Ryan Crosswell<\/a>, a former federal prosecutor running against Brooks, issued a campaign memo that \u2014 in a veiled reference to the governor \u2014 said Crosswell has \u201cno party machine behind him, no power broker network, no favors to call in.\u201d\n<\/p>\nFor his part, Shapiro said: \u201cI\u2019m just focused on trying to elevate good people. Hopefully they\u2019ll all win.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Republicans, meanwhile, have their own surrogates.\n <\/p>\n
Garrity said the White House asked her for a list of people she wants to visit in Pennsylvania.\n<\/p>\n
Trump, Vice President JD Vance and a number of Cabinet secretaries have already visited the state\u2019s contested congressional districts. Earlier this month, House Speaker Mike Johnson made a fundraising swing through Pennsylvania.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know the majority runs through Pennsylvania and the speaker is focused on doing everything he can to help those members defend their seats,\u201d said Greg Steele, a spokesperson for Johnson\u2019s political operation.\n<\/p>\n
It\u2019s quite likely Johnson will be back: Pennsylvania was his last campaign stop before the 2024 election.\n<\/p>\n
Trump and Vance could return, too, and in the meantime, the president is keeping an eye on Pennsylvania. On Tuesday night, he took to social media to take credit for a decision by owners of two coal-fired power plants not to close in what he called a \u201cBIG WIN for the Great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which I love.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Shapiro starts hitting the campaign trail<\/p>\n
As he begins to campaign, Shapiro is proving himself to be a draw even in Pennsylvania\u2019s out-of-the-way areas. Earlier this month, he helped pack a ballroom for Centre County Democrats and the coffee shop for Clinton County Democrats.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw brand-new people, I saw people who have not been engaged in the party in years,\u201d Bre Brannan, Clinton County\u2019s Democratic Party chair, said. The crowd included Republicans and independents, too, she said.\n<\/p>\n
With a Democratic \u201ctrifecta,\u201d Shapiro tells audiences he could get more done, citing legislation Republicans have stalled. That includes raising Pennsylvania\u2019s rock-bottom minimum wage and expanding legal protections for LGBT residents. He also has a housing affordability plan he\u2019s pushing this year.\n<\/p>\n
Consolidating control of the state Legislature would be no small feat. Democrats hold a one-seat majority in the state House and haven\u2019t held the state Senate majority in over three decades.\n<\/p>\n
Few Democrats in the party\u2019s 2028 presidential sights have an opportunity to demonstrate political strength and party-building aptitude in swing states.\n<\/p>\n
The opportunity could help Shapiro prove his mettle when the presidential campaign season cranks up and would-be candidates go in search of institutional support, endorsements and donor commitments.\n<\/p>\n
Pouring money into down-ballot races and flipping seats may not help Shapiro with the average voter. But activists, donors and other elected officials care a great deal about that, strategists say.\n<\/p>\n
Success would strengthen Shapiro\u2019s hand at a time when candidates are trying to win the \u201cperception campaign\u201d that they are the strongest candidate, Democratic campaign strategist Mike Mikus said.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t guarantee anything,\u201d Mikus said. \u201cBut it is definitely something to bring to the table when you\u2019re lining up donors, endorsements and finance chairs, things like that. It\u2019s compelling to them.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Contested primaries and GOP surrogates Shapiro\u2019s endorsements haven\u2019t scared off Democratic rivals. Ryan Crosswell, a former federal prosecutor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[25694,28,30,29],"class_list":{"0":"post-175065","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-elections-2026","9":"tag-pennsylvania","10":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","11":"tag-pennsylvania-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}