This coming Tuesday in Pennsylvania, Vice President Kamala Harris will be announcing her VP pick for the 2024 election, and while her campaign has said not to put too much meaning behind the location, many are guessing that her pick may be Philly-raised Pennsylvania governor and Jewish dad Josh Shapiro.
Shapiro has certainly gone hard for Kamala since President Biden has endorsed her to replace him on the presidential ticket. Along with Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, he campaigned for Kamala in his state — an important battleground in the upcoming election — and even revived his TikTok with some fresh videos. Some Democrats have criticized him for not being progressive enough, especially on the Israel-Gaza war and the campus protests around it, but Shapiro has the charisma and the appeal to make him one of the leading candidates in the field.
Shapiro began his career working for Michigan Representative Carl Levin on Capitol Hill and then returned to Pennsylvania, where he ran the Montgomery County Commission, became state Attorney General, and then was elected governor in 2022.
The dad of four has made parenthood a big part of his life and his campaigns. Shapiro had his entire family join him on the campaign trail when he ran to be governor, which includes his wife, Lori, a former White House analyst during the Clinton administration, and his four kids, daughter Sophia and sons Jonah, Max and Reuben.
And it’s not just his family that’s centered — but his Judaism. His first TV ad for that 2022 campaign put his family’s Shabbat dinners center stage — framing him as a family man grounded by faith and tradition. He shared that no matter how busy his week is, he always makes it home for Shabbat dinner. Shapiro has shared that he and his family keep a kosher household. In the video, he told his story as a child who grew up moving from military base to military base before his family “put down roots in Pennsylvania.” In the video, you can see him and Lori, his high school sweetheart, in their early days of dating, with Shapiro wearing a Hebrew Coca-Cola shirt.
Shapiro grew up attending the same Jewish day school that he eventually sent his children to, and his family is part of the Conservative Beth Sholom Congregation in Elkins Park, the same synagogue Shapiro grew up going to. When he was sworn into his role as Pennsylvania Governor, becoming the third Jewish governor in the state’s history, he put his hand on three copies of the bible, including one from the Tree of Life Synagogue. Earlier this year, he was joined by Jewish first gentleman Doug Emhoff at the site of that synagogue, where the biggest antisemitic mass shooting in this country occurred in 2018, for a groundbreaking ceremony for a new campus and museum on the site.
His daughter Sophia, a student at the University of Pittsburgh at the time, was an integral part of his 2022 campaign, which heavily focused on the young vote, holding TikTok text banks, using social media apps like BeReal and going viral on social media with interpretations of memes and wholesome videos. She helped found Students for Shapiro at her own school, and expanded its efforts to campuses across the state, encouraged by the campaign and her dad. You can see her in many campaign posts from 2022, including this really fun one with Shapiro’s running mate, Austin Davis, who made history as the state’s first Black lieutenant governor. Thanks, in part, to Sophia’s efforts, Shapiro did extremely well among young voters in 2022, earning over 70% of the youth vote.
Shapiro’s sons have been in countless delightful campaign videos as well. His son Max interviewed Shapiro and Davis about football, he’s shared heartwarming videos with pictures of his kids through the ages, and has had his children (and his father and brother) introduce him on stage at campaign events. Yet perhaps one of the most iconic videos with Shapiro and his kids was an unintentional moment on CNN back in 2020, when his eldest son Jonah accidentally walked into his father’s interview which was being filmed at home, distractedly scrolling on his phone. The look on his face and his slowly backing away is honestly priceless.
Shapiro has definitely leaned into his Jewish identity and faith in many ways throughout his career. He quoted Pirkei Avot, the Jewish text known as “The Ethics of Our Fathers,” in his victory speech after the 2022 election, and he and Lori have spoken about being led by the Jewish value of tikkun olam, healing the world.
When it comes to the Israel-Gaza war, Shapiro has been outspoken against antisemitism among the campus protests, and against drawing any moral equivalencies between Israel and Hamas. He’s spoken about his deep connections to the Jewish state — he actually proposed to Lori while in Jerusalem. He called a protest against Jewish chef Michael Solomonov’s Philadelphia restaurant Goldie “blatant antisemitism.” But he’s also been critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government. Shapiro’s views on Israel-Palestine are aligned with the democratic party’s vision of a two-state solution.
We don’t know yet whether Shapiro will be on the 2024 presidential ticket, and there are other worthy contenders, including Arizona Senator Mark Kelly who is married to Jewish former senator Gabby Giffords. But if Shapiro is named as Harris’s vice presidential pick, there’s no doubt that we’ll see a lot of his adorable Jewish family on the campaign trail.
