Shapiro Lost the Veepstakes--and He Only Has Himself to Blame

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

However, life served Shapiro a healthy helping of humble pie when Harris picked Minnesota Gov. Tom Walz as her running mate.

So, why Walz instead of Shapiro? Speculation about why Harris didn’t pick Shapiro is rampant –including blowback from radical progressives and the anti-Israel wing of the Democratic Party, to allegations of outright antisemitism.

Truth be told, Shapiro only has himself to blame. Contrary to his “get sh*t done” mantra, Shapiro has accomplished little as Pennsylvania governor.

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

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

Even U.S. Sen. John Fetterman – no slouch to hogging the national spotlight – expressed concern about Shapiro’s self-absorption. Fetterman’s advisers told Harris’s team that the Senator felt that Shapiro was “excessively focused on his own personal ambitions,” implying the governor’s vanity was an electoral liability.

During the same time frame, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican executive who presides over a Democraict-controlled legislature, signed 1,654 bills into law – nearly 16 times more than Shapiro.

Pennsylvanians have noticed how unproductive their governor is. Most cannot identify any accomplishment by Shapiro, according to recent polling. Though Shapiro is popular, Pennsylvanians can’t pinpoint why.

Driving this legislative lethargy is Shapiro’s lack of leadership. Thus far, the governor has broken several campaign promises.

As a candidate, he campaigned to enact school choice, reduce energy costs, cut taxes, and reform permitting. Instead, he vetoed educational freedom, promoted programs that raise electricity bills, and ignored tax cuts passed by the Pennsylvania Senate.

Moreover, Pennsylvania is in a worse fiscal position than when Shapiro started. The governor’s recently signed $47.6 billion budget will create a $3.6 billion structural deficit and drain state reserves. Because of this overzealous spending spree, Pennsylvania’s Independent Fiscal Office –the state’s nonpartisan budget research office – forecasts repeated budget deficits in the coming years.

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

Shapiro campaigned on supporting “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 polling showing support from 75% of Pennsylvanians, including 87% and 88% of Black and Hispanic voters, respectively.

For two years, Shapiro promised to support students trapped in chronically failing schools. And each year, he broke this promise. The first year, he vetoed funding for the program after the slightest opposition from his party and the teacher unions.

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

While Shapiro eyed fancier digs in Washington, D.C., hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvania kids will remain trapped in their chronically underperforming district schools.

Shapiro’s failure on Lifeline Scholarships highlights his all-style, no-substance persona. Instead of governing, Shapiro focused his efforts on curating his public image, from creating a new taxpayer-funded office of self-promotion to an obsession with TikTok influencers and editing videos to make it look like he’s good at basketball. He even used staffers to manage his Wikipedia page – all on the public dime.

Our governor wants to be a national player, but Shapiro must first learn that showmanship isn’t enough. Until he genuinely “gets sh*t done” in Pennsylvania, Shapiro isn’t going anywhere.

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

Nathan Benefield is the Senior Vice President of the Commonwealth Foundation, Pennsylvania’s free-market think tank.