Lagging Biden leans on popular Gov. Josh Shapiro for boost in critical Pennsylvania

Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) voiced his strong support and admiration for President Joe Biden multiple times on Monday, but when it comes to approval ratings, the praise could go in the other direction.

Shapiro is one of many young Democratic governors who hope to boost Biden in 2024, singing the virtues of the president’s leadership and contrasting them with the antics of former President Donald Trump.

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“This president gives a damn,” Shapiro said while introducing Biden at a Philadelphia fire station. “Not just about the city of Philadelphia, not just about those who run toward danger, our firefighters and those here at Ladder One, the great women and men of the Philadelphia Fire Department, but he gives a damn about this community.”

The introduction came before Biden spoke about federal grants to hire more firefighters in the city. But Shapiro appeared again with Biden later in the day, this time at a campaign reception.

At the second event, Shapiro drew a sharp comparison between Biden and Trump.

“We have a choice between that goodness [of Biden], that moral clarity, and someone who will bring chaos back to this nation,” Shapiro said.

The president will hope that “we” includes Shapiro’s supporters in Pennsylvania. The governor’s approval rating hovers around 60%, nearly 20 points higher than Biden’s in the Keystone State.

And that’s despite Biden’s close ties to Pennsylvania. Biden spent some of his early years in Scranton and represented nearby Delaware for more than three decades in the Senate. He spends most weekends in Wilmington, which is just 30 miles from the City of Brotherly Love.

“He was our third senator in the state,” Pennsylvania-based Democratic strategist T.J. Rooney said. “A lot of times he’s around or in the suburbs [of Philadelphia], he’s in the media market. It’s a huge media market in a swing state and a place he’s familiar with and very welcome.”

But if that history and familiarity aren’t enough to give Biden higher approval ratings in Pennsylvania than he’s seeing in other swing states, it may be doubtful that Shapiro’s popularity will either.

“Everybody is judged on their merits today,” Rooney said. “There’s a price to pay for the decline of political parties. There are no strong alliances. Nobody’s popularity will be transferable.”

That won’t stop the Democratic Party from trying. Shapiro, 50, is one of a host of popular, relatively young Democratic governors hoping to help push Biden over the finish line to win a second term next year.

On that score, he’s joined by figures including Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), 59; Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI), 52; and Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY), 46.

Those governors will hope to step in because several recent polls have Biden losing to Trump, a prospect that has Democrats looking to switch up their campaign tactics.

The White House and congressional Democrats have backed away from the “Bidenomics” tag line, with the president’s economic approval rating at just 37%.

In place of that messaging, Biden appears to be fixating more on the danger of a second Trump term. White House deputy spokesman Andrew Bates pointed to warnings from various political leaders when asked about Trump’s recent comments that he would only be a dictator on “Day One” should he win in 2024.

Biden channeled those warnings during his second appearance with Shapiro, which came at a campaign reception.

“Let me be clear, Donald Trump poses many threats in this country, from the right to choose to civil rights to voting rights, America’s standing in the world. … The greatest threat he poses is for our democracy because if we lose that, we lose everything,” Biden said.

He added later, “If we do our job in 2024, we will have done something few generations have been able to say they’ve done. We will able to say, literally, we saved democracy.”

Pennsylvania will be a key if Biden is to win a second term. It’s one of the “blue wall” states Trump flipped en route to his 2016 upset win over Hillary Clinton, only to see Biden win it back four years later. It’s also a place Biden visits frequently, both because of its proximity and its electoral importance. He has visited the Keystone State 10 times in 2023, more times than anywhere save for his home state of Delaware.

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Because of his close ties, his outreach to Pennsylvania voters, and his promise of stable leadership, Rooney said Biden is in good shape to win the Keystone State again next year in spite of recent polls.

“He’s going to do well in Pennsylvania,” Rooney said. “Right now, it’s Joe Biden vs. Joe Biden, and nobody wins that election. When it’s Donald Trump, by that time maybe thrice convicted, it’ll be different.”