Josh Shapiro

Shapiro was born on June 20, 1973, in Kansas City, Missouri, and grew up in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. His father is a pediatrician who served in the U.S. Navy, and his mother is a retired educator.⁠[1][2][3]

He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Rochester and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.⁠[2]

Shapiro worked as a senior foreign policy adviser to U.S. Senator Robert Torricelli, a senior legislative assistant to U.S. Representative Peter Deutsch and chief of staff to U.S. Representative Joe Hoeffel, and was an attorney at the law firm Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll LLP.⁠[2]

In 2004 Shapiro was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from District 153, serving from 2005 to 2011.⁠[2][1]

In 2011 Shapiro was elected to the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners, which he chaired, serving until 2017.⁠[2][4]

Shapiro won two terms as attorney general of Pennsylvania and served from 2017 to 2023. In that office he oversaw an investigation into sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, pursued opioid manufacturers, and worked on legal matters involving voting rights and reproductive rights.⁠[3][4]

In the 2022 gubernatorial election Shapiro defeated Republican Doug Mastriano by nearly 15 percentage points, and on January 17, 2023, he took office as Pennsylvania’s 48th governor.⁠[3][1]

On January 18, 2023, Shapiro signed his first executive order in Harrisburg, removing the four-year college degree requirement for about 92 percent of state government jobs, roughly 65,000 positions; the order directed agencies to weigh skills and experience in hiring, ordered a review of the remaining positions that require degrees, and launched a website where applicants can filter openings by degree requirement.⁠[5]

“In Pennsylvania, the people should decide what path is best for them, not have it decided by some arbitrary requirement,” he said.⁠[5]

On June 11, 2023, a section of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia collapsed after a fire, killing a driver. On June 23 at noon a temporary roadway reopened to traffic, with three 11-foot lanes in each direction and a 45 mph speed limit.⁠[6]

“This is what we can do when government at all levels come together to get the job done,” Shapiro said.⁠[6]

On January 8, 2026, Shapiro launched his re-election campaign with a video, with Lieutenant Governor Austin Davis as his running mate. “Even with a divided state legislature — together — we’ve gotten a whole lot done,” he said in the video.⁠[7]

On May 19, 2026, Shapiro won the Democratic nomination for governor unopposed.⁠[2]

In the November 3, 2026, gubernatorial election Shapiro and Davis faced Republican state Treasurer Stacy GarrityStacy GarrityStacy Garrity is an American Republican politician and retired U.S. Army Reserve colonel who has been the 78th treasurer of Pennsylvania since January 2021 and was re-elected in 2024. She was the Republican nominee in the 2026 Pennsylvania gubernatorial election.Open the full entry and her running mate Jason Richey, with Libertarian Ken Krawchuk also on the ballot. The Associated Press called the race for Shapiro one minute after polls closed at 8 p.m., and a little before 9 p.m. Garrity said she had called Shapiro to congratulate him.⁠[2][8]

“This is a good night for our commonwealth,” Shapiro said in his victory speech. Asked about the future of the Democratic Party, he said: “What I can tell you for sure is I want to be a part of that debate.”⁠[8]

The first bill Shapiro signed requires insurers to cover preventive breast and ovarian cancer screenings for high-risk women at no cost. As governor he also implemented automatic voter registration, created CODE PA, the state’s first in-house digital services team, reformed the permitting process and probation, and hired hundreds of new State Police troopers.⁠[4]

Shapiro has said he supports abortion rights and an adequacy formula for underfunded school districts, backs an “all of the above” energy approach that includes natural gas, nuclear power and renewables, and defends mail voting and expanded automatic voter registration.⁠[3]

Office of the Governor of Pennsylvania: Official website: https://www.pa.gov/governor (opens in a new window).⁠[9]

X: Public account: https://x.com/GovernorShapiro (opens in a new window).⁠[9]

YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/@GovernorShapiro (opens in a new window).⁠[9]