(The Center Square) – Standing beside First Lady Lori, Gov. Josh Shapiro spoke with reporters after he cast his ballot in the 2026 midterm elections on Tuesday morning.
Seeking a second term, Shapiro said it was a special day for him, noting he was able to vote with family and encouraged Pennsylvanians to get to the polls, too.
“There is so much at stake,” he said at Rydal West Elementary School in Montgomery County. “I want to respectfully ask you for your vote for me for governor. And I want to respectfully ask you to exercise that power that you have to protect our democracy, protect our commonwealth, and our country, and use that power today for good and go vote.”
Shapiro, a Montgomery County Democrat, was first elected governor in 2022 after twice serving as the state’s Attorney General. He’s facing Republican State Treasurer Stacy Garrity in the governor’s race on Tuesday.
Throughout the campaign, polling has consistently shown Shapiro as the heavy favorite to win a second term, leading in almost all by double digits.
The Cook Political Report, Sabato’s Crystal Ball, and Inside Elections, a trio of national ratings outlets, describe the race as “Solid Democratic.”
As he campaigned across the state, Shapiro made winning a trifecta a key part of his bid for a second term, saying that if he succeeds and Democrats win a majority in the state House and Senate for the first time in nearly two decades, he would raise the state’s minimum wage to at least $15 an hour, sign bills to constitutionalize abortion rights, give victims of sexual abuse the opportunity to confront their abusers in court, invest in mass transit across the state, and build more housing.
Garrity said, if given a trifecta, she would lift a moratorium on drilling of public lands to create jobs and revenue to address the state’s structural deficit, tackle electric bills by getting rid of the gross receipts tax, ending “some of the mandates of green energy,” and revisiting property tax reform.
During the campaign, Shapiro also spent considerable time and resources boosting four Democrats running for Congress in Pennsylvania. If those candidates are successful, Democrats could win the majority in the U.S. House for the final two years of President Donald Trump’s term in office.
The Center Square asked Shapiro on Tuesday morning whether he felt a responsibility to win by a significant enough margin to carry and lift some of those Democrats across the finish line.
“I’ve put it all out there for me, and for others on the ballot, and now people have the power,” he responded. “They’re going to go vote, and I will respect whatever choice they make.”
“I worked incredibly hard in this election to make sure people understood what I would do in a second term, and to make sure they know the progress that we’ve made in Pennsylvania and how we want to keep Pennsylvania on the rise,” Shapiro continued. “I’ve made clear who the people are, I support in this election, and now I trust the judgment of the people of Pennsylvania to go forth and make their decisions.”
In response to a different question, Shapiro touted his administration’s record and said he hopes to have a legislature that “wants to work with me to cut costs” if elected to a second term.
A topic that emerged as an issue during the 2026 campaign for governor and beyond was data center regulations. If elected to a second term, Shapiro said he will continue to ask lawmakers to codify his executive order on data centers, which he described as “the strictest guardrails in the nation.”
“The House Democrats support it,” he said. “Unfortunately, frankly, inexplicably, Senate Republicans went home without ever taking it up.”
“This is something that is broadly wanted by the population here in Pennsylvania: Democrats, Republicans, Independents, rural voters, urban, suburban, and it represents literally the strictest guardrails in the nation,” he continued.
From his time as the state’s attorney general to serving in the governor’s mansion, Shapiro has been at odds with the Trump administration over various election matters.
On Tuesday morning, Shapiro offered his thanks to local election officials across the state and emphasized his confidence in a safe and secure election. He also noted his opposition and success in a lawsuit against an executive order issued by Trump targeting mail-in voting in the midterm election.
“I went to court to stop him and won, and that’s because I believe in the Constitution, which reserves the right to run our elections through officials here in the state and here in Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said. “We have proven time and time again, thanks to leadership of folks like Commissioner Makija, that we can have free and fair, safe and secure elections here in Pennsylvania and beyond.”
“And so, I really want to say a special thanks to these people who are working incredibly hard in there today and doing really really good work,” he continued.
The U.S. Department of Justice, Votebeat reports, plans to send around 1,000 election monitors to observe the midterm elections – the department’s largest election-monitoring effort ever.
According to the outlet, “the full list of counties that will receive monitors is unknown, but the department has started to notify them” and noted the list includes four counties in Pennsylvania: Philadelphia, Allegheny, Lehigh, and Luzerne.
Shapiro was asked on Tuesday morning if voters should be worried about those monitors being sent to those counties.
“They sent a few election monitors, and guess what,” Shapiro responded. “Those election monitors have the exact same rights as you do if you wanted to be an election monitor.”
“And we’ve made very clear that should those election monitors or anyone else try and interfere with any Pennsylvanians’ access to the ballot box, any Pennsylvanian who’s going to exercise the right to vote, they will be stopped immediately,” he continued.
Shapiro lauded the work of Pennsylvania Sec. of Commonwealth Al Schmidt, a Republican, for overseeing elections in the state.
“He does an extraordinary job,” Shapiro said of Schmidt. “I would point out Al is a Republican. I’m a Democrat because I believe that the administration of elections should be absolutely nonpartisan, should be open to anyone, regardless of who they choose to vote for.”
“These monitors will not interfere with our process today,” he continued.
