Gov. Shapiro Reacts After Being Bypassed For VP Pick

PENNSYLVANIA — Gov. Josh Shapiro, the long-running favorite for Kamala Harris's running mate, has been passed over Tuesday. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who emerged only in recent days as Shapiro's top competition, will be Harris's vice presidential pick.

In a statement Tuesday morning, Shapiro called the running mate decision "deeply personal" for Harris and for himself, and expressed his support for Harris and Walz.

“Nearly two weeks ago, Vice President Harris asked me to work with her team to complete the vetting process to be considered as her running mate – and following those conversations, on Sunday, I was grateful to have the opportunity to speak with the Vice President directly about her vision for the role and the campaign ahead," Shapiro said.

It's not yet clear exactly what led Harris and her camp to select Walz, a progressive in a less important electoral state, over Shapiro, a moderate who carries the vital battleground of Pennsylvania but who has received increasing backlash from the left as Harris's decision came to crunch time.

Related: Kamala Harris Picks Gov. Tim Walz Of MN As Democratic Running Mate

"As I’ve said repeatedly over the past several weeks, the running mate decision was a deeply personal decision for the Vice President – and it was also a deeply personal decision for me. Pennsylvanians elected me to a four-year term as their Governor, and my work here is far from finished – there is a lot more stuff I want to get done for the good people of this Commonwealth," Shapiro added Tuesday.

While Harris has not yet publicly spoken about Shapiro since the decision — she will appear with Walz in Philadelphia at Temple University on Tuesday night — some analysts say that Shapiro's moderate record and controversial statements on the bloodshed in the Middle East that received heavy criticism from the left could have been his undoing.

"This is a very winnable election for Kamala Harris," wrote CUNY professor Marc Lamont Hill. "But it would not have been had she chosen Shapiro. Too many recently energized voters would have been deflated again. I'm so glad her team saw that. I'm even more glad that people stood up and spoke out, rather than accepting whatever outcome emerged."

On Tuesday morning, Harris called Walz a "champion" for the working class.

"One of the things that stood out to me about Tim is how his convictions on fighting for middle class families run deep," she said. "It's personal. As a governor, a coach, a teacher, and a veteran, he's delivered for working families like his own. We are going to build a great partnership. We start out as underdogs but I believe together, we can win this election."

Shapiro raised the ire of progressives with his response to peaceful pro-Palestinian protests in Philadelphia over the winter. An essay he wrote in college then emerged in which he wrote that "Palestinians will not coexist peacefully," calling them "battle-minded," according to Newsweek.

Related: Peaceful Philly Pro-Palestine Protest Disparaged As 'Antisemitic' By PA Leaders

While Shapiro and his administration have insisted his views have shifted to support for a two-state solution in the Middle East, progressive leaders have also targeted Shapiro's mixed record on education, and some have echoed the concerns Sen. John Fetterman expressed to Harris's advisors, that Shapiro is too preoccupied with his own personal ambitions, according to Politico.

Despite Shapiro being passed over, his contention down to the final hour for the second highest office in the land raised his national profile and reflects a meteoric rise for a man who was a Montgomery County resident as recently as 2017.

A longtime resident of the Dresher community in Upper Dublin Township, Shapiro spent seven years as state representative for his home district before winning a seat on the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners. He remained there from 2012 to 2017, eventually becoming the chair before leaving to run for attorney general. He served as attorney general through Gov. Tom Wolf's administration before his landmark gubernatorial victory over Doug Mastriano in 2022.

Shapiro said he spoke with both President Joe Biden and Harris the day that Biden announced he was not planning for a second term, and the two weeks since have seen Shapiro spearheading a blitz of pro-Harris rallies around Pennsylvania, including a recent tour from Carlisle to Ambler with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

During the leadup to that 2022 race, Shapiro told Patch that while he enjoyed being a state legislator, he prefers to be in the executive branch of government.

"You’re called upon to make decisions, to get things done, to demonstrate real results, to take on big fights," he said back in Dec. 2021. "So, it’s a totally different mindset, approach, discipline, and I very much prefer being an executive."

Not only was Shapiro's ultimate victory over Mastriano one of the more lopsided statewide elections in recent Pennsylvania history, it was several points better than other statewide Democrats in the same election, a cross-party appeal that the Harris campaign surely noticed.

Harris has narrowed former President Trump's lead in the polls to 2 points nationally, though Trump maintains a 2.7 point lead in Pennsylvania, according to an aggregate of recent polls from RealClearPolitics.

Polling also gave Trump a 3 point lead over Shapiro in a hypothetical, head-to-head race, Newsweek reports.