Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro was on a short list to ride Kamala’s 2024 train wreck as her vice president. In a 2024 fisking by Newsweek, Shapiro’s appeal included being popular in Pennsylvania, a swing state Kamal would need and ultimately lost. Newsweek also noted that Shaprio was pro-Israel as regards Oct 7.
Democrats say they support Israel, but historically, not so much. Shapiro was also, and still is, more intelligent, more articulate, and better on the issues than Harris, which is why Kamala would never choose him. But he was framed at the time as a moderate Democrat, which would have been helpful as Harris is not.
[Shapiro] is viewed as fairly moderate, which could be an asset in courting traditional Democrats and independent voters. Some Republicans have voiced that Shapiro is the candidate they find most formidable, NBC reported using anonymous sources.
A potential 2028 Democratic presidential nominee has joined a lawsuit that would block President Trump from placing a ban on sex change surgeries for minors. He then took it even farther and criticized his state’s Senate bill that would ban biological men from competing in women’s sports.
Thus endeth the presidential aspirations of Josh Shapiro, pending a pivot, and there’s the rub. Shapiro needs to court the loony base of the Democratic party to survive the nomination process. That has to include ridiculous statements about “gender affirming care” for minors (conversion therapy), and men stealing glory from women in athletics.
What’s good for the base is not great for the electorate. Nationally, these issues are increasingly unpopular. Mr. Trump won, in part, opposing the things Mr. Shapiro just defended. Between now and 2028, the odds are good that America and Americans will transition even further away from the practice of drugging and neutering children and letting boys and men beat girls at sports.
But it is not an issue any Democrat candidate can avoid.
The base may not ultimately decide who the nominee is, the DNC will handle that, but they can drive candidates out of the running. It’s the only real power they have. The primary lineup will have to lurch left to win early states to stay in the race, but when that lurch is the list of things that cost Kamala, arguably a terrible candidate, the election, they will have to answer for that in the general.
To Shapiro’s credit, he is spinning it as “trying to take medical decisions away from parents and local communities,” but that’s thin gruel from the party of mandates and lockdowns. And to be fair, he could survive considering the rumored names likely to challenge him should he decide to run–Newsom, Whitmer, Pritzker (who looks like the pigs in Animal Farm), Buttigieg, Cortez, and so on.
Rahm Emmanual is pondering, as is Maryland Governor Wes Moore, who is camera-ready, a great speaker, but would have to deal with the ghosts of Obama’s past. He’s black, articulate, young, and not very experienced. Democrats will love it, and he’s not Jewish (remember, Dems really do hate jews), and America has been there and done that, and it didn’t go well. With the RussiaGate scandal evolving into ObamaGate, Moore may, perhaps even unfairly, climb over that baggage to get into the finals.
I’m sure Shapiro has done that math, but I can’t see how this recent far-from-moderate move helps.
