How Gov. Josh Shapiro went from hometown kid to vice presidency bid

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It’s difficult to find two politicians from Montgomery County as diametrically opposed as former U.S. Rep. Joe Hoeffel III and attorney Bruce Castor Jr.

Both spent decades in local, state and national politics. Hoeffel, a Democrat, and Castor, a Republican, had their working relationship soured by a power-sharing agreement on the county Board of Commissioners between Hoeffel and James Matthews, Castor’s running mate back in late 2000s.

However, neither can forget the first time they met Gov. Josh Shapiro. They both agree that he deserves to be in the national spotlight. Hoeffel was not surprised to see his former staffer on the short list to become Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate.

“I don’t see downsides to Josh being on the ticket,” Hoeffel said. “I think there’s only upside. In fact, he’s my choice. I think he ought to be the vice president running with Kamala Harris.”

Hoeffel described the Upper Dublin–native as smart, talented and thoughtful, equipped with all the personal skills “big-time politicians” have. Castor, who represented former President Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial, agreed.

“I used to tell people when we were commissioners [that] I thought he was the best administrator I had ever seen,” Castor said.

Castor, who represents United Sovereign Citizens in its federal lawsuit against Pennsylvania’s election system, said Shapiro’s accomplishments in just a couple of years as governor are hard not to admire.

“He’s left of center and I don’t agree with all the things that he has espoused,” Castor said. “But look at how he handled the derailment in Ohio on the border, how he handled the I-95 disaster. He manages to get his budgets through with a minimum of hassle. I just don’t think that there’s any crisis that he’s not able to handle.”

With a history as a consensus builder in his hometown, those who watched Shapiro’s career flourish in Montgomery County said the area transformed him into a formidable political force — and he returned the favor.

Shapiro leaves lasting first impressions

Hoeffel has near-perfect recall about the day he first met Shapiro.

It was December 1998. Hoeffel was riding an electoral high, finally securing a congressional seat after his fourth attempt.

The congressman-elect was visiting the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C.

He was alone in the office space when a young man turned the corner and approached him.

Shapiro introduced himself and asked Hoeffel if he could serve as his legislative director. Hoeffel hired him.

Just three months later, Hoeffel needed a new chief of staff.

“Although Josh was very young at the time — only 25 — he was the right choice for me to promote into the chief of staff position,” Hoeffel said. “He did a great job for me in that position. I’m quite sure he was the youngest chief of staff on Capitol Hill at that point.”

Shapiro proved himself to be an effective networker. While attending Georgetown University as a law student at night, he formed valuable working partnerships throughout the House during the day. He gathered information to keep Hoeffel up to speed on the latest bills and committee business.

“He was a great asset to a new congressman like me,” Hoeffel said.

In 1999, before he was promoted, Shapiro forged a relationship with Ken Lawrence Jr., chair of SEPTA’s board of directors. At the time, Lawrence was working for Merck & Co. He traveled to the nation’s Capitol to see how the company could improve its relationship with Hoeffel.

“We spent a couple hours just in the Capitol cafeteria, just talking, getting to know each other,” Lawrence said. “He was, of course, from Montgomery County, but we hadn’t met to that point, and I knew even then that at some point he was going to come back, because even then he was talking about serving.”

Castor was seated at a political function when a local official sitting next to him stood up to get food from the buffet. Shapiro sat down in that same seat and introduced himself to Castor, who was serving as Montgomery County’s district attorney at the time.

“I thought that it was a good demonstration of bipartisanship that he would come up and introduce himself to me, and I thought that indicated a willingness to try to work together on issues of mutual interest,” Castor said.

A ‘springboard’ into politics, and what’s so special about the 153rd?

In 2003, Shapiro returned to Montgomery County from his stint at Capitol Hill. The next year, he set his eyes on Harrisburg. He launched a campaign to run for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives District 153, which encompasses Abington and parts of Upper Dublin. Shapiro defeated Republican Jon D. Fox and assumed office in 2005.

“Fox had nearly 100% name recognition and in initial polls Josh wasn’t even registering, and he just worked his butt off — knocking on doors, going to grocery stores, setting up coffees to win that seat,” Lawrence said. “You’re not going to outwork Josh Shapiro.”

Poetically, the seat had also served as a springboard for Hoeffel’s entry into politics. He served in that district from 1977–1984. For a longtime, Abington was a Republican stronghold. Although it has been Democratic for years, Hoeffel said the township has always been home to active, well-informed voters.

“I think it does tend to attract and promote politicians who knuckle down and do a good job for them,” Hoeffel said.

U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean, who represents the area, agrees. Like Fox, Hoeffel and Shapiro, Dean also got her start in the 153rd District. The Abington-native replaced Shapiro in the state House in 2012 when he left office. Eventually, Dean was elected to Congress in 2018.

“There is something in the water here where you just can get really fired up around really high-quality folks who care about ‘small-D’ democratic values,” Dean said. “I say all that to say, I don’t know what’s in the secret sauce with Josh Shapiro, except a whole lot of accomplishments, excellence and extraordinary hard work.”

Dean, a Catholic, said Shapiro’s Jewish faith is foundational to his politics. She went on her first visit to Israel as a member of Congress in 2019. There, a tour guide told her that a number in the Bible holds great significance: 153.

“Of course, because I had represented the 153rd, as did Josh, but I also loved it because he is such a man of faith,” Dean said. “It’s fun that there is that rooted connection in the Bible to the 153rd.”

