Gov. Josh Shapiro rallies Democrats for PA-10, other races across state

As part of his statewide bus tour ahead of Election Day, Gov. Josh Shapiro stopped in Cumberland County Thursday night to rally for fellow Democrats up and down the ballot and encourage voters to help flip Republican-held seats in Harrisburg and Washington, D.C. 

Shapiro, who is facing Republican state Treasurer Stacy Garrity in this year’s gubernatorial race, was joined by Lt. Gov. Austin Davis and 10th Congressional District Democratic nominee Janelle Stelson outside the Teamsters & Chauffeurs Union building in Camp Hill. The governor encouraged supporters to knock on doors and get out the vote in the final five days of the election cycle, which he said could help Democrats win a long-sought trifecta in Harrisburg and deliver on their top priorities.

“I came here tonight because I want to look you in the eye and ask you for your vote,” Shapiro said. “I also came here tonight because I wanted to remind you of the power that you have in this conversation … This community has the ability to deliver something we have not seen in Harrisburg since 1992 – and that is a trifecta in the state legislature.” 

Shapiro and Davis highlighted their first-term accomplishments, including increased education funding, the creation of the Working Pennsylvanians Tax Credit, an expanded state property tax relief program, and ongoing efforts to combat crime and gun violence. “Pennsylvania is on the rise. We’re moving in the right direction, and that’s because we lead by bringing people together,” Shapiro said. “You know we don’t need in the governor’s office? Someone who doesn’t understand that. We don’t need a rubber stamp for Donald Trump.”

The governor said that if voters send him back to Harrisburg with Democrats in control of both chambers of the General Assembly, the state would raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour, invest in housing, pass statute of limitations reform to allow childhood sexual abuse survivors to sue their abusers, and codify abortion rights in the state constitution. 

Shapiro also underscored the importance of the 10th Congressional District race, urging voters to oust U.S. Rep. Scott Perry and elect Stelson, whom he said would serve as a critical check against President Donald Trump’s administration. He lambasted Perry for voting for Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which extended tax cuts from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and made extensive cuts to federal Medicaid spending. 

Shapiro ripped Perry for supporting Trump and his agenda, calling him “one of the most spineless, gutless followers that I’ve ever come to know.”

“He voted to give people at the very, very, very top a huge tax cut,” Shapiro said to a booing crowd. “And he paid for it on the backs of people’s healthcare here in Pennsylvania, paid for it on the backs of their food assistance.”

Stelson, in remarks to the crowd, said she would vote to end the war in Iran, fight to end tariffs imposed by the Trump administration, protect Medicaid, support policies that lower prescription drug costs, and drive federal dollars back to the 10th Congressional District. While her campaign has largely been focused on affordability and the cost of living, she also expressed support for a ban on congressional stock trading, as well as term limits and age limits for public officials.

“We all need help here at home, and we need somebody to deliver. And God, I hope I’m that person for you,” Stelson said. “Together, we can fight and send Perry packing.”

“I promise to keep listening and communicating with you and to you, and take your voices to the halls of Congress,” Stelson, a former broadcast journalist, added. “I promise I will fight every day for you.”

A recent poll from The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer and Siena University showed Stelson and Perry deadlocked at 48% heading into the home stretch of the midterm election cycle. Election prognosticators see the race tilting in Democrats’ favor, with both the Cook Political Report and Sabato’s Crystal Ball rating the race “Lean Democrat.”

One night earlier, Perry campaigned with U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, who said he expects Republicans to retain control of the U.S. House of Representatives and framed the midterms as “a contrast between commonsense and crazy.”

Shapiro took a shot at Johnson during the rally, saying the speaker is “maybe more weak-kneed than Scott Perry.” He added that the results of the 10th Congressional District race will reverberate not just throughout the commonwealth, but the entire country.

“If you spend the next five days organizing and mobilizing for Janelle Stelson, you will not only get an outstanding congresswoman who will deliver for this community, who will listen to the needs of this community, who will respect organized labor, who will value our freedoms, who won’t have her cell phone seized by the Justice Department,” he said. “What we will really get is a congresswoman who, quite literally, will tilt the balance of power in Washington and create a check on Donald Trump.”