Republicans see Gov. Josh Shapiro as Harris' 'super strong' VP contender

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PITTSBURGH — Republicans increasingly see one of the Democrats under consideration to be Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate as the most likely to offer her a boost and make their efforts trickier: Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. These Republicans say that Shapiro, a first-term governor of a critical swing state, is someone who could help broaden Harris’ appeal with independent voters and traditional Democrats who are drifting away from the party and help win over his home state — the most pivotal battleground on the presidential map, in their view. In Shapiro, they see a governor who not only won in a 2022 landslide over state Sen. Doug Mastriano but is well regarded as an effective campaigner and messenger who has not totally alienated Pennsylvania Republicans in the process. “I just think Shapiro is super strong,” one ally of former President Donald Trump said. “And Republicans should be concerned about it. If I were her, that would be the pick.” This person added that Shapiro has avoided blistering attacks from Republican counterparts “because he’s actually pretty moderate,” adding that the governor, an observant Jew, could speak to disaffected voters of faith who years ago voted for Democrats but now feel detached from the party — and might even be a stronger candidate than Harris. “Shapiro creates a super interesting dynamic,” this person added. A second Trump ally said that while they did not view Shapiro as a moderate, they saw his “really nonthreatening” persona as having boosted his credibility with independents and Republicans. This person added that Shapiro is “the one that does the most to help her.” “He’s the obvious one,” this person added. “So if it’s not him, there’s a reason that’s not him in my mind. Whether that is in the vetting or a personality clash. He’s the one that jumps out off the page as, ‘Why wouldn’t you pick that person?’” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, has received bipartisan praise for how he dealt with the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. Matt Rourke / AP Follow live updates on the 2024 election Shapiro is among the handful of people whom Harris is vetting; he’s considered one of the leading contenders, along with North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and Sen. Mark Kelly, of Arizona. Shapiro has left the door open to serving as her running mate, telling reporters on Monday that “she will make that decision when she is ready” when asked if he would accept the job if offered, adding that the choice is “deeply personal” and that Harris should pick whomever she is most comfortable with. But the governor’s potential selection has clearly caught the attention of the Trump campaign, which has taken to trolling the possibility. On Wednesday, Chris LaCivita, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, tweeted: “🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨 Reliable Sources confirm, Kamala ( @VP ) To Pick @GovernorShapiro from PA.” It’s a possibility the Trump campaign has been thinking about for a while. As remote the chance of a Harris-Shapiro ticket was merely weeks ago, it was enough of one to factor into Trump’s calculus when picking Sen. JD Vance, of Ohio, as his running mate, sources have told NBC News. “The possibility that Kamala could pick Josh Shapiro or another Midwest Democratic governor as vice president only reinforces the logic behind the campaign’s selection of Vance as Trump’s running mate,” a source close to the Trump campaign said. Trump underscored this idea on a conference call with reporters on Tuesday. Asked if Harris replacing President Joe Biden at the top of the ticket made him reconsider tapping Vance, Trump said: “I’d do the same pick. He’s doing really well. He’s caught on.” Meanwhile, a veteran of GOP campaigns in Pennsylvania envisioned a scenario in which the battleground state becomes ground zero for the running mates. “Gov. Shapiro would drive Democrat turnout in the collar counties of Philadelphia,” this person said, referring to the suburbs and exurbs surrounding the city. “If he’s the nominee I would expect JD Vance to live in Western PA while Shapiro lives in Bucks and Chester counties as we come down the home stretch.” Shapiro’s bipartisan brand in Pennsylvania dates back years. He ran ahead of Biden and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton when he was on the ballot with them and was elected the state's attorney general. In 2022, NBC News exit polls showed he won 16% of Republicans in the governor's race. And a Philadelphia Inquirer/New York Times/Siena College survey from May, which showed his statewide approval rating at 57%, found that 42% of Pennsylvania Republicans approved of his handling of the job. He’s broken with Democrats by backing school vouchers, speaking in support of school choice on Fox News. He has sharply condemned the rise of antisemitism, including at some pro-Palestinian protests, while also condemning Islamophobia. He won plaudits from Pennsylvania Republicans at all levels of government for his handling of the