Gov. Josh Shapiro has endorsed in four Pa. congressional primaries. He hasn’t weighed in on Philly’s race.
The Democratic governor, who has had fraught relationships with two front-runners, is keeping his preference to himself.
When Democratic voters from Chestnut Hill to South Philadelphia choose a new voice to represent them in Congress on Tuesday, there is one notable character who will have spent months holding back on who he thinks that should be: Gov. Josh Shapiro.
Democrats from Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker and outgoing U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans to U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) and controversial leftist influencer Hasan Piker have all made endorsements in the race, putting time and resources into getting their candidates elected.
But though Shapiro has been busy putting his thumb on the scale elsewhere in Pennsylvania’s competitive congressional races, the state’s top Democrat has remained notably silent on Philadelphia’s hotly contested 3rd Congressional District primary.
That is no coincidence for a rumored 2028 presidential contender who is known to have a careful demeanor, rocky relationships with some of the candidates, and his own reelection campaign to think about, experts and insiders said.
Among the four candidates running to succeed Evans, Shapiro has well-known — and at times, bitter — histories with two of the front-runners: State Rep. Chris Rabb (D., Philadelphia), a progressive detractor of Shapiro with steep personal and ideological differences, and State Sen. Sharif Street (D., Philadelphia), whom Shapiro opposed to run the state party in 2022 and eventually pressured to leave the job last year. The third front-runner, physician Ala Stanford, is a first-time political candidate.
“The one thing we know about Gov. Shapiro is that he is very intentional in his actions and very measured where he weighs in and does not,” said Christopher Borick, a political science professor and pollster at Muhlenberg College. “As he looks to 2026 and beyond that, those aspects were thought about when he decided to endorse or, in this case, not.”
Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District is one of the bluest in the country, with about 90% of voters supporting Democratic candidates. No Republican has filed to run, and whoever wins the May 19 election is all but guaranteed the congressional seat.
Shapiro’s campaign says the governor chose to sit out the Philadelphia race because he is focused on flipping four other Republican-held Pennsylvania district seats so Democrats can ultimately take back control of the U.S. House in the high-stakes midterm election.
“The governor has not endorsed or opposed anyone in this primary, and he looks forward to working directly with whoever wins to win in November and continue to deliver for Philadelphia, just as he has with Congressman Evans,” said Manuel Bonder, his campaign spokesperson.
Still, Shapiro’s image has made its way into the Philadelphia race. Campaign vans, organized by the Democratic City Committee and sporting images of Shapiro and Street alongside each other, have appeared across the city. And the party has distributed flyers featuring pictures of Shapiro, Street, and other candidates, despite the lack of an official endorsement from Shapiro.
Former U.S. Rep. Bob Brady chairs the city committee, which endorsed both candidates. He said that implying Shapiro’s support of Street was not the intent in displaying the images side-by-side.
“We’re not doing that,” Brady said. “It’s up to the governor to endorse who he thinks he wants to endorse. But in my opinion, Street would be the best candidate for him.”
Shapiro, a moderate who has built his brand on finding solutions across the aisle, will appear uncontested on Tuesday’s primary ballot as he seeks reelection in November with hopes of carrying Democratic wins up and down the ticket.
That means keeping his tent open to all factions of the Democratic Party, said J.J. Balaban, a Democratic strategist based in Philadelphia.
“He wants Philadelphia, the largest bloc of Democratic votes in the state, to be united and enthusiastic,” Balaban said. “Why alienate a fractured primary field? Why alienate them and their supporters when he’s hoping to get 90% of the vote out of this district?”
Rocky relationships
Any candidate who emerges victorious in the Philadelphia primary is bound to have a different relationship with the governor compared with Evans, who held the congressional seat for 10 years and had served in the state House with Shapiro — who at the time was a young lawmaker representing parts of Montgomery County.
Evans, who endorsed Stanford in the race, said in a statement that the governor has been a “great partner for our federal delegation” and that he is “sure he’ll continue to work well together with Pennsylvania members of Congress” after this year.
