Gov. Josh Shapiro was asked about Michigan Rep. Haley Stevens. Here is what he said.
“She spoke her mind,” Shapiro said of Stevens. “I support all the Democrats running across the country.”
Gov. Josh Shapiro voted with his wife, Lori, and son, Jonah, at his Abington Township polling place Tuesday morning.
By the time the Shapiros arrived around 10 a.m., the early rush at the Rydal Elementary West polling station had subsided, but the governor received a warm welcome from neighbors in the Abington ward, about two-thirds of whom voted for Kamala Harris in 2024.
After casting his ballot, Shapiro said at a news conference that in his next term he plans to cut both taxes and costs while boosting investments in mass transit, healthcare, and affordable housing.
The governor was also asked about Michigan Democratic U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens’s last-minute endorsement of Republican Mike Rogers rather than Democratic candidate Dr. Abdul El-Sayed after disagreements over Israel policy.
The move came after weeks of criticism from Stevens leading up to Election Day.
In Abington, Shapiro said Michigan voters will have their say.
Shapiro has long said Israel has a right to exist but has also said he disagrees with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership and wants to see the war in Gaza end with a two-state solution.
“She spoke her mind,” Shapiro said at the Abington news conference. “I support all the Democrats running across the country.”
That has not been true of the governor in previous cycles, according to a story Lehigh Valley candidate for U.S. House Bob Brooks told about Shapiro on a hot mic. Brooks said earlier this year that Shapiro had asked the union he headed to endorse Stacy Garrity, then a Republican state treasurer candidate, in the 2024 cycle after her Democratic opponent, Erin McClelland, wrote an online post that was viewed as a criticism of Shapiro as he vied for the vice presidential spot on Kamala Harris’s campaign.
Brooks and Shapiro both later disavowed Brooks’ recorded remarks. Garrity, now Shapiro’s rival for governor, is expected to lose to the incumbent today. Stevens, for her part, was kicked out of the Michigan Democratic Party on Sunday.
Meanwhile, some voters on Tuesday said Shapiro’s views on foreign affairs, including Israel and Iran, may deter their vote if he runs for president in 2028.
Shapiro spoke Tuesday about another one of the election season’s hot-button issues: data centers.
If Democrats win a trifecta, the governor also expects to sign legislation enshrining data center regulations that he passed via executive order in August after a bill to do that stalled in the GOP-controlled state Senate earlier this year.
Inquirer Greater Abington
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