Josh Shapiro emerges as potential Kamala Harris VP: A look at his record as PA's top law enforcement official
A look at Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro's record as attorney general between 2017 and 2023 as he is eyed as a potential running mate for Kamala Harris on the 2024 ticket.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is on the list of potential running mates for Kamala Harris if she becomes the Democrat nominee on the 2024 ticket.
Shapiro has built a reputation for himself in the key swing state of Pennsylvania, drawing harsh criticism from Republicans in the state while garnering strong support from Democrats. Pennsylvania Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano, a Trump-backed candidate who ran against Shapiro for the governorship in 2022, said Shapiro never "finished a job" he was elected to do.
"He is always looking to move up the political ladder at the expense of the very people that voted for him," Mastriano said, noting that homicides and murders increased more than 37% between 2017 and 2021, when Shapiro was the commonwealth's top law enforcement officer. Philadelphia has long held one of the highest murder rates per capita in the country.
Shapiro "was too interested in being [g]overnor to perform his job as Attorney General," Mastriano said.
"This is a pattern with him dating back to his time as a Montgomery County commissioner," he added. "He was so interested in placating the Democratic Party, instead of fighting crime and protecting the citizens of Pennsylvania from the influx of fentanyl, he instead was suing the Little Sisters of the Poor back in 2020. Now he is championing for allowing biological males in women’s sports and locker rooms."
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Fred Trecce, a former Philadelphia federal prosecutor, praised Shapiro's performance.
"He did a yeoman's job. He did a good job. He took some tough cases," Trecce told Fox News Digital. "He had a couple of issues where they had a large case they had to let go because there were some issues about mishandling evidence. … It happened on his watch, but I'm not sure you can lay that at his feet. … He didn't do anything wrong. I'm not sure he did anything a lot right, either. But he did what he needed to do to build himself a nice reputation, and ultimately, he was able to parlay [it] into being the governor."
"I mean, they like him," Trecce said of Pennsylvanians. "The general consensus among the people with whom I've spoken, which is completely unscientific, is that … he hasn't made anybody angry."
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Much of his career in the AG's office, however, focused on holding companies that helped fuel the opioid crisis accountable, as Pennsylvania Democrat State Sen. Sharif Street told Fox News Digital.
"I think one of the things that both Gov. Shapiro worked on as attorney general and Vice President Harris worked on as attorney general, as well, was the opioid settlement[s]," Street said. "They went after the drug companies that were these big corporate interests that were mass-producing opioids like Percocet and OxyContin, flooding our communities with fentanyl, as well. And they took … them on and they made them pay for the harm that they've done."
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Shapiro, now 51, ran for Pennsylvania's attorney general in 2016 after Kathleen Kane resigned after her convictions for perjury, obstruction of justice and other crimes. He has expressed opposition to the death penalty, effectively continuing former Gov. Tom Wolf's moratorium on the practice.
Prior to winning the AG election, he worked for corporate law firm Stradley, Ronon, Stevens & Young in Philadelphia.
The same year he won the title of top prosecutor, he launched an investigation into thousands of sexual assault allegations made against more than 300 Catholic priests in Pennsylvania and across the United States. Shapiro publicized the lengthy grand jury investigation findings for the public to read.
In 2017, Shapiro was sworn in and successfully arrested dozens of people involved in a drug trafficking scheme in Wilkes-Barre and Luzerane County known as the "million dollar heroin ring." His investigation, which began in 2016, ultimately led to the arrests of 36 suspects accused of dealing heroin and crack cocaine.
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"This ring of drug dealers was selling thousands of dollars’ worth of heroin and crack cocaine every day for more than a year – infecting Wilkes-Barre and the surrounding communities until we put a stop to it," Shapiro said at the time. "The people of Luzerne County are fed up with the peddling of this poison in their communities. We hear you and today, we took 36 more dealers off the streets of Northeastern Pennsylvania."
The next year, Shapiro took over prosecution for a Penn State hazing death case in Contre County.
Shaprio ultimately got a 21-year-old member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity involved in the 2017 hazing death of Penn State student Tim Piazza to plead guilty to four counts of hazing and five counts relating to unlawful acts involving liquor.
