Josh Shapiro assumed the role of Pennsylvania governor Tuesday.
The 49-year-old Democrat from Montgomery County beat Republican challenger Doug Mastriano during the 2022 general election in a race that caught national attention.
“It does make me, and all of us in Montgomery County, very, very proud that one of our own is going to serve us so very well,” said U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-4th District.
Where it started
Shapiro spent decades in politics, his road to the governor’s mansion beginning in Montgomery County.
He grew up in Dresher, where he first met Marcel Groen, longtime chair of the county Democratic Party. Groen’s daughter Jennifer was friends with Shapiro and his now-wife, Lori, throughout his schooling at the Perelman Jewish Day School and the Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy.
Groen characterized Shapiro as a serious, intelligent, well-mannered and respectful child.
“Believe it or not, he really hasn’t changed,” Groen said.
Shapiro went on to the University of Rochester, graduating in 1995. He then headed to the nation’s capitol to work for congressional members on the Hill. There, he caught the attention of newly elected Rep. Joseph Hoeffel, D-13th Dist. When assembling his staff, Hoeffel directed Frank X. Custer, his communications director at the time, to meet with Shapiro about a legislative director position.
“We didn’t have a lot in common, but we hit it off immediately,” Custer said. “It was clear to me from the minute I met him that this was a serious person … and incredibly bright, and I came back, and I told Joe that, and he hired him.”
Dean met Shapiro years before she entered the political arena herself when she paid a visit to Hoeffel’s office to discuss a proposed piece of legislation focusing on bicycle safety.
“I just remember a bright, super bright young man that seemed like he was in a place where he ought to be,” Dean said.
Shapiro advanced after Custer recommended him for Hoeffel’s chief of staff. Custer said support for that promotion came from staff working in the Pennsylvania congressman’s office. Custer recalled, “it was just a recognition by a lot of people in a short period of time that he was special.”
Custer said Shapiro was a serious man with “gravitas” who “exuded confidence at that young age” while working for Hoeffel.
From staff to officeholder
In 2003, Shapiro decided to head back home to Montgomery County and run for a seat in the Pennsylvania General Assembly’s 153rd House District. He won in 2004, going on to make an impression on other local legislators for his nonpartisan approach to politics.
Todd Stephens, a former Republican representative for the 151st Legislative District, got a call from Shapiro the day after he won his seat. He and Shapiro had breakfast soon after. Shapiro gave Stephens some helpful tips and tricks to help him get settled in his role.
“He was just very helpful in terms of the practical side of what to expect as a new legislator,” Stephens said of his meeting with Shapiro.
They had some overlap in Harrisburg together for about a year. During that time, Republicans held control of the state’s House of Representatives. Stephens said he spoke with Shapiro early in his political career about criminal justice legislation that he recommended Stephens introduce.
“He understood the dynamics of the Legislature at the time, and it wasn’t important to him whose name was on the bill, it was important to him to get the bill done, and so if it meant having a Republican on the top of the bill, then so be it. If that’s what it’ll take to get it done, let’s do it,” Stephens said. “I just think that really speaks volumes about the way he works.”
Personable from the start
Former Montgomery County District Attorney and county Commissioner Bruce Castor met Shapiro at a government function in Harrisburg. Castor said Shapiro sat down at a table and started speaking with him “like we were long-lost friends.” They had some common ground, both growing up in Abington.
“I was impressed with his energy and his friendliness and that he would obtain a position of importance in the government at such a young age … I liked him right away,” Castor said.
Shapiro was an early supporter of Barack Obama, whom he met while campaigning for Obama before the 2008 presidential election. At that time, much of the county’s Democratic Party backed Hillary Clinton for the nomination.
“Josh was really the only well-known player in my opinion who supported President Obama, and I know they became friends very early on, and he had a really good relationship with him,” Groen said.
Back to Montco
After years in Harrisburg, Shapiro contemplated returning to Montgomery County once again, this time to run for a seat on the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners.
“Josh had ambition, was looking ahead and he knew that an important aspect of being an attractive candidate in the future was that he needed executive experience, and you don’t get that in a legislative body,” Custer said. “So when the opportunity came up to run for county commissioner in 2011, he took it.”
Shapiro campaigned with running mate Leslie Richards and won.
