Gov. Josh Shapiro speaks at a rally in Philadelphia, where he and Lt. Gov. Austin Davis launched their 2026 re-election campaigns, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (Photo by Peter Hall/Pennsylvania Capital-Star)
As they launch their campaigns for a second term, Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro and Lieutenant Governor Austin Davis have outlined a vision where Pennsylvanians have bountiful opportunities for success, affordable and protected communities, and the rights and freedoms they value.
At rallies in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia on Thursday, Shapiro and Davis again discussed their successes and the work that remains to be done as the commonwealth and nation face fundamental challenges amid what the governor called “chaos and toxicity” in the nation’s capital.
“We have more people to help and we have more problems to solve,” Shapiro told an audience gathered at a youth basketball center in Philadelphia. “So with a servant’s heart and an ear to hear your concerns, with progress made and with a desire to do more for you, I am here to announce that I am seeking re-election as governor of this great commonwealth.”
But Shapiro said he couldn’t praise the administration’s success without acknowledging that Pennsylvania families are suffering because of the Republican-controlled federal government’s cuts in food aid and health insurance tax credits.
“Some politicians who know better are too cowardly to speak up. They have abandoned their principles… and in trying to make things better for themselves, they are leaving many others behind,” he said, noting that nearly 500,000 Pennsylvanians will not be able to afford health insurance and more than 100,000 will lose SNAP benefits.
During his speech, Shapiro had to pause several times as the crowd in Philadelphia – about 1,000 people, according to the campaign’s estimates – spontaneously chanted a more down-to-earth version of the campaign’s slogan, “mind your own business.” Shapiro used the slogan several times when describing the achievements of his first three years as governor.
These included the state’s response to the Interstate 95 disaster that defined the first months of his term, increasing education funding by up to 30 percent, eliminating the bureaucracy associated with starting a company and hiring 2,000 novel state troopers, attracting $35 billion in novel private investment, and eliminating the college degree requirement for 92 percent of state jobs.
“I am running for re-election to continue this work, and I am running for re-election because I have never backed down from a fight,” he said, adding: “Right now we are in a battle to protect the foundation on which the place we call home was built.”
With prices of food, energy, vehicles and other goods soaring, businesses and families struggling, and farmers without markets for their products, Shapiro said the federal government’s actions threaten to limit progress in the commonwealth.
He added that he feels the concerns of Pennsylvanians about feeding their families and being deprived of their rights.
“I have stood up for my fellow Pennsylvanians every step of the way, sometimes in court and other times by simply refusing to back down, refusing to reject some Pennsylvanians, and always speaking truth to power,” Shapiro said.
Davis said the campaign wasn’t about him and Shapiro, but about the potential of state government when it invests in and trusts its citizens.
“It’s about staying honest and clear-eyed and being honest about what this moment requires and the leadership needed to meet it, because the situation is very different than it was when Josh and I were first elected,” Davis said.
“The stakes are higher than ever before and we all have a choice to make – to follow the politics of fear and division coming from politicians in Washington,” Davis said. “Or we can stand up for our freedom, make our own choices and show the nation what is possible when great leadership is at the helm.”
Elected in 2022, Shapiro already enjoyed enormous political clout as the incumbent state attorney general during his first term as governor. He distinguished himself nationally by suing the first Trump administration over its policies and companies that profited from the widespread adoption of opioid painkillers, which led to an epidemic of overdose deaths. Shapiro also served as a Montgomery County commissioner and state representative.
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Davis served as a state representative for Allegheny County during his second term, representing his hometown of McKeesport when he became the Commonwealth’s first black lieutenant governor.
They defeated state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Franklin), a Trump loyalist and election denier who introduced legislation to ban chemtrails, by 15 points, or nearly 800,000 votes. Mastriano announced Wednesday that he would not run for governor again, and during a live broadcast with his wife, Rebbie, he told supporters that “God has not called us to run … this year.”
Country Treasurer Stacy Garrity is the likely 2026 Republican nominee to challenge Shapiro. Garrity, who called on state lawmakers to invalidate the 2020 election resultscampaigns for success in the return of unclaimed money and state-owned property and the expansion of education savings accounts.
But her campaign also says she plans to target Shapiro over the Philadelphia stabbing case that his office handled in 2018, when he was attorney general. Shapiro said his office reached the same conclusion as the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office, which withdrew its conclusion that the death of 27-year-old Ellen Greenburg was a suicide despite finding 27 stab wounds.
The Shapiro administration has failed to achieve some of the goals he talked about in the 2022 campaign, including school vouchers – a key goal of Republican legislators. Shapiro vetoed the $100 million figure in his first budget after House Democrats said a deal with state Senate Republicans was out of the question.
On Thursday evening in Philadelphia, state Sen. Vincent Hughes (R-Philadelphia) offered a brief critique of Garrity.
“We don’t need a MAGA replica in the governor’s mansion,” he said, drawing cheers and jeers from the crowd.
