial or mixed-use developments. Still, the final deal did not include several other key issues Shapiro advocated for, including sustainable funding for public transit and the legalization of adult-use recreational marijuana.

“There were some things we didn’t get done this time,” Shapiro acknowledged during a news conference after signing the budget, “but in a productive democracy, this is how progress is made — by moving past partisan politics and having real conversations together.”

Has Josh Shapiro been involved in any controversies?

One of the few controversies of Shapiro’s tenure as governor came courtesy of one of his oldest allies, his now-former legislative liaison Mike Vereb.

Shapiro and Vereb, a Republican, are both from Montgomery County and served together in the state House. When Shapiro became attorney general, he brought Vereb on as a top advisor. And when Shapiro was elected governor, Vereb was one of the few Republicans to join his staff, this time in a key role as the governor’s emissary to the legislature.

But in September, Vereb resigned. His departure came shortly after reporters had learned a staffer had filed a complaint against him alleging harassment that had begun shortly after the start of the administration.

Spotlight PA learned that the administration had quietly paid out $295,000 to settle the complaint three weeks before Vereb’s abrupt resignation. Shapiro would not discuss the matter in any detail, with his administration saying only that it handled the matter in a professional and timely manner.

That settlement isn’t the only matter about which Shapiro has been notably tight-lipped. Across the board, Shapiro’s administration has been markedly more opaque than previous governors’.

As Shapiro prepared to take office, he had members of his transition team sign nondisclosure agreements and would not say who paid for inauguration events.

Unlike his predecessor, who released detailed daily schedules, Shapiro has declined to regularly release information about who he meets with behind the scenes. He also categorizes his daily calendars as “personal” papers, which exempts them from the state’s Right-To-Know Law.

The governor also loosened a notoriously tight gift ban for his employees while arguing it would still protect against gifts from lobbyists influencing his agenda.

However, Shapiro has still accepted free tickets, including to the Super Bowl, paid for by unknown donors to a little-known fund managed by Team PA, a Harrisburg-based nonprofit of which the governor is a co-chair.

He also listed tickets to sporting events, from long-time donors and lobbyists, as campaign contributions.

The administration has argued this is all in compliance with the state’s ethics and campaign finance laws, which are among the most lax in the country, and that the gift ban doesn’t apply to Team PA.

Shapiro, one of the country’s most prominent Jewish politicians, has also taken a central role in condemning antisemitism and what he sees as weak responses to it in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which killed 1,200 people.

“I am pro-the idea of a Jewish homeland, a Jewish state, and I will certainly do everything in my power to ensure that Israel is strong and Israel is fortified and will exist for generations,” Shapiro told the New York Times.

As protests against Israel’s war in Gaza — where the death toll now tops 39,000 — have escalated, Shapiro has argued some demonstrations have crossed a line into bigotry.

Amid rising protests against the war, the Shapiro administration updated the office’s code of conduct to bar “scandalous” conduct. An email accompanying the policy cited social media posts, boycotts, graffiti, and public confrontations as examples of potential “hate speech” that would not be tolerated.

He also backed a bipartisan bill that would strip state funding from any school that divests from Israel.

What’s next for Josh Shapiro?

Before Biden announced he was stepping down, Shapiro, who has made many appearances as a surrogate for and supporter of Biden, said he stood by the president.

Soon after Biden announced he would not accept the nomination for reelection and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor, Shapiro issued a statement giving her his full support.

“I’ve known Kamala Harris for nearly two decades — we’ve both been prosecutors, we’ve both stood up for the rule of law, we’ve both fought for the people and delivered results,” Shapiro said in a statement released by his campaign office.

“Kamala Harris is a patriot worthy of our support and she will continue the work of generations of Americans who came before us to perfect our union, protect our democracy, and advance real freedom. She has served the country honorably as Vice President and she is ready to be President.”

As of Monday morning, Shapiro was scheduled to appear at an afternoon news conference in Pittsburgh to announce the recipients of federal pollution reduction grants.