Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro visited Penn\u2019s campus on Sunday for a meet-and-greet ahead of the November midterm elections.<\/p>\n
Hosted by the Penn Democrats, the Oct. 11 event drew roughly 100 attendees and featured a discussion from Shapiro about Pennsylvania\u2019s role in the midterms, along with his policy priorities. Shapiro is running for reelection against Republican nominee and Pennsylvania State Treasurer Stacy Garrity.<\/p>\n
In his remarks, Shapiro spoke about the importance of achieving a Democratic trifecta \u2014 a Democratic governor, as well as majorities in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and State Senate \u2014 in the upcoming elections. That combination has not occurred in the state since 1992, he said.<\/p>\n
Shapiro also spoke about the responsibility party leaders have to \u201cshow up\u201d and mobilize young voters before Election Day on Nov. 3.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got an ability to change the makeup of the Congress of the United States right here in Pennsylvania, but we can\u2019t take young people\u2019s votes for granted,\u201d Shapiro said in a post-event interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian. \u201cWe\u2019ve gotta show up, look you in the eye, ask you for it, and help you realize your power, and that\u2019s what I hope people took away from the conversation today.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Sign Up<\/a><\/p>\n Shapiro said that during recent visits to college campuses, he has noticed an \u201cinfectious\u201d sense of optimism among young voters.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a belief in your skillset, a belief in your big brains and what you\u2019re learning, that you\u2019re going to be able to go out and use that for good in the world,\u201d he told the DP.<\/p>\n If reelected, Shapiro said he would begin the next legislative session by signing a bill to raise the Commonwealth\u2019s minimum wage to $15 per hour and fully fund SEPTA and mass transit entities across the state.<\/p>\n He also highlighted the need to increase affordable housing and codify rights for women to receive safe and legal abortions in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the kind of stuff we can do if we work together,\u201d Shapiro said.<\/p>\n During the event, Shapiro emphasized how Penn students can encourage civic engagement among other young people in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n \u201cThere will be a time in your life when someone asks you, \u2018When you were at the University of Pennsylvania, in the swingiest state in the entire country, what did you do?\u2019\u201d Shapiro asked the audience. \u201cDid you get involved?\u201d<\/p>\n Shapiro announced his bid<\/a> for reelection in January, during a Philadelphia rally.<\/p>\n During his first term, Shapiro criticized Penn\u2019s response to allegations of campus antisemitism on multiple occasions. In December 2023, the governor expressed concerns<\/a> over then-Penn President Liz Magill\u2019s congressional testimony<\/a> about the University\u2019s governance at the time.<\/p>\n Shapiro helped shape<\/a> Penn\u2019s response to the controversy, including invoking a long-dormant state statute to appoint an observer to the University Board of Trustees. This January, he released <\/a>a book in which he wrote that he \u201cflatly\u201d would not apologize for statements he made about pro-Palestinian protesters at Penn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro visited Penn\u2019s campus on Sunday for a meet-and-greet ahead of the November midterm elections.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304851,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":["post-304850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304850","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=304850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}