Standing Alone in The Midterm Throng

Josh Shapiro is the one and only Democrat running to be Pennsylvania’s next governor

- Jake Blumgart

In U.S. politics, all eyes will be on Pennsylvania this year: Democrats hope to pick up retiring Republican Pat Toomey’s Senate seat so they can hold on to their slim majority in the chamber. And as term-limited Democrat Tom Wolf retires, Republicans have a shot at the governor’s mansion in a state where they firmly control the legislature.

These and other races have attracted a swarm of candidates. In almost every statewide primary field, there are more than enough aspirants to suit up a football team—with one exception.

The Democratic candidate for governor, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, doesn’t face a single primary opponent.

“It is striking that the marquee Democrats in the state have all lined up to run in the Senate race,” says Dan Hopkins, a political science professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Prominent Democrats contending to replace Toomey include Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman and Representative Conor Lamb. That race “is almost overcrowded at the same time that Josh Shapiro has the gubernatorial primary on the Democratic side all to himself,” Hopkins says. On the Republican side, there are more than a dozen candidates vying for the nomination.

Shapiro, 48, made his name with lawsuits against the Catholic Church for sexual abuse cover-ups and against drug companies and doctors for fueling the opioid crisis. His pitch to voters in the swing state—which Joe Biden won with a 1- percentage-point margin over Donald Trump— is that he’ll protect abortion rights and elections from the Republicans in the Harrisburg statehouse while hewing close to the political center.