Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro told graduates at his college alma mater last year he might not have ventured into politics if he hadn’t failed a science test and been cut from the basketball team during his freshman year.

“I planned to be the first doctor to get drafted by the Sixers and play in the NBA,” Shapiro said during a commencement address at the University of Rochester in New York.

Now, after serving as a Capitol Hill staffer and holding elected offices in Montgomery County and Harrisburg, his next political stop could be the White House.

Shapiro, Pennsylvania’s 51-year-old first-term governor, is considered one of the front-runners to become presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ vice-presidential pick. Speculation surrounding Shapiro grew after Harris announced she will kick off a battleground state tour in Philadelphia next week.

Shapiro’s potential path to Washington is one that has been decades in the making.

It’s a career trajectory those who know the governor said has been inevitable from the time he first ran for office two decades ago.

“I was always impressed with his capacity to understand all the issues, but I didn’t realize until later, when he became chief of staff to (former U.S. Rep. Joseph Hoeffel), how good an organizer he really was,” said former state Sen. Allen Kukovich.

Kukovich of Manor worked with Shapiro during his early days in Harrisburg when they were members of the state Legislature.

“He was somebody who, in the back of your mind, you knew he had a quality about him and had a future in politics. There’s nothing wrong with being ambitious,” Kukovich said.

That ambition has struck some of those with whom he has crossed paths the wrong way.

Former Pennsylvania House Speaker Bill DeWeese told the Philadelphia Inquirer he once considered himself to be a mentor to Shapiro. A corruption scandal that cost DeWeese his House seat and resulted in a jail term also ended his relationship with Shapiro.

“I would never want him in a foxhole with me, and I don’t think the vice president and presidential nominee would want Josh as her wingman,” DeWeese told the Inquirer.

Shapiro was born in Missouri but grew up in suburban Philadelphia, where his father worked as a pediatrician and his mother as an educator.

He attended a private Jewish high school where the future governor met his wife, Lori, starred on the school’s basketball team and dreamed of following his father’s footsteps into medicine.

Shapiro attended the University of Rochester with designs on a pre-med degree and playing guard on the school’s basketball team. Early in his freshman year, those plans changed after the failed science test and being cut from the basketball team — all on the same day, according to Shapiro.

Then an opportunity came knocking, he says.

“Someone came down and knocked on my dorm room and asked if I would run for the student senate. They said you have nothing else going on in your life anyway,” Shapiro said in the University of Rochester commencement address. “I ran, and I won. Advocating for my fellow students actually opened up my eyes to a new line of public service.”

University of Rochester political science professor Gerald Gamm helped mentor Shapiro during his final three years at the school, where he served as student body president as he earned a political science degree.

“He was dynamic. He was smart, and he knew everyone,” Gamm said. “He got to know people quickly and well. The thing about Josh is he is just truly honest. What was inside of him as a 22-year-old is still there. He has not changed in any fundamental way.”

After college graduation, Shapiro moved to Washington to work on Capitol Hill during the day and attended law school at night, eventually graduating from Georgetown University.

Political pursuits

In 2004, Shapiro returned home to Montgomery County and won a seat in the state House. During his six terms, Shapiro earned a reputation as a consensus builder and a key negotiator who was able work across party lines.

Former U.S. Rep Bob Brady, now chairman of the Philadelphia Democratic Committee, has known Shapiro since his early days in politics. Brady endorsed Shapiro as Harris’ vice-presidential pick.

“He’s always been articulate, knowledgeable and available,” Brady said while noting Shapiro’s reputation for ambition that has shaped his political career.

“I don’t think anyone can be overly ambitious, and he lets his ambition shine. I always knew he was going to high places. He’d be a great addition to the ticket. The road to the White House goes through Pennsylvania, and, if you put him on the ticket, it’s a slam dunk,” Brady said.

In 2011, Shapiro was elected as a county commissioner in Montgomery County, the state’s third-most populous with more than 800,000 people. He served as board chairman until his successful initial statewide run for office in 2016, when he won the race for attorney general.

Under Shapiro’s watch, the office issued a blistering grand jury investigation report that detailed decades of sexual abuses of children by clergy and officials that were covered up by the Roman Catholic Church across Pennsylvania.

That investigation led to a series of lawsuits and criminal convictions.

In response to growing opioid addictions and deaths, Shapiro pursued legal action against drug manufacturers and distributors that ultimately led to billion-dollar settlements.

He ran for governor in 2022, defeating state Sen. Doug Mastriano, a firebrand Republican state senator who modeled his campaign and political style on former President Donald Trump. Shapiro won in a 15-point landslide to become the first Democrat to succeed a Democratic governor in Pennsylvania since 1959, when David L. Lawrence was elected to replace Democrat George M. Leader following one four-year term.

Shapiro’s term in the governor’s mansion got off to a rocky start. Just weeks into his term, a train crash a few miles over Pennsylvania’s border in East Palestine, Ohio, spewed toxic chemicals into the air over Western Pennsylvania. That spring, a bridge along busy Interstate 95 in Philadelphia collapsed, and budget negotiations with the Republican-led General Assembly sputtered.

Shapiro also came under fire for his administration’s decision to quietly sign off on a $295,000 settlement of a harassment complaint filed against a key staffer and long-time political ally. His opponents have challenged the Shapiro Administration’s use of private lawyers and questioned its negotiating tactics that led to a monthslong budget standoff during his first year in office.

Shapiro’s second state budget was finalized just days after the June 30 deadline and scored several victories for the first-term governor, including increased spending for education and economic development programs.

Personal life

Shapiro is a married and is the father of four children, the oldest having graduated this spring from the University of Pittsburgh.

If selected as Harris’ running mate, he would become the first Jewish vice presidential candidate since Sen. Joe Lieberman was tabbed by Vice President Al Gore on the Democratic ticket in 2000.

“In this place of tolerance, I stand before you a proud American of Jewish faith, who just took the oath of office to be the 48th governor of this great commonwealth on a Bible from the Tree of Life synagogue, the scene just four years ago of the deadliest act of antisemitism in our nation’s history,” Shapiro said during his inauguration speech.

“My own faith teaches me that no one is required to complete the task, but neither are we free to refrain from it.”

Amid growing antisemitic rhetoric that has surrounded the debate over the ongoing war in Gaza, Shapiro has remained steadfast in his support for Israel, a position he upheld during an interview in May with the New York Times.

“I am pro-the idea of a Jewish homeland, a Jewish state, and I will certainly do everything in my power to ensure that Israel is strong and Israel is fortified and will exist for generations,” Shapiro told the Times.

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