aftermath of the attempted assassination on Trump this month, which took place in his state. “He handled the Trump shooting really well. Like a statesman,” said Tricia McLaughlin, a Republican strategist who was a top adviser on Vivek Ramaswamy’s 2024 presidential campaign. “I’m not sure though that him beating Mastriano in a landslide is really the electoral coup Democrats are purporting it to be. Mastriano wasn’t a good candidate and 2022 was roundly a bad year for Rs.” Republicans have plenty of things to slam Shapiro for — and that pushback is getting louder now that he’s in the running to be Harris’ running mate. The same day Biden announced he was stepping down, the Commonwealth Foundation, a conservative think tank in Pennsylvania, ran an ad in The Washington Post criticizing Shapiro over how many bills he’s been able to get through a divided Legislature. (Last month, the think tank conducted a survey that found his approval rating in-state at 58%.) Republicans who spoke with NBC News criticized Shapiro for failing to get Democrats to go along with his school voucher plan during his first budget negotiations after cutting deals with GOP members, appealing a ruling that struck down Pennsylvania’s participation in an interstate greenhouse gas reduction program, and for his handling of sexual harassment claims against a legislative aide. “He hasn’t been tested on a national level,” Allegheny County GOP Chairman Sam DeMarco said. “And he has never been really tested here, even in Pennsylvania.” “So a lot of folks, they don’t think about these things,” he added. “But you can bet people would get to know them with a fully funded opposition research [effort] by the Trump campaign.” Former Rep. Keith Rothfus, R-Pa., slammed Shapiro for his energy policies, his efforts to legalize recreational marijuana and his position on abortion. “I know there are a lot of Republicans who will mistake Shapiro’s smile, his temperament and his nice wardrobe for him to be some kind of moderate,” he said. Some of the reasons Republicans have praised Shapiro in the past or now view him as a potentially strong vice presidential candidate — whether it be because of his appeal to moderate voters, his position on school choice, his getting the backing of police unions or his stance on the Israel-Hamas war — have led some on the Democratic Party’s left flank to come out against adding him to the ticket. Most prominently, Erin McClelland, the Democratic nominee for state treasurer in Pennsylvania, tweeted Tuesday that she wants “a VP pick that’s secure enough to be second under a woman, is content to be VP & won’t undermine the President to maneuver his own election & doesn’t sweep sexual harassment under the rug.” “I want someone that can speak to rural voters,” she said. “That is @RoyCooperNC.” Traditionally, a running mate rarely makes a difference in presidential elections, as a number of Republicans said in discussions with NBC News. They said that the election will end up being an up or down on Trump and Harris — and they relished the chance to go against the vice president, particularly in Pennsylvania. One Republican working on Senate races said Harris “is about as horrible of a replacement for ‘Scranton Joe’ as they could conceivably have.” “For a state like Pennsylvania, man, I’d rather go up against Harris 10 times out of 10 than go up against Biden,” state Rep. Josh Kail, chair of the state House Republican campaign committee, said. “Biden had roots in Pennsylvania, Biden was perceived as a blue-collar kind of guy.” One block of voters for whom Shapiro could make a difference, though, is made up of backers of former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley in her bid for the GOP nomination — voters who may have been more inclined to vote for Biden than Harris. “[W]e’re sort of in uncharted waters here,” said Brittany Martinez, a Republican strategist who backed Haley. “A more moderate VP with her would perhaps be able to sway some of those voters who are on the fence.” Martinez isn’t among them. Though she pointed to Shapiro and Kelly as the best choices, she said: “I’ll be writing in.” What’s more, some Republicans have taken to spreading the idea that Shapiro would actually decline an offer from Harris, saying that it could harm his future presidential prospects. Pennsylvania state Rep. Russ Diamond, a Republican, tweeted that Shapiro would be risking “his 20-year undefeated streak and a chance at being a relatively unscathed Dem running for prez in post-Trump 2028.” “It’s no secret that he would really love to be president someday,” Diamond said in an interview. “And joining that ticket now, there’s two paths: Either she loses and he shares the blame for that. Or she wins, and then he’s stuck for potentially eight years … so it’s kind of a dead end either way for him.” But such calls only serve to indirectly highlight the strength the governor could bring to the ticket. “If I’m a Republican, Shapiro is the one that concerns me the most,” Tres Watson, a GOP political strategist and founder of Capitol Reins PR, said. “He can be moderate, he can also be liberal, but he’s got the school choice stuff — he kind of dabbles in some things that could kill Republican votes off.”