{"id":229310,"date":"2026-06-27T01:44:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T01:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/229310\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T01:44:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T01:44:18","slug":"gov-shapiro-says-pa-declined-to-participate-in-d-c-state-fair-fest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/229310\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov. Shapiro says Pa. declined to participate in D.C. state fair fest"},"content":{"rendered":"

West Virginia lets visitors hop behind a video game steering wheel<\/a> to simulate a drive along its country roads. Ohio highlights<\/a> its state parks. Montana\u2019s display showcases a mock dinosaur skeleton<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But as the nation celebrates its 250th anniversary, the Keystone State \u2014 where the Declaration of Independence itself was signed \u2014 has opted out of a Washington, D.C. event tied to the festivities.<\/p>\n

Gov. Josh Shapiro\u2019s administration confirmed this week that Pennsylvania did not send a representative to the Great American State Fair, which kicked off Thursday on the National Mall.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, due to the high cost to taxpayers and not being able to secure PA businesses to sponsor the booth, Pennsylvania will not be a participant,\u201d said the state Department of Community and Economic Development in a statement.<\/p>\n

A Shapiro spokesperson said Freedom 250, the nonprofit aligned with President Donald Trump, requested $700,000 from states to participate. Instead, DCED said the state tourism bureau has used millions of dollars to support its own events and those of America 250, a separate group created by Congress.<\/p>\n

Shapiro himself told a progressive outlet this week<\/a> that state officials couldn\u2019t find a participant due to \u201clack of interest.\u201d And the governor also said the celebrations were too politicized, causing several musical artists to drop out<\/a> of a concert during the 16-day event. (Trump has reportedly retooled the concert as a political rally<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t celebrate one individual, We celebrate \u2018we, the people.\u2019 Unfortunately, the president doesn\u2019t seem to get that,\u201d Shapiro told the New Republic.<\/p>\n

Democratic governors from other states such as Illinois, Oregon and Washington also declined to officially participate. A photo Thursday from Maine\u2019s booth<\/a> showed a nearly-empty room with decorated wall wrap and two wicker chairs. Later in the day, some visitors reported power outages<\/a> when visiting the tented food hall.<\/p>\n

But Pennsylvania\u2019s Republican Party said Shapiro was being \u201can embarrassment for Pennsylvania.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPennsylvania is one of only eight states with Democratic governors who decided not to participate,\u201d the state GOP said in a social-media statement<\/a>. \u201cPennsylvania is where America was born, where we became a free nation, and where our founding documents were signed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Shapiro administration said it reached out to the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, a private trade group, to help find a participant. But there were no takers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Governor\u2019s team asked us for assistance with business outreach for the Great American State Fair a couple weeks ago,\u201d said PA Chamber\u2019s Jon Anzur in a statement to WESA.<\/p>\n

That appears to have been a smaller window than in, say, Ohio, which began planning as early as February<\/a> for its event. And \u201cwhile there was some initial interest,\u201d Anzur said, \u201cthe businesses couldn\u2019t make a commitment given the short timeframe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Event organizers appear to be playing down the dispute. Pennsylvania is listed on the Freedom 250 exhibit list<\/a>, and in a statement the organization said all 50 states and territories will have booths.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether represented by a governor’s office, a tourism board, or a beloved state company or organization, every community will be celebrated, and every American will see themselves in this once-in-a-generation event,\u201d said spokesperson Rachel Reisner in an email.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a few states, cost was a concern, and it’s why many partnered with a number of organizations with deep roots to their state, ranging from tourism bureaus to companies large and small,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But reports from D.C. showed the Pennsylvania booth was empty<\/a> as of Thursday. And Reisner did not respond when WESA asked who may eventually represent the state at the event, which runs until July 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"West Virginia lets visitors hop behind a video game steering wheel to simulate a drive along its country…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-229310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229310","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=229310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}