Gov. Shapiro lends political capital to launch coordinated campaign to help elect Pennsylvania Democrats

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Gov. Josh Shapiro on Saturday unveiled a multimillion-dollar statewide campaign effort designed to help elect Democrats across Pennsylvania, launching what party officials called the largest coordinated midterm operation in the state’s history.

Shapiro joined Pennsylvania Democratic Party Chair Eugene DePasquale and other party leaders in Dauphin County, in the heart of a district Democrats hope to pick up in November. There they announced the “Rise Up Pennsylvania” initiative, a coordinated down-ballot campaign in which candidates will share voter registration, field organizing, early voting and turnout efforts ahead of November’s elections.

Shapiro said the election would determine not only the direction of Pennsylvania but also whether Democrats will be able to take power in Washington, D.C.

“We have an opportunity here in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the birthplace of our democracy, the swingiest swing state in the country, to decide what the future of the Congress of the United States looks like and to be a model for good governance right here in Harrisburg,” he said.

According to a Pennsylvania Democratic Party memo, the party will spend $3.3 million to expand an operation that now includes 27 field offices and nearly 100 full-time organizers in battleground communities across the state. The campaign will also include targeted outreach to “low-propensity voters,” according to the party.

Democrats hope the effort will help flip four Republican-held congressional seats — more pickup opportunities than in any other state. Republicans won three of those seats in 2024 by extremely narrow margins. That includes U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, who represents Harrisburg and is being challenged by Janelle Stelson, a former TV news anchor, who ran against Perry in 2024, losing by less than 1%.

Perry “does whatever Donald Trump tells him to, including backing this war of choice in Iran,” Shapiro told the crowd, noting that two U.S. service members were killed in action Friday.

“I want someone who is going to courageously stand up and ask the right questions, demand answers, who’s going to think of those American service members first, who’s going to understand the pain that this war is creating right here at home at the gas pump, and a whole lot of other areas,” he said.

In her speech at the event, Stelson said domestic issues important to Pennsylvanians are going unattended by Washington, D.C.

“Hopefully you have a house over your head, a roof over your head and, now, gas because of the war in Iran,” she said. “People are being forced in many cases to make choices now. ‘Do I pay for the groceries or the health care my son needs?’ And that’s not the way we should be living in America. And we should not have a U.S. representative, a congressman, who put us in that kind of position.”

Democrats are also seeking to wrest control of the state Senate from Republicans while also preserving their narrow majority in the Pennsylvania House. Accomplishing that would give the party unified control of state government for the first time in roughly three decades, enabling them to pass pieces of Shapiro’s agenda, such as raising the state minimum wage, legalizing cannabis and changing the funding structure of public transit, including SEPTA.

Shapiro said that if Democrats take back the legislature in January, they would raise the minimum wage within “the first 30 days.”

“I’ll tell you what else we’re going to do — we will codify abortion rights into law in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” he said. “I’ll tell you what else we’re going to do — we’re going to build more affordable housing and take on those utility companies that keep jacking up our rates here in Pennsylvania.”

In order to accomplish what Shapiro called the “trifecta” of control in Harrisburg, Democrats will need to win another three state Senate seats while maintaining or expanding on their one-seat majority in the House.

State Sen. James Andrew Malone, D-Lancaster County, said he would like to see Democrats in charge in order to extend the Senate’s session.

“We only have 11 senatorial session days left in the year,” he said. “I would really love that to change … because we have a backlog of awesome bipartisan bills sitting waiting for us to get to.”

Shapiro currently holds a 13-point lead over his challenger, Republican state Treasurer Stacy Garrity, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released this week, and maintains a strong favorability. He raised more than $50 million for his reelection campaign, more than 30 times Garrity’s haul, giving him a large cushion to expend political capital — and campaign funds — down the ballot.

The announcement may mark Shapiro’s most significant effort yet to use his political popularity and fundraising strength to influence races beyond his own reelection campaign. Since taking office, he has helped reshape the state Democratic Party by installing longtime allies in leadership positions, including DePasquale, recruiting candidates in competitive districts and raising record sums for Democratic campaigns.

Demonstrating an ability to produce victories in state legislative and congressional races could strengthen his governing agenda in Harrisburg as well as his national political profile, as observers continue to mention him as a potential Democratic presidential contender in 2028.

DePasquale said the coordinated effort will be looking to boost voter registrations.

“We have won the voter registration battle over Republicans now for 10 straight months,” he said. “We’ve been building, also, a county-by-county voter protection effort that is going to be prepared to make sure that every single voter gets to cast their ballot this November.”