Meet Austin Davis, who was prepared to become Pa.’s governor if Josh Shapiro became VP

Austin Davis knows Pennsylvanians aren’t thinking about their lieutenant governor. But that hasn’t stopped him from trying to make an unknown office more useful.

Davis, a Democrat, was elected in 2022 on a ticket with Gov. Josh Shapiro and serves as his No. 2. At 34, he’s the youngest lieutenant governor in the country, the first Black person elected to Pennsylvania’s executive branch, a new dad, and a Western Pennsylvania native who has spent much of his life advocating against gun violence. And he will make his national debut Monday on stage at the Democratic National Convention.

Davis is not well-known in Pennsylvania, but he attracted attention in the last month as Shapiro was in contention to be Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate. If Shapiro, who has well-known ambitions for higher office, were to resign, Davis would ascend to the position of governor.

But with Shapiro not running for vice president, Davis will remain in his current job. His duties include presiding over the state Senate, chairing the Board of Pardons, and taking a more active role than his predecessors, on issues such as gun violence prevention.

“He is my right-hand, trusted adviser,” Shapiro said in a June interview, well before he was a potential candidate for vice president. “I wanted to select a governing partner who the good people of Pennsylvania would know had my trust and confidence, who would be doing meaningful work every day.”

Davis, the son of a hairdresser and bus driver, grew up in McKeesport, a small city less than 15 miles from Pittsburgh that was hit hard by the collapse of the steel industry. As a teenager, he witnessed a shooting on his block. That moment spurred him into action, he said.

Davis began attending McKeesport City Council meetings after that shooting. He created a McKeepsort youth advisory council, then later got a job in Allegheny County and helped launch a violence prevention program in the county health department.

At age 28, he ran a successful campaign for state representative, replacing a longtime lawmaker for whom he’d interned who was charged for involvement in an illegal-gambling ring.

“I initially thought there would be somebody who was more experienced, and quite frankly, in a better position than me to do it,” Davis said. “And as I looked around at the field, there were a lot of candidates who wanted to run simply because they wanted the job, not necessarily because they had a vision for the community.”

Davis and his wife, Blayre, now live in Pittsburgh with their almost-1-year-old daughter, Harper.

He said he feels the same pressures of being a young parent: the cost of child care and how to balance a demanding career. (The lieutenant governor’s salary is just under $200,000, and his wife works for the Pittsburgh Steelers.)

“If you came to my house, it’s not like the state of the governor’s residence,” Davis said. “There’s playpens everywhere, there’s toys.

“We’re very much in the phase where, don’t come in and expect to be entertained,” he joked.

The state constitution specifies powers for the lieutenant governor, including presiding over the state Senate. Similar to a vice president, the lieutenant governor is responsible for breaking tied Senate votes on non-legislative matters — which hasn’t happened during Davis’ tenure, as Republicans hold a five-vote majority.

The lieutenant governor also chairs the Board of Pardons, a panel that recommends to the governor whether to release a person from prison.

Davis is using the office differently from his two most-recent predecessors, U.S. Sen. John Fetterman and Philly native Mike Stack, who both served under Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf. Fetterman gained attention for pushing for the legalization of recreational marijuana, hanging flags supporting social issues from the state Capitol building, and developing a robust social media following. Stack, meanwhile, made headlines for allegedly mistreating state employees and frivolously spending taxpayer money.

Davis wanted to do more, and asked Shapiro to appoint him to be the chair of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, which distributes hundreds of millions of dollars annually for gun violence prevention and school safety. He launched a “Safer Communities” tour to talk about the gun violence prevention efforts. He plays a significant role in helping Shapiro draft his annual budget, and has a policy director who sits in on governor’s office meetings.

And he runs the state’s efforts to diversify contracting, for which he touts a 30% increase in state spending with Black-owned and Latino-owned businesses over the last year.

“We’ve really transformed the role of the lieutenant governor’s office into an office that was kind of sleepy, more ceremonial to an office that really is focused on policy and getting things done for everyday Pennsylvanians,” Davis said.

Davis has also served as a bridge between the GOP-controlled Senate and Shapiro. Like Davis, GOP legislative leaders hail from Western Pennsylvania and he knows them from his time as a state representative, which he said has helped him assist with budget negotiations with the office of the governor, who is from the eastern part of the state.

State Sen. Devlin Robinson (R., Allegheny) has worked with Davis for more than a decade, beginning when Davis worked for then-Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald and Robinson worked for former U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy (R., Pa.). They both came to Harrisburg in the last few years, and share cigars on the lieutenant governor’s balcony — which has a great view of the Capitol building.

“He’s definitely a guy that it’s about business, it’s not really about politics,” Robinson said. “He’s a guy that’s about getting things done, and I know his heart is in the right place.”

At a panel in Lancaster last month as part of Davis’ gun violence prevention tour, local leaders came with specific requests: Police said they haven’t been able to get gun locks to distribute, while a county commissioner wanted to know best practices for crime data modernization. A spokesperson for Davis said his policy director takes notes and follows up on each request.

Ayanda McGill, the director of programs at the BenchMark, a violence intervention program, who was at that event, said she had never spoken with someone at Davis’ level before.

“It’s cool that you are willing to sit down with us, and try to figure out how you can help,” McGill added.

“You have my commitment,” Davis told the group. “We’re going to continue to work to be better to make our communities safer.”

Lieutenant governors typically run independently in primaries, and then join the ticket of their party’s gubernatorial candidate for the general election. Shapiro did things differently, and indicated that he wanted to handpick his running mate.

The two met for dinner in Pittsburgh in early 2021 and Shapiro, then the state’s attorney general, told him the meeting could go as long or as short as Davis wanted it to. They spoke for four hours about policy, their lives, and their aspirations.

By the end of 2021, Shapiro invited Davis to a Steelers game. Halfway through, Shapiro turned to Davis and asked him to join him as his running mate, Davis recalled. Shapiro endorsed him for lieutenant governor, and Davis won the three-way Democratic primary handily. The Shapiro-Davis ticket went on to win by 14 percentage points in November 2022.

“He said, ‘I think we both come from different backgrounds, we both come from different life experiences. And I think that will make our ticket better,’” Davis recalled Shapiro telling him in the raucous stadium on the North Shore of Pittsburgh.

Davis has also stepped into a leadership position as vice chair of the Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association.

“I say all the time: ‘Don’t sleep on LGs,’” said Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan. Flanagan could now become the nation’s first Native female governor if Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is elected vice president in November.

Several Democratic lieutenant governors cheered on one another in group texts in recent weeks as it became clear one of them could be stepping into the governor role soon, Flanagan said.

As speculation swirled around Shapiro, a front-runner to join Harris on the Democratic presidential ticket, Davis said he was prepared to step up.

“When you take this job, you recognize that one day you may be called upon to serve as governor,” Davis said. “And if that moment comes, we’re ready to serve and continue to lead Pennsylvania forward.”