Shapiro’s view that America is ready for a Jewish president hasn’t changed, Times says
The Pennsylvania governor sticks by the statement he made last year that "speaking broadly, absolutely" America could elect a Jewish president in his lifetime.
Gov. Josh Shapiro told the New York Times in an article appearing Monday his opinion that a Jewish person could become president has not changed since he first voiced it a year ago.
The article referenced a statement Shapiro made to the Times last year that “speaking broadly, absolutely” America could elect a Jewish president in his lifetime.
The Monday article stated: “This month he said his view was unchanged.”
Shapiro has never publicly confirmed he’s interested in running for president, though speculation has long followed him.
While he has been largely untested on the national stage, Shapiro is often listed among the Democrats likely to make a run for the presidency in 2028.
Despite that, the April arson attack, denounced by many as antisemitic, at the governor’s mansion against Shapiro and his family on Passover as they slept shook some people’s “confidence in the idea that the country was ready for leaders like Mr. Shapiro,” the Times wrote.
In fact, Shapiro told the Times, he spoke with his family about whether holding elected office was worth the risk of political violence, which Americans believe is on the rise, according to a survey released last week by the Pew Research Center.
Shapiro concluded: “If I leave because violence pushed us out or scared us, then those who want to perpetuate political violence win.
“I’ve got to stay. I’ve got to show that we’re not afraid.”
Taking that stand, however, is not getting easier.
“It’s gotten hotter and hotter and more and more dangerous,” Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, herself the target of a kidnapping plot, told the Times.
Cody Balmer, 38, the man accused of setting the governor’s mansion ablaze, pleaded guilty on Oct. 14 to attempted murder and related crimes. Sentenced to 25 to 50 years in prison, Balmer said he intended to attack Shapiro with a hammer that night.
Photos released by the Pennsylvania State Police and seen on YouTube showed a soot-covered chandelier, singed walls, a blackened carpet, melted tables, burned furniture, and a damaged grand piano.
Since the attack, Shapiro has spoken with other elected leaders and those considering running for office, offering personal guidance to those victimized by political violence, and he talked with Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota after the former state House speaker, Melissa Hortman, and her husband were assassinated, the Times wrote.
“Knowing that as you’re doing that work that I consider to be noble, that it comes with a risk to you and your family,” he told the Times, “that’s a tension that is a challenge to work through.”
“It is one of the reasons why I’m so motivated to speak out against political violence,” Shapiro added. To “try and take the temperature down so that good people want to serve.”
Regarding potential bias against religion, the governor told the Times that Americans “respect faith, even if they don’t practice it, and want to have a deep relationship with the people who represent them.”
Being open about his Judaism has allowed him “to be able to have a deeper relationship with the people of Pennsylvania, allowed them to share their stories,” Shapiro told the Times, adding: “We’re doing that in this ultimate swing state.”
Shapiro will release a memoir next year detailing his career and personal life, including the firebombing of the governor’s mansion and his place on the short list to be Kamala Harris’ vice presidential candidate.
Considered a viable Democratic presence, Shapiro on Saturday stumped for New Jersey gubernatorial candidate U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill in the Garden State at a senior center auditorium and an African Methodist Episcopal church, targeting two groups seen as necessary for Sherrill to beat Republican Jack Ciattarelli.
Staff writers Julia Terruso and Gillian McGoldrick contributed to this article.