Before Kamala Harris picked Tim Walz of Minnesota, many insiders thought the polished and charismatic Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro, had it in the bag.
But in the end, those qualities may have doomed Shapiro’s easy path to the White House as No. 2 on a Democratic presidential ticket running neck-and-neck with Donald Trump and J.D. Vance. In fact, Shapiro’s brazen political ambitions may have raised concerns that he couldn’t be trusted to stay in his place.
Intraparty rival Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) sounded alarm bells in recent days about the governor’s quest for higher office. A Fox News reporter on Tuesday tweeted: “Two sources confirm on background the deciding factor in the VP’s choice was what Sen Fetterman said publicly: concerns Shapiro’s his own personal ambitions would cause him to upstage/override Harris.”
In an oddly worded statement that read like a concession speech, Shapiro said Tuesday that the “running mate decision was a deeply personal decision for the Vice President—and it was also a deeply personal decision for me.” He vowed to spend the next 90 days traveling across the commonwealth to help Harris and Walz defeat Trump.
Besides his not-so-secretive ambitions to become president, Shapiro, 51, had other fatal flaws as Harris and her team vetted the finalists: his involvement in a taxpayer-funded payoff to settle a sexual harassment claim against a top aide and his allegiance to Israel, which pro-Palestinian groups used to attack him. Some slammed those attacks as anti-semitic.
If elected vice president, Shapiro would have been the highest-ranking Jewish U.S. government official in history. He’s known as a strong speaker who emulates Barack Obama.
Furthermore, Shapiro was unpopular with education activists and teachers’ unions over his past support for school vouchers. He came under fire for his administration’s move last year to pay nearly $300,000 using taxpayer money to settle a sexual harassment claim against one of his longtime aides. He’s also been seen sitting courtside with a donor at a 76ers game and caught flack for accepting pricy tickets to numerous other sporting events, potentially violating his state’s gift ban.
Meanwhile, Walz was known mostly for a “Minnesota nice” sensibility. No prominent critics came out of the woodwork over the past few weeks. But the Trump campaign was quick to label him “dangerously liberal” for notching progressive policy wins.
Harris is set to hold her first rally with her running mate, Walz, in Shapiro’s backyard Tuesday evening.