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In March 2018, he also got the former Bedford County District Attorney to plead guilty to 11 counts related to political corruption for protecting drug dealers from criminal prosecution.
Shapiro and New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal sued the Trump administration and won a nationwide injunction blocking then-President Trump from implementing religious and moral exemptions that would allow companies to opt out of providing insurance to female employees for no-cost birth control.
"Women need contraception for their health because contraception is medicine, pure and simple. Families rely on the Affordable Care Act’s guarantee to afford care; before the ACA, families spent thousands of dollars in co-pays," Shaprio said at the time. "Congress hasn’t changed that law, and the President can’t simply ignore it with an illegal rule. I will not allow the federal government – under the direction of the Trump Administration – to undermine the rights of women and violate the rule of law."
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Initially, during the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020, when approximately a third of Pennsylvania businesses shuttered under local mandates, Shapiro encouraged Pennsylvanians to report neighbors and businesses in violation of lockdowns, as Reason magazine notes.
His office stood by former Gov. Tom Wolf's lockdown rules and went to state and federal court to pursue business owners who were not following guidelines.
However, in a 2022 interview with the Associated Press, Shapiro shared that he thinks the lockdowns that shuttered schools and businesses were "an area where … folks got it wrong."
After the death of George Floyd later on in 2020, Shapiro worked with Wolf to help pass a statewide police misconduct database.
"After George Floyd and Walter Wallace … at that time, we had Republicans controlling the House and the Senate. With his leadership as attorney general, speaking up, he helped us get important reforms and make sure that all police officers had to be properly trained," Street said.
As governor, much of Shapiro's focus has been on improving police recruitment and retention.
"Governor Shapiro believes Pennsylvanians deserve to be safe and feel safe in this communities, and he is working to build safer communities by supporting the work of law enforcement and first responders, investing in our communities, promoting anti-violence initiatives, and pursuing smart reforms to keep people safe across the Commonwealth," his website currently states.
Also in 2020, Shapiro worked with Wolf on a 10-year contract between Highmark patients and University of Pittsburgh Medical Center to ensure that Highmark patients could receive care from UPMC doctors after the networks split. After the split, patients covered by Highmark insurance would have lost access to care at 11 hospitals before Shapiro got them to reach an agreement.
In 2021, Shapiro and other attorneys general from 47 states secured a $573 million settlement with McKinsey & Company, a consulting firm that helped fuel the opioid crisis by promoting certain drugs and profiting off the drug addiction that boosted sales of those drugs.
He also worked with 45 other AGs to reach a $120 million opioid settlement agreement with Johnson & Johnson and DePuy.
The following year, Shapiro targeted those fueling the opioid crisis again, announcing that he finalized agreements with CVS and Walgreens for Pennsylvania to receive more than $450 million in opioid settlement funds.
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"No amount of money will bring back the lives we lost, but today’s agreement with CVS and Walgreens will help to ensure Pennsylvanians suffering from opioid addiction get the treatment and recovery resources they need," Shapiro said in a statement. "My office is determined to hold accountable the greedy companies that created and jet-fueled the opioid epidemic. Today’s action sends a message to drug distributors and pharmaceutical companies that we’re here to always fight for the people we serve."
Shapiro won Pennsylvania's gubernatorial race in 2023.
In perhaps the most controversial event to hit Shapiro since he became AG in 2016, his office agreed to pay $295,000 in September to quietly settle a sexual assault case brought against a close and trusted adviser, Mike Vereb, as Spotlight PA reported at the time, citing documents obtained through a records request.
In an interview with Politico last year, Shapiro did not address the accusations outright but pointed to his record defending victims of sexual assault.
"I have a long and extensive track record of standing up for victims of sexual abuse, harassment. I led, I think, the most comprehensive investigation on behalf of victims of clergy sex abuse, prosecuted hundreds of sexual predators," he told the outlet. "I have done extensive work with victims, listening to their stories, investigating their stories, and standing up for them. So I’ll take a back seat to no one when it comes to standing up for victims."
Trecce says Shapiro "did not stick his hand in the hornet's nest of any case that one might end up getting stung by."
"He's not despised by conservatives," and he's well-liked among Democrats, Trecce said.
Street said Shapiro has "throughout his career has brought people together."