“It was very obvious from early on in the campaign how gifted he was,” said Richards, who went on to become secretary of transportation in Gov. Tom Wolf’s Cabinet and now heads SEPTA.
The election created a Democratic majority for county government. Castor served as the minority Republican commissioner.
“He was very good at solving problems, and we had a lot of problems, so he never ran out of things to do. I was extraordinarily impressed by him as county commissioner,” Castor said of Shapiro.
Trust and teamwork
Tackling the county’s financial situation created a bond between the three commissioners. Castor recalled watching Shapiro’s problem-solving in action.
“He would identify a problem, or one of us would identify a problem, and he would come up with a way to deal with the problem, think it through, come up with a set of procedures that we would have to do to attack the problem, and defeat it,” Castor said. “He was a master at that, and I always figured that it had to do with him having been trained in the Legislature and having worked in committees and working across the aisle with groups of people.”
Castor and Richards recalled Shapiro’s governing strategy to assign areas of county government based on each commissioner’s interest and expertise. Richards had experience working with assets and infrastructure and the planning commission. As a former district attorney, Castor knew his way around public safety and court matters. Shapiro dealt with social services and other government reforms.
“I think that was really the recipe for the great relationship that we shared,” Richards said, adding that strategy helped to build trust as each listened to the other and gave their recommendations for different subjects.
“We challenged each other, but we trusted each other, and I realized now how rare that is when you have three people governing,” Richards said.
Among other things, Shapiro sought to revamp operations and financial practices during his time as chair of the board. Custer was the county’s communications director at the time.
“He’s an incredibly honest person with great character, and as a politician, he marries the ability to seek consensus but then also the courage to make tough decisions,” Custer said.
Shapiro also worked to set meeting agendas and ensure his colleagues were “on track” to accomplish their goals.
“He’s a very gifted chairman. He’s a very gifted executive,” Richards said. “Getting to consensus is not only something he’s very gifted at but it’s very important to him, and so every time we would have a unanimous vote, which was pretty much every vote we took while the three of us governed together, very few exceptions,” she continued. “We all tried to work toward that, and we knew how important it was to Josh, and we also knew how important it was to Montgomery County.”
‘Fighting for the right things’
Working as chair essentially made Shapiro “the mayor of a county of 800,000 people,” Groen said.
“He loved it, and from that moment in, you could see the trajectory,” Groen said.
Seeking higher office, Shapiro was elected Pennsylvania attorney general in 2017. There he focused on “fighting for the right things,” Dean said, taking up a number of initiatives around child abuse and the opioid crisis. Taking the next step forward, he announced his campaign for governor in October 2021.
Dean was with Shapiro at Penn State-Abington the day he kicked off his bus tour.
“I thought this is a man you want in public service because of his character,” Dean said. “He is somebody who is a man of his faith, and deeply rooted in the tenets of his faith that we must do for others. I’m a Catholic, he’s Jewish, and yet we both share that passion for our faith, for how it informs us, how we treat others, especially those with less than we have. I always admired that.”
Stephens agreed.
“His character is impeccable. I trust him,” he said. “I think he’s an honest broker, and I think he genuinely wants to work to get things done, to improve the lives of people in Pennsylvania, and is willing to work with anybody who is willing to work with him to that end.”
While Shapiro, wife Lori and their four children live in Abington, Dean witnessed what she described as an enthusiasm to get a complete sense of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties.
“You could see through the campaign that he wanted to know people of every county, to learn from people of every county and of every political persuasion,” Dean said.
Shapiro defeated his Republican challenger in November with 56.49% of the vote.
“Josh will take actions,” Groen said. “Josh will do things in the governor’s office that others have not been willing to tackle, and at the end of the day, you won’t always agree with him, but you will realize that you have somebody actually at work in that position, in that office.”
Those who know him expect good things to come out of the governor’s mansion.
“He’s very bright, and he’s a terrific strategic thinker, and that applies whether you’re a state representative, a county commissioner, an attorney general, or a governor. You’ve got to have a vision, and you’ve got to be able to develop the plan, and the strategy to achieve that vision,” Stephens said. “Josh has been able to do that at each step of the way along his career, and I think it served him well and I’m hopeful it will serve the people of Pennsylvania well.”
Recalling Shapiro as a congressional aide back in 2003, Custer said, “I thought he could be the first Jewish president. I still am in the running for that.”
