Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, widely seen as a potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender, is finding that his party’s shifting politics are making his path to the White House increasingly difficult, according to a new analysis from PJ Media.
The friction came into focus this week when Shapiro posted on X that he is suing the Trump administration over its attempt to “change the rules and restrict mail-in voting,” defending what he called “free, fair, safe, and secure elections.” Conservative radio host Mark Levin fired back sharply, telling Shapiro, “You’re an idiot. You’re not going to be president. Your party hates you.”
While Levin’s blunt assessment drew attention, the deeper argument is that Shapiro’s party indeed has turned against him — not over policy positions but over his identity and his unwavering support for Israel, according to the PJ Media piece.
A practicing Jew in a changing party
Shapiro is a practicing, observant Jew who keeps kosher. When sworn in as governor, he placed his hand on a Hebrew Bible that came from the scene of the 2018 attack on Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue. The Forward reported during his gubernatorial campaign that he “proudly embraced his Judaism.”
That faith has also made him a target. In April 2025, Cody Balmer scaled the security fence of the governor’s mansion in the middle of the night and used beer bottles filled with gasoline to set fire to the residence while Shapiro and his family slept inside, according to the Associated Press. Balmer, who later pleaded guilty, was charged with 22 counts including arson, burglary, aggravated assault, and terrorism. His motive, according to police reports and a 911 call, was his opposition to Shapiro’s stance on Israel’s war in Gaza.
Shapiro has not wavered. Like Sen. John Fetterman, he has remained consistently pro-Israel and anti-Hamas, while also supporting a two-state solution and criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he once called “one of the worst leaders of all time.”
The balancing act that isn’t working
The political tension is not new. In his memoir, Where We Keep the Light, Shapiro wrote that during Kamala Harris’s vice-presidential vetting in 2024, her team questioned whether he had ever been “an agent of the Israeli government” or spoken with an undercover Israeli agent. Shapiro called the questioning offensive and speculated it happened because he was “the only Jewish guy in the running.” Yet he has consistently said he does not believe antisemitism was why he was passed over for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
The PJ Media analysis argues that Shapiro’s efforts to differentiate between Israel and its leadership, and to de-emphasize his faith, have not moved the needle. The party’s rising stars, it notes, are increasingly vocal in their criticism of Israel — and some are outright hostile to the Jewish state.
Party’s rising stars shift further left
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a rising Democratic figure, told ABC’s Jonathan Karl in June that he cannot support any state “that privileges one religion over the other,” including Israel. He also referred to AIPAC as “monsters.” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Sen. Cory Booker, Rep. Ro Khanna, Sen. Chris Murphy, and Sen. Ruben Gallego have all been consistently critical of Israel and AIPAC, with Politico reporting that Democrats are not just distancing themselves from the Israeli cause but running from it.
The piece also highlights the growing influence of pro-Palestinian voices in the party, including new Muslim congressional nominees and the prominence of figures like Abdul El-Sayed in the Michigan Senate race.
Soros ties complicate matters
Shapiro’s ambition has also led him to cozy up to Alex Soros, George Soros’s heir apparent, with photos taken in Soros’s New York penthouse — a spot where the younger Soros has photographed “every mover and shaker in Democrat politics.” Meanwhile, the Soros family’s Open Society Foundations announced in May it would donate $30 million to fight antisemitism, even as the New York Post and others noted the foundations have funded groups tied to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a designated terrorist organization. New York Assemblyman Kalman Yeger, a Democrat, compared the move to “the arsonist showing up with an empty fire extinguisher.”
For Shapiro, the calculus is grim: He has shown a willingness to align with party power brokers, but the party’s base is moving in a direction that makes his profile untenable. As the analysis concludes, the party’s “Hamas wing” is growing — and Shapiro is on the wrong side of its rise.
Source: pjmedia.com — https://pjmedia.com/tim-o-brien/2026/08/28/why-cant-josh-shapiro-take-a-hint-n4956667
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