MERION STATION, Pa. — Donald Trump and JD Vance have suggested that Vice President Kamala Harris’s decision to pick a running mate other than Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, an observant Jew, is evidence of antisemitism in the Democratic Party.
Harris, who is married to a Jewish man, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, gave the VP nod to Tim Walz, the non-Jewish governor of Minnesota.
But here in the Philadelphia suburbs where Shapiro (D) grew up and attended synagogue, many Jewish voters said they were delighted that they’ll get to have him as their governor a little longer — and that they expect him to run for president himself down the road.
Harris picked Walz because he is from the Midwest and “will appeal to the whole country,” Susan Neuman, 74, said over breakfast at the packed Jewish deli Hymie’s in Merion Station on a recent Wednesday.
Neuman and her friend Ann Zenstein said they are happy Shapiro did not get the nod. Zenstein said she was impressed with Shapiro’s handling of the repair of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia, which was reopened last year less than two weeks after a gasoline tanker crash caused a highway bridge to collapse.
Nearly 300,000 Jewish people of voting age live in Pennsylvania, according to research by the American Jewish Population Project. Many of them vote for Democrats: Despite years of Republican attempts to attract more Jewish support, Jewish Americans have voted for Democrats by wide margins for decades. President Joe Biden won the state by slightly more than 80,000 votes.
Now Shapiro, whom Zenstein says she sees as “presidential material,” will get a few more years to serve as governor and get experience under his belt before considering a run for the highest office in the country.
“It was not his time yet,” said Alyne Freed, 90, from the neighboring community of Gladwyne.
Given how beloved Shapiro is in Philadelphia and its surrounding suburbs, some voters felt this too-close-to-call election was not worth the risk.
“Losing vice-presidential candidates typically don’t go on to have careers as presidents,” said Jeff Stein, 56, who is not a registered Democrat but said he has been voting that way for a while. “He looks like a really strong presidential candidate for the future.”
Even without Shapiro on the ticket, Judy Erlichman, who lives in Center City and loves the governor — “hard stop” — says she thinks both Harris and Walz are “great.”
“I’m excited for the first time in a long time,” she said. “Instead of dreading the next 80, 90 days, I am wanting to put on the news and see Kamala and Tim. I am wanting to feel their energy and positivity.”
The Democratic Party has been riven in recent months by tensions over Biden’s support for Israel in its war in Gaza. Israel invaded the enclave after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack in Israel killed about 1,200 people. More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict.
But Jewish voters’ opinions about the war — and Israel — vary widely, according to the Pew Research Center. Jen Stein, 45, Jeff’s wife, said that although she loves Israel, it is not the issue she is focusing on “at the moment,” echoing the sentiments of some other voters in the area.
“I have to preserve this country first,” she said. “As much as I want [Harris] to be a supporter of Israel, even if she’s not, I have to take that chance.”
Shapiro has faced criticism from some progressives who have called him “Genocide Josh” for likening some pro-Palestinian college protesters to the Ku Klux Klan and writing in his college newspaper that peace “will never come” to the Middle East.
“They are too battle-minded to be able to establish a peaceful homeland of their own,” Shapiro wrote of Palestinians in the college opinion piece. In a news conference in early August, Shapiro said his views have changed in the decades since he wrote that piece.
Shapiro’s pro-Israel positions are not drastically different from those of several other running mate contenders, including Walz, who ultimately got the nod. But that fact hasn’t stopped Trump from criticizing the decision, saying he finds it “insulting to Jewish people.”
And Trump — who is not Jewish, although his daughter Ivanka and his son-in-law Jared Kushner are — has a history of making comments that play off antisemitic tropes. He has said that he thinks any Jewish person who votes for a Democrat “hates their religion,” is “an absolute fool” and “should be ashamed of themselves.” He faced criticism in 2017 after commenting that there were “very fine people on both sides” of a white-supremacist in Charlottesville rally that included neo-Nazis.
In the Philadelphia Jewish community in particular, “everyone” has a connection to Shapiro in some way, said Ross M. Levy, director of youth engagement at Main Line Reform Temple in Wynnewood. “Josh is a staple of the community.”
Shapiro himself has not expressed disappointment about being passed over for the VP nod. When Harris and Walz debuted as running mates at a rally in Philadelphia, he delivered a rousing speech in support of their ticket.
“I want you to know I am going to continue to pour my heart and soul into serving you every single day as your governor,” Shapiro said at the rally. “And I’m going to be working my tail off to make sure we make Kamala Harris and Tim Walz the next leaders of the United States of America.”
Levy, who said his kids played soccer with Shapiro’s kids, said he thinks Shapiro will continue to have an important role in ensuring voters in the state vote for Harris and Walz.
“I think Josh should keep doing what he’s been doing. He’s strong and exciting to both sides of the aisle in Pennsylvania, and we love that,” Levy said. “As governor and surrogate to the Harris-Walz ticket, he will continue to do amazing things for Pennsylvania and continue to expand that out into the rest of the country. I really love that his career is blossoming, and that speaks to our Jewish community in Pennsylvania.”
Jeff Stein said he believes Republicans who attack Harris for picking Walz over Shapiro are “projecting their own antisemitism” onto Democrats.
“Her husband is Jewish, for God’s sake,” Jen Stein said.
