Shapiro will not be vice president — and he has only himself to blame | News, Sports, Jobs

Earlier this month, all signs pointed to Gov. Josh Shapiro joining Vice President Kamala Harris on the Democratic presidential ticket.

After all, Shapiro is atop high approval ratings in the nation’s largest and most important swing state. He apparently had a home-field advantage with Harris’ announcement scheduled for Philadelphia.

However, life served Shapiro a healthy serving of humble pie when Harris selected Minnesota Gov. Tom Walz as his running mate.

So why Walz instead of Shapiro? Speculation as to why Harris didn’t pick Shapiro is rife — ranging from pushback from radical progressives and the anti-Israel wing of the Democratic Party to accusations of outright anti-Semitism.

Truth be told, Shapiro has only himself to blame. Contrary to him “finish the shit” mantra, Shapiro accomplished little as governor of Pennsylvania.

Instead, Shapiro has a long streak of bragging rights and photo ops, relying on repeating slogans and talking the talk without walking the walk.

His fellow Democrats noticed his vanity. During a Harris rally in Philadelphia, the vice president’s team said Shapiro put on a show on stage, making the event more about him than Harris.

Even U.S. Sen. John Fetterman — not one to command the national spotlight — expressed concern about Shapiro’s self-absorption. Fetterman’s aides told Harris’ team that the senator felt Shapiro was “excessively focused on one’s own personal ambitions”, which implies that the governor’s vanity was an electoral liability.

The numbers don’t lie: Compared to other Pennsylvania governors, Shapiro is the least productive in state history. The governor routinely blames the unproductiveness of a “divided legislature”. But that empty excuse falls flat when looking outside of Pennsylvania — other governors with part-time legislatures have far surpassed Shapiro.

In the same time frame, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican executive who presides over a Democratic-controlled legislature, signed 1,654 bills — nearly 16 times more than Shapiro.

Pennsylvanians have noticed how unproductive their governor is. Most can’t identify any of Shapiro’s accomplishments, according to a recent poll. Although Shapiro is popular, Pennsylvanians can’t figure out why.

The reason for this legislative lethargy is Shapiro’s lack of leadership. So far, the governor has broken several campaign promises.

As a candidate, he campaigned to enact school choice, lower energy costs, lower taxes and enable reforms. Instead, he has rejected educational freedom, promoted programs that raise electric bills, and ignored tax cuts passed by the Pennsylvania Senate.

Moreover, Pennsylvania is in a worse fiscal position than when Shapiro started. The $47.6 billion budget recently signed by the governor will create a $3.6 billion structural deficit and deplete state reserves. Because of this overspending, the Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office—the state’s nonpartisan budget research office—forecasts repeated budget deficits for years to come.

Shapiro’s betrayal of Pennsylvania’s low-income students is the most transparent abdication of leadership.

Shapiro campaigned for the endorsement “Lifeline Scholarships” – a transformative program that would provide scholarships to low-income students attending Pennsylvania’s lowest-performing schools.

This could have been an easy win for Shapiro. The program enjoyed widespread bipartisan support, with polls showing the support of 75 percent of Pennsylvanians, including 87 percent and 88 percent of black and Hispanic voters, respectively.

For two years, Shapiro has pledged to support students trapped in chronically failing schools. And every year, he broke that promise. In its first year, it rejected funding for the program after the slightest opposition from its own party and teachers’ unions.

This year, he didn’t even lift a finger to complete what he tagged “unfinished business”.

While Shapiro digs into Washington, DC, hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvania children will remain trapped in their chronically underperforming schools.

Shapiro’s failure at Lifeline Scholarships highlights his persona of style without substance. Instead of governing, Shapiro has focused his efforts on cleaning up his public image, from creating a new taxpayer-funded self-promotion office to an obsession with TikTok influencers and editing videos to make it look like he’s good at basketball . He even used employees to manage his Wikipedia page – all on public money.

Our governor wants to be a national player, but Shapiro must first learn that show is not enough. Until he really “it sucks” in Pennsylvania, Shapiro isn’t going anywhere.

Shapiro has work to do in the Keystone State. He must roll up his sleeves to deliver on his promises to Pennsylvanians.

Nathan Benefield is the senior vice president of the Commonwealth Foundation, the Pennsylvania free market think tank.

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