Days after US President Joe Biden announced withdrawing from the Presidential race, his deputy Kamala Harris became a forerunner to replace him as the democratic nominee for the November polls.
Harris has received endorsements from many Democratic leaders including former President Bill Clinton, his wife Hillary Clinton, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Pramila Jayapal, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
Harris has won the support of nearly 90 per cent of all Democratic members of Congress, according to the New York Times.
If Kamala Harris wins the Presidential nomination, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro is favoured to be a potential running mate for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Though there are others including North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper and Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, however, Shapiro has been at the forefront.
Who is Josh Shapiro?
- When Joe Biden endorsed Kamala Harris on Sunday, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro was quick to lend his support and endorsement to the Vice President. In a statement posted on X, Shapiro said he’s known Kamala Harris for nearly two decades and that she “is a patriot worthy of our support.”
- Josh Shapiro, a Democrat leader, was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 2004, where he served for eight years.
- He has decades of political experience where he has served as the Chairman of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners and as Pennsylvania Attorney General.
- He was elected Pennsylvania Governor in a landslide victory in 2022, defeating a 2020 election-denying far-right state senator to become the third Jewish governor elected in the crucial swing state.
- Shapiro had been floated by Democrats as a potential presidential prospect and is considered a potential running mate to Harris. During a stop in Philadelphia earlier this month, Harris called Shapiro a “great partner to the president and me.”
- Shapiro is set to become the second-ever Jewish running mate on a major party's presidential ticket.
- The democratic leader has long made his Jewish identity central to his career in the public sector.
- The assassination attempt against Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, has placed the governor in the spotlight. However, he earned praise from both Democrats and Republicans for his unifying tone after the assassination attempt.
- Born in June 1973, Josh Shapiro grew up in Pennsylvania. His mother was an educator while his father was a paediatrician.
- He has studied political science at the University of Rochester and also studied law at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. He currently lives in Montgomery County with his wife and four children.