One week out, Josh Shapiro makes a ‘Democratic trifecta’ his closing argument in Pennsylvania

By Helena Thorncroft

WASHINGTON — With one week left before Pennsylvania votes on Nov. 3, Gov. Josh Shapiro, a 2002 graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center, is spending the closing stretch of his re-election race on a bus tour of Republican-leaning counties and a pitch that goes beyond his own name on the ballot: a Democratic trifecta in Harrisburg.

Shapiro, a Democrat, faces Republican state Treasurer Stacy Garrity. The October Franklin & Marshall College Poll found him ahead 52% to 30% among registered voters, and WGAL reported that with leaners included the margin was 54% to 33%, with 9% undecided. A Quinnipiac University poll released Oct. 7 had Shapiro ahead 59% to 34% among likely voters.

The governor has also made the Trump administration’s election moves a closing theme. “I fully expect we’ll be back in court protecting the vote and protecting the people,” Shapiro told WESA during a weekend swing through Western Pennsylvania, adding that the state is “incredibly prepared” for whatever the White House might do and that “we will accept the results and accept the will of the people.”

The administration says its election actions are aimed at ineligible voting. When the Justice Department sued California on Oct. 15 over more than 20,000 registrants it identified as likely noncitizens, Attorney General Todd Blanche said, “State-facilitated voter fraud is unacceptable in the United States of America.” A federal judge in Los Angeles is scheduled to hear that request today. No similar federal action against Pennsylvania has been announced. The Inquisitor has asked the White House to respond to Shapiro’s remarks.

The trifecta pitch

Shapiro’s argument to voters is that a bigger Democratic win would change what he can pass. Republicans hold a 27-to-23 majority in the state Senate; Democrats control the state House, as WESA noted. If Democrats flip the Senate and keep the House, Shapiro told WESA, a $15 minimum wage “will be Act 1 of 2027.” He also listed an effort “to codify abortion rights in our Constitution” and a longer statute of limitations for survivors of sexual abuse as priorities that “the Senate Republicans have blocked for years.”

At a rally on the Penn State campus on Oct. 25, Shapiro asked roughly 300 supporters for a “Democratic trifecta” that he said Pennsylvania had not had “since 1992,” according to WPSU. He appeared with Ray Bilger, the Democratic nominee in the 15th Congressional District, and described Trump administration economic policies as a “$3,100 chaos tax” on families, WPSU reported.

On Monday and Tuesday, Shapiro’s bus tour was scheduled to stop in Blair, Cambria, Columbia, Union and Westmoreland counties, WGAL reported.

Garrity’s case

Garrity has centered her closing argument on skill-game machines, which became outlawed this month when state officials missed a court-ordered deadline to legalize them. Her billboards say, “Shapiro took your skill games. Stacy Garrity will bring them back,” WESA reported, and her campaign has accused the governor of being “in the pocket of the casino and betting industry.” She backs a per-machine fee, which the industry prefers to the 52% tax Shapiro supported.

The industry has backed her. Garrity’s most recent campaign-finance report showed she raised slightly less than $5.4 million from mid-September to mid-October, $4 million of it from two contributors: the Pennsylvania Amusement and Music Machine Association and Pittsburgh businessman John D. Conley, at $2 million each, according to WESA.

Shapiro said he had tried “to regulate these games, get them out of the black market, limit their numbers, and then tax them,” and that “the train has left the station on this.”

Garrity has also pitched herself as a small-business candidate, touring Henry Molded Products in West Lebanon Township as part of her final-week schedule.

The national frame

WESA noted that Shapiro’s speeches have “helped bring him to national attention as a potential 2028 Presidential nominee.” Shapiro has not said he will run. His running mate, Lt. Gov. Austin Davis, told the Pittsburgh crowd, “We have an opportunity in this midterm election to do as Donald Trump says and vote like he’s on the ballot.”

Pennsylvania’s Senate and House races are also on the ballot; the Inquisitor’s latest look at the Senate polling covers the national map.

Shapiro earned his J.D. from Georgetown in 2002 and his B.A. from the University of Rochester in 1995, according to his official Pennsylvania House biography from his years as a state representative. He later served as Montgomery County commissioner and as Pennsylvania attorney general before he was elected governor in 2022, according to the governor’s office. Georgetown has no role in the campaign.

The Inquisitor is seeking comment from the Shapiro campaign, the Garrity campaign and the White House. This story will be updated with any response.

Photo: Josh Shapiro, December 2025 (cropped). Joe Andrucyk/Maryland GovPics, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.