Who is Josh Shapiro, the Pennsylvania attorney general running for governor?

Usually when there’s an open-seat race for governor — in Pennsylvania or any other state — lots of politicians run for the office. But in Pennsylvania’s Democratic primary in May, Josh Shapiro had the ballot all to himself.

Shapiro, 49, was able to stockpile campaign cash as he headed toward the Nov. 8 general election, in a midterm year with a national political environment favoring Republicans. Inflation, gas prices, and continued pandemic fatigue have sapped the approval ratings for a key Shapiro ally, Gov. Tom Wolf, who is term-limited.

Shapiro also faces a quirk of Pennsylvania politics. No political party has won three consecutive gubernatorial elections since 1950.

Shapiro is serving his second term as Pennsylvania attorney general. First elected in 2016, he gained prominence when he released a grand jury report on the Catholic Church’s sex-abuse scandal. He won a settlement in a major wage theft case and helped resolve a dispute between two Western Pennsylvania health care giants he said had left patients excluded from a major hospital network.

Shapiro’s profile grew in the aftermath of the 2020 election, when his office defended Pennsylvania’s secretary of state in court as allies of then-President Donald Trump challenged the results. Last year, he sued Pennsylvania Senate Republicans after they subpoenaed Wolf’s administration for millions of voters’ personal records.

State Sen. Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for governor, has consistently highlighted Shapiro’s legal support for Wolf’s pandemic restrictions. Mastriano and other Republicans blame those policies for job losses and call infringements on personal liberty.

Earlier in his career, Shapiro was chairman of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners and a state representative. He won his first legislative race in 2004.

Shapiro has cast his candidacy as a bulwark against potential Republican attempts to restrict abortion access and tighten voting laws. Republicans currently control both chambers of the legislature, and a Republican governor may well be able to pursue a conservative social agenda — policies that Wolf has vetoed during his eight-year tenure.

He says he would expand voting access by supporting same-day voter registration and automatic registration when people obtain driver’s licenses, and adopting in-person early voting. Shapiro would likely need a Democratic-led legislature to make significant headway on those issues.

Shapiro released his first tax policy proposal of the campaign in March: a plan he says would cut costs for consumers amid high inflation. Shapiro says he wants to give $250 checks to anyone with a registered vehicle, up to four per household; expand a property tax rebate program for seniors and the disabled; and eliminate a so-called cell phone tax. Shapiro has said the plan could cost up to $2.7 billion, and that he would pay for it by using unspent federal COVID-19 relief funds and tapping the state’s revenue surplus.

The Pennsylvania Democratic Party unanimously voted to endorse Shapiro earlier this year, and he ran for the primary unopposed.

He’s also been endorsed by a number of labor unions, Planned Parenthood, LGBTQ groups, and other organizations that comprise the Democratic coalition.

He got more votes than anyone else on the ballot in both 2016 and 2020 – including Trump and Joe Biden.