Lt. Gov. Austin Davis will now lead the Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association

Lt. Gov. Austin Davis, the nation’s youngest and Pennsylvania’s first Black lieutenant governor, has a new title: chair of the Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association.

Davis, 35, of Pittsburgh, will lead the group in fundraising and organizing for two gubernatorial elections next year, including in New Jersey, as Democrats at large grapple with major losses from Election Day last month. He will also help the group prepare for 31 gubernatorial elections in the 2026 midterms, including in Pennsylvania, where Davis and Gov. Josh Shapiro will stand for reelection, and in Arizona, where voters will elect their first-ever lieutenant governor.

He will continue to build his own national profile, as his boss, Shapiro, remains a potential candidate for the presidency in 2028.

“Democrats may have lost the election, but we haven’t lost our values,” Davis said in an interview. “We’re going to continue to fight for those things that are important to us and our constituents at large.”

Davis was elected by his peers to lead the Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association, an organization intended to build up the party’s bench and elect Democratic LGs, on Tuesday at the group’s winter meeting in Washington. The group advertises itself as the most diverse group of elected officials in the country, saying 80% of Democratic lieutenant governors are women or people of color.

He’ll now make the pitch to national Democrats to support the lesser-known Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association by talking about how the organization’s members are on the front lines of issues most important to working families, he said, noting Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton’s work on Black maternal health, his work on gun violence prevention, and Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez’s focus on health care.

Democrats need to do a better job at preparing their bench of future leaders, he added, citing recent Republican choices of former lieutenant governors as their nominees: North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who ran unsuccessfully for governor in last month’s election, and Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, who is currently running for governor in 2025.

“While the Democratic Party is at a crossroads, the DLGA has a tremendous opportunity to continue to invest and build up the next generations of leaders in our party,” Davis added.

Davis replaces the organization’s former chair, Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, who would have risen to the governorship had Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz won the presidential election last month. Flanagan would have been the nation’s first Native American woman to serve as governor. She will remain on the DLGA’s executive committee, and Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll will become vice chair of the group.

Davis, who served as a state representative before joining Shapiro on the gubernatorial ticket in 2022, was at one point prepared to step into the governorship if Harris chose Shapiro as her running mate.

All the while, Davis has been trying to make his mostly unknown office more impactful by being more active than his predecessors on issues he cares about, such as gun violence prevention.

He asked Shapiro to appoint him as chair of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency to further this work, in addition to his constitutionally required duties like presiding over the state Senate and leading the Board of Pardons. He also plays a significant role in helping Shapiro draft his annual budget and has a policy director who sits in on the governor’s office meetings.

He will be seen as a top gubernatorial contender for Democrats in future elections and would need to take office if Shapiro were to leave before the end of his term.