Josh Shapiro cruised to reelection victory Tuesday night. He celebrated with supporters at the Penn Harris Hotel and Convention Center in Harrisburg after being declared the winner by the Associated Press at 8 p.m.
The governor was highly favored to win after Republican challenger Stacy Garrity couldn’t gain traction in the race and regularly polled more than 20 points behind him.
Shapiro told a crowd of hundreds of supporters assembled at the Penn Harris Hotel and Convention Center in Camp Hill outside Harrisburg that he was “humbled.”
“Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your trust and confidence,” he said. “The results are still rolling in, but the picture is coming into focus: This is a good night for our commonwealth.”
He told the crowd that Garrity called him to congratulate him.
“We have plenty of disagreements,” he said. “That’s part of a healthy democracy. But I appreciate her service to our commonwealth.”
Shapiro’s win was largely expected as he appeared to eclipse his Republican rival, Treasurer Stacy Garrity, in fundraising and polling as the race progressed. While Republicans appeared optimistic about the popular treasurer at the start of the race, she ultimately failed to gain the traction she needed to unseat Shapiro, who benefited from some GOP support and President Donald Trump’s sagging favorability.
Shapiro was first elected governor in 2022, and quickly drew national attention while overseeing the emergency reconstruction of a collapsed section of I-95 in Philadelphia, which reopened to traffic in 12 days. He has since styled himself as a pragmatic Democrat who can work across the aisle, adopting a governing philosophy and slogan of “getting s— done,” a portrayal that has helped him win over Independent and Republican voters.
“Like him or not, the guy’s doing a good job,” Jeff Countess of Lower McCungie, an independent voter, told WHYY News. “I mean, anybody that can put a highway up in 12 days has my vote.”
Soon after he was elected governor, a Commonwealth Court judge declared Pennsylvania’s school-funding system unconstitutional, prompting the governor to propose a substantial increase for public schools in his first budget. Support for public education has since increased by more than $3 billion, including new money directed toward historically underfunded districts and for free breakfast for the system’s 1.7 million students.
Shapiro also expanded tax credits and property-tax rebates, workforce development programs, apprenticeships for teachers, eliminated college-degree requirements for most state jobs and introduced automatic voter registration. He has signed bipartisan laws reforming probation, regulating pharmacy benefit managers and prohibiting drivers from using handheld phones.