Shapiro’s ambitions take him to the county seat

Hoeffel and Shapiro kept in touch. Their political careers intersected directly in 2011.

“We had some disagreements, Josh and I, about the succession among the Democratic Party about who would run for county commissioner and hopefully win a majority on the board,” Hoeffel said.

He has previously served two stints on Montgomery County’s Board of Commissioners from 1992–1999 and again in 2008. Hoeffel said they couldn’t “work out running together as a team.” He stepped aside as party leaders threw their support behind Shapiro, clearing the way for him and Leslie Richards to lead the Democratic ticket.

Shapiro and Richards won in 2011 and became the county’s first Democratic majority elected to three-person governing board in more than a century.

While Hoeffel didn’t agree with everything Shapiro did as commissioner, he said Shapiro did a great job and left the county in good shape. Feelings of betrayal have subsided.

It’s politics.

“Now, Josh is ambitious — very ambitious — and I say that as a positive thing,” Hoeffel said. “All politicians have to have ambition or they wouldn’t be in the game in the first place. But he’s planned his career out. He’s been thoughtful and meticulous in going about it and certainly he’s bumped up against other people’s ambitions, and, I mean, that’s unavoidable, and I think that’s true of anybody who rises to the top and politics.”

He added it would be “pretty cool” for Abington to have a resident become vice president and that Shapiro would complement Harris’ ticket well.

A ‘master’ consensus builder and astute communicator

From 2000–2008, Castor served two terms as district attorney. He transitioned directly to the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners in 2008, where he served another two terms. In 2016, he served brief stints as both solicitor general and acting attorney general.

Castor served with Shapiro and Richards in Castor’s second term. Although Republicans lost their majority, he found an easier time governing alongside the two Democrats.

“He was a master at consensus — at getting consensus and arriving at compromise,” Castor said. “We were very fortunate. Politics usually doesn’t work like this. I suppose that if you flip a coin enough times, it will one time land on its edge, and this time it did because you had three people elected who were truly experts in three different areas of the government.”

According to Castor, Shapiro divided the work among the three officials so that each of them were focused on their strengths.

“I thought he was a marvelous commissioner. In fact, I used to tell people even though I had been there 30 years, I thought he was better than me,” he said.

Like Lawrence, Dean said she remembers first meeting Shapiro on Capitol Hill.

“I’ve seen him grow and develop. Hopefully, any politician who’s really in it for the right reasons does that, but he’s a fantastic communicator,” Dean said. “I tell my team to pay attention to how he communicates, how he structures the argument, how he says it plainly, succinctly, with warmth and personality and seriousness.”

Montco could be perfect training ground for national politics

Montgomery County has a larger population than Alaska, North Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming. From its more urban areas like Cheltenham to its rural communities such as Woxall, the county is an excellent training ground for aspiring politicians looking to make the jump to the national stage.

“If you are able to garner the support of the wide range of political views that are in Montgomery County, which reflect the wide range of political views which are in Pennsylvania, which itself reflects the wide view of political views in the United States — you are likely to be well-trained and well-positioned for state and federal office,” Castor said.

Shapiro moved on from Montgomery County politics and became Pennsylvania’s attorney general in 2017, nabbing the job Castor had held for a few months. He admitted that he found the job difficult.

Shapiro took on the role and eventually the office of governor in 2023. Castor said Shapiro has a knack for avoiding unforced errors and surrounding himself with knowledgeable people.

“If he has any weaknesses, I don’t know what they are,” Castor said.

Lawrence was appointed to the county Board of Commissioners in 2017 to fill Shapiro’s vacancy. He still remembers the advice Shapiro gave him: Act like each year is an election year. This made it easier for Lawrence to eventually win his own election in 2019.

In the 20+ years that Lawrence has known Shapiro, he’s come to understand his peer to be a committed family man. He said Shapiro spends every Friday night with his family during Shabbat. Lawrence said Shapiro brings those family values and lessons of faith with him. He expected Shapiro to make his way into the conversation to become Harris’ running mate.

“I’ve always called Josh the natural — like he’s a five-tool politician. He excels in public speaking, he has policy smarts, he’s politically savvy, he’s a fundraiser and he’s a relationship builder,” Lawrence said.

Although Dean is older than Shapiro, she often jokes that he’s her mentor. When she was a legislator in Harrisburg, he’d often check in on her.

“It just showed a sweetness that he worried about this person older than he who was a first-time legislator, a real sweetness,” Dean said.

From his position on taxpayer-funded school vouchers to his stance on Israel, his path to the ticket is not without its share of obstacles. To some, his record is not clean. Castor said he would be surprised if Shapiro leaves the governor’s mansion for Pennsylvania Avenue. He doesn’t see Shapiro doing something without having planned it out years in advance.

“He wouldn’t be calling the shots,” Castor said. “Every other time he’s ever run for office — whether it was state representative, county commissioner, attorney general, governor — he’s the guy running the campaign and making the decisions, and if he signs on with Vice President Harris, he’s going to be second banana, and I don’t think that he is cut out for that sort of a role now.”

However, he personally knows that when the White House is calling, it’s hard to say no.

“I hope that he remains as governor, gets himself elected again and then is part of the conversation four years from now,” Castor said. “But I will confess that it would be neat to have my friend as the vice president of the United States — but I’m a committed Republican and I’m for the Republican ticket.”