But Shapiro has had an at-times rocky relationship with two of the leading contenders to succeed Evans.
Street ascended to the top of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party in 2022 despite opposition from Shapiro — then the state attorney general and a gubernatorial nominee — and other top Democrats like Gov. Tom Wolf and U.S. Sen. Bob Casey.
The rift became public when Shapiro wrote to Democratic State Committee members urging them to support his pick, Democratic committee member Gerald “Jerry” Lawrence from Delaware County. Though he did not call out Street by name, Shapiro referred to him in strong terms, writing that, in a two-way race, his pick was the only one “putting our party’s success ahead of self-interest, and putting in the hard work.”
» READ MORE: Sharif Street’s record leading Pennsylvania Democrats faces renewed scrutiny in Philly congressional race
Shapiro, in the letter, wrote that the party should not select an elected official who could be faced with “putting their own ambition ahead of what our party needs.” That appeared to be a reference to a moment a year earlier, when Street’s decision to work with a top Republican on a redrawn congressional map rankled members of his party. Street has since distanced himself from that map, which would have drawn Democratic U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle of Philadelphia into a tough race with Republican U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Bucks County.
When Street launched his congressional campaign in 2025, Shapiro publicly questioned his ability to run while simultaneously serving as party chair. Street resigned his party post about a month later, and Shapiro ally Eugene DePasquale succeeded him.
Asked about Shapiro’s decision to stay out of the race, Street campaign spokesperson Anthony Campisi said in a statement Thursday that the state senator “has been proud to work with Governor Shapiro to move the ball forward on issues that matter to Philadelphians in Harrisburg.”
“And he believes that the governor is perfectly positioned to bring the party together after the primary and focus on beating Trump and his MAGA cronies in the midterms,” Campisi said.
Rabb — who hopes to join Congress’ progressive faction known as “the Squad” if elected — has numerous ideological differences with the moderate governor. In 2022, he came close to challenging Shapiro for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, when he publicly considered running at the request of progressive leaders who were critical of Shapiro’s tenure as attorney general. Shapiro, meanwhile, had spent years clearing the field to be Wolf’s successor.
In Washington, Rabb “has the potential to be a more problematic figure” for Shapiro, Borick said. He is an outspoken critic of Israel, which remains an unresolved flash point in the Democratic Party. And as a state lawmaker, he sometimes clashed with colleagues or introduced legislation without widespread support, like a plan to provide financial reparations for descendants of enslaved people.
“Rabb has not been shy in expressing some positions that might be very different than the ones that the governor has,” Borick said. “There’s probably a little bit of concern there that if he wins the nomination, there could be some challenging moments down the road.”
Campaign spokespeople for Rabb and Stanford declined to comment on Shapiro’s role, or lack thereof, in the congressional race.
Staking his reputation
At the same time, the governor — who is widely considered a potential presidential contender in 2028 — has staked part of his reputation on helping other candidates running for Congress in districts that could help determine whether Democrats retake control of the U.S. House this year.
In the Harrisburg-based 10th District last summer, he quickly endorsed former local television anchor Janelle Stelson, who is challenging Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Perry for the second time. In the 8th District in Northeast Pennsylvania in February, he endorsed Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti, who is running to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan. More recently, he backed Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie in his quest to defeat Fitzpatrick, a moderate Republican, in Bucks County’s 1st District.
In Tuesday’s election, Shapiro’s support may matter more than anywhere else in the Lehigh Valley-based 7th District. A heated four-way Democratic primary is set to determine who will run against Republican U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie in one of the most competitive districts in the country.
Shapiro cut a high-profile ad for Bob Brooks, a union leader and retired firefighter. Brooks, in turn, has made the endorsement one of his top selling points — mentioning it frequently as he introduces himself to voters and on campaign material, underscoring the perceived power of the governor’s popularity.
“BREAKING: Bob was just endorsed by Governor Josh Shapiro!” the top of Brooks’ campaign website blasts, referencing the news from December. The site does not mention that Shapiro had asked Brooks to run in the first place last summer.
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