Josh Shapiro is still Pennsylvania’s most popular politician, following the veepstakes

Gov. Josh Shapiro remains the most popular elected official in Pennsylvania following weeks in the national spotlight, recent polls show.

Shapiro continues to be popular across party lines, after the first-term Democratic governor spent weeks under scrutiny as a contender to be Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, according to two statewide polls released this week.

Harris, for her part, took the lead in the presidential race in statewide popular opinion polls — some of the first views into how Harris’ entrance into the race changed the election in Pennsylvania. Harris led former President Donald Trump by about 3 percentage points in two polls released this week — 48% to 46% in a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday, and 46% to 43% in a Franklin and Marshall College poll released Thursday.

More than half of likely Pennsylvania voters have a favorable opinion of the job Shapiro, 51, is doing as governor, according to the two recent polls. Approximately 51% of voters have positive views of Shapiro’s work as governor, according to the Franklin and Marshall College poll, and 59% view him as doing a good job in the Quinnipiac University poll.

Shapiro’s approval ratings outpaced those of other Democrats and Republicans, including Harris, Trump, President Joe Biden, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, and Casey’s Republican challenger, Dave McCormick. Casey, the incumbent, also continued to lead McCormick by 8 points in both polls.

Spending weeks in the partisan limelight — where media outlets highlighted Shapiro’s stance on Israel, his support for school vouchers, his office’s handling of a sexual harassment case against a former top aide, and more — Shapiro could have come out of the veepstakes with declining popularity, said Berwood Yost, the executive director of the Franklin and Marshall College poll.

But, instead, Shapiro remains popular here — the most popular Pennsylvania governor in more than 20 years at the same point in the first term.

“The fact it didn’t go anywhere suggests that Pennsylvanians feel the way they feel about [Shapiro], and that’s mostly positive,” Yost said. “He is still the most popular candidate in the state.”

Job approval ratings are usually lower than favorability ratings, Yost added, meaning that the number of voters who like Shapiro could be higher than those who already approve of the job he’s doing as governor. (Shapiro’s job approval ratings were slightly higher than his favorability ratings in the Quinnipiac poll.)

Shapiro is expected to get a national boost in popularity since establishing himself nationally as a popular Democratic governor in one of the most critical swing states. But his continued popularity at home will also help him as a top surrogate for Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, and he hopes to deliver the state for them.

Quinnipiac University polled 1,738 likely voters from Aug. 8-12 by phone, and the survey has a margin of error of 2.4 percentage points. Franklin and Marshall College surveyed 920 registered voters by phone or online from July 31-Aug. 11 and had a margin of error of 3.8 percentage points.

Shapiro is scheduled to speak at the Democratic National Convention next week.