Josh Shapiro

Shapiro married Lori Ferrara, his high-school sweetheart, in 1997. They have four children, and Lori serves as Pennsylvania's first lady through nonprofit and volunteer work. The family resides at the Governor's Residence in Harrisburg.

Shapiro was raised in Conservative Judaism and is an observant Jew who keeps kosher. His faith has remained a prominent part of his public identity, including at his 2023 inauguration, when he was sworn in on a stack of three Hebrew Bibles.

Shapiro was raised in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, after spending part of his childhood on a United States Navy base where his father, Steven Shapiro, served as a medical officer. His mother, Judi, was an educator. He attended Akiba Hebrew Academy, later known as Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy, where he captained the basketball team during his senior year.

At the University of Rochester, Shapiro initially pursued premedical studies and hoped to play basketball, but he shifted to political science after struggling with organic chemistry and being cut from the university team. He became involved in student government after a fellow student asked him to run, and he won the election. Shapiro graduated with a political science degree in 1995 and earned a law degree from Georgetown University in 2002.

His early connection to public service also reflected his Jewish upbringing. At age six, through his synagogue and Hebrew day school, he began writing to Avi Goldstein, a Soviet Jewish refusenik, and organized a pen-pal effort called Children for Avi. As a teenager, he studied and volunteered in Israel with classmates.

After college, Shapiro worked in Washington, D.C., including positions with U.S. Representative Peter Deutsch, Senator Carl Levin, and Senator Robert Torricelli. He later served as chief of staff to Representative Joe Hoeffel from 1999 to 2003 and practiced corporate law at Stradley, Ronon, Stevens, and Young from 2006 through 2017.

Shapiro won election to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 2004, defeating former congressman Jon D. Fox, and represented the 153rd district through 2012. During a period when Democrats held the chamber by a single seat, he helped broker the election of moderate Republican Dennis O'Brien as speaker, after which O'Brien named Shapiro deputy speaker. Shapiro also advocated state divestment from companies doing business with Iran and Sudan and was an early public supporter of Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.

In 2011, Shapiro won election to the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners, ending Republican control of the board. He chaired the board from 2012 to 2016, where he worked on social services, administration, budgeting, and pension investments. Governor Tom Wolf appointed him chair of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency in 2015.

Shapiro won election as Pennsylvania attorney general in 2016 and took office in 2017. A central achievement of his tenure was the release of a statewide grand jury report on sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Church. The 2018 report detailed abuse involving more than 1,000 children and more than 300 priests, as well as a decades-long cover-up by church leaders, and prompted similar investigations in other states.

His office also pursued cases connected to the opioid epidemic and negotiated a national settlement that made $1 billion available to Pennsylvania. Shapiro's work included actions against pharmaceutical companies, drug dealers, employers accused of withholding wages, and a for-profit educational institution. He also helped secure continued health-care access for Highmark policyholders at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Shapiro became a prominent opponent of several Trump administration policies. He joined other Democratic attorneys general in challenging the travel ban, opposing restrictions on contraceptive coverage, and contesting federal policies affecting migrants. After the 2020 presidential election, his office defended Pennsylvania's results in court against lawsuits seeking to overturn them.

As attorney general, Shapiro also supported reproductive rights, backed the legalization of adult-use marijuana, and pursued cases involving public officials accused of corruption or theft. His tenure included conflicts with Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner over prosecutorial authority, policing, and the role of the attorney general's office.

Shapiro announced his candidacy for governor in 2021 and won the 2022 Democratic nomination without opposition. He defeated Republican nominee Doug Mastriano by nearly 15 percentage points, winning 56.5 percent of the vote. Austin Davis was his running mate, and the victory made Shapiro the highest vote-getter in a Pennsylvania gubernatorial election.

Shapiro became governor on January 17, 2023, working with a legislature controlled by different parties. On his first day, he issued an executive order removing the four-year college degree requirement from 92 percent of state government jobs. His administration also expanded public-school funding, permanently extended free breakfast for Pennsylvania public-school students, increased workforce training, and created initiatives focused on artificial intelligence, digital government, and permitting reform.

The collapse of part of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia in June 2023 became a defining episode of his governorship. Shapiro declared a disaster emergency, coordinated state agencies, and oversaw the reopening of the collapsed section in 12 days. The response drew praise from President Joe Biden and helped raise Shapiro's national profile.

Shapiro initially supported a Republican-backed school-voucher proposal during the 2023 budget negotiations but withdrew that support after opposition from Democrats in the state House. He has also advocated raising Pennsylvania's minimum wage to $15, expanding apprenticeships and technical education, protecting abortion access, and abolishing the death penalty. In 2023, he signed bipartisan probation reforms intended to make it easier for people to re-enter their communities after incarceration.

During the 2024 presidential campaign, Shapiro endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race. Harris interviewed Shapiro as a potential running mate but selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. Shapiro later campaigned for the Democratic ticket. He has also drawn national attention for his support of Israel, criticism of Benjamin Netanyahu, and responses to pro-Palestinian protests at universities.

In April 2025, an arsonist set fire to the Pennsylvania Governor's Residence while Shapiro, Lori, their children, and another family were inside after a Passover Seder. Everyone was safely evacuated, although part of the residence sustained significant damage.

The suspect was arrested and charged with terrorism, attempted murder, aggravated arson, and aggravated assault. Shapiro later wrote about the attack in an opinion article titled "Finding Moral Clarity After an Arsonist's Attack."