In a provocative analysis Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro, Salena Zito describes him as a “ competent pragmatist in divided times.” According to Zito, the strength of Shapiro as a politician has been his ability to present himself as a “moderate” in an ideologically envenomed age.

Although a career Democrat from a Philadelphia suburb, Shapiro has supposedly reached across party lines in seeking consensus and has even taken a few noteworthy positions that have separated him from more progressive Democrats. For example, he set aside money in the state budget for a voucher program that will benefit those who send their children to charter schools. Shapiro did this in defiance of the public-school teachers’ unions, for which he has been lavishly praised in The Wall Street Journal and on Fox News.  He has also been unequivocal in his support of the Israeli cause, in contrast to the pro-Hamas wing of his party, from which he has noticeably distanced himself.

Moreover, Shapiro took an active role in calling for federal action after the East Palestine, Ohio railroad spill. He properly pointed out that the Western part of his state would be adversely impacted by the spilled pollutants, which was not only an Ohio problem. He also supervised the repair of a collapsed bridge on Interstate 95 in Northeast Philadelphia. Most of the needed repair took place within a few weeks; and Shapiro received further media hype for his intervention there.

Zito sketches Shapiro’s career, going from being a political functionary in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania to becoming the state’s governor in his early forties. She ascribes this success to Shapiro’s reputation as a centrist who gets things done. She therefore warns the governor against being on the same ticket with Kamala Harris as her vice-presidential running mate, a role that may turn out badly for Shapiro’s career. In quest of this position, Shapiro has already ranted against Trump and may soon sound like a victim of Trump Derangement Syndrome. Although such posturing may please the mainstream media, it won’t help Shapiro preserve his image as a pragmatist.

Even more ominously, Harris may well lose Pennsylvania in the presidential sweepstakes because of her past leftist positions, such as opposing fracking and gun ownership and calling for full social services for those illegals now streaming into this country. As her running mate, Shapiro may be required to make himself into a clone of Harris, while throwing anti-Trump raw meat to the Democratic base. The question is whether Shapiro will be able to regain his cachet as a “pragmatist” once he’s been pushed into assuming that role.

Allow me to raise questions about Zito’s picture of the dangers that may befall Shapiro as Kamala Harris’s sidekick. First of all, Shapiro has always been a very typical Democrat, who has never recoiled from his party’s woke positions. Whether it’s DEI or celebrating LGBTQ, he’s always danced to the same tune as others in his party. He arrived at his position on vouchers after spending many weeks waffling, before deciding that stand would cement his black support more than it would hurt his relations with public sector unions. Blacks (read black Democrats) take disproportionate advantage of charter schools, whereas the public sector is not likely to bolt the Democratic Party.

Shapiro’s support for Israel is hardly surprising. He is Jewish and most of those Democrats who vote for him were and are pro-Israel as well as conventionally leftist on other issues. Further, by showcasing his Zionist sympathies, Shapiro has received the praise of the usual neoconservative suspects, who continue to laud him as a “moderate.” The fact that he is a white man who doesn’t speak in “word salads” should also help him as the running mate of someone who can’t put together coherent sentences and who sells herself as non-white and non-male.  

Shapiro is governor of a purplish state that more and more tends blue. It was hardly an accident that two years ago, John Fetterman was elected U.S. senator while in a mentally debilitated state. Fetterman’s fellow-Democrat, Senator Robert Casey, Jr., looks like he’ll coast to victory against an outspent Republican opponent, with a distinguished military record. Casey is cut from the same opportunistic Democratic cloth as Biden but seems to be even more invisible than Biden was just before he stepped down as his party’s nominee for the presidency.

Because of the minority vote in Pennsylvania cities, suburban women, a powerful public sector, and yellow-dog, working-class Democrats, Pennsylvania has become an almost predictably Democratic state. Every now and then a Republican governor may sneak in, like Tom Corbett (2011-2015), but these aberrations don’t last long and are then dutifully rectified by more Democratic victories. It seems highly unlikely that, barring a major influx of Idahoans or Michiganders from the Upper Peninsula, this pattern will change.

Given this settled situation, it seems unlikely that Shapiro will see his political career in Pennsylvania end, whether he’s Kamala’s running mate or not. Even a lobotomized Shapiro would have a promising future in my state. Quite significantly, during the disputed 2020 presidential election, he gained a justified reputation as the provider of enlarged, quite dubious “voter access” while serving as our attorney general. If Shapiro does become the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, he should do fine in Pennsylvania arranging votes for the Democrats in November.