Josh Shapiro

Shapiro was born on June 20, 1973, in Kansas City, Missouri,[2] and was raised in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. He attended high school at Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.[3] He attended the University of Rochester where he majored in political science, and in 1992 he became the first freshman to win election as the student body president of the University of Rochester.[4] He graduated magna cum laude in 1995.[5] While working on Capitol Hill during the day, he also enrolled at the Georgetown University Law Center as an evening student and earned a J.D. degree in 2002.[6]

Shapiro lives with his wife Lori and their four children in Abington, Pennsylvania.[5] Shapiro is an observant Conservative Jew who keeps kosher.[7]

Shapiro announced his intention to run for Pennsylvania Attorney General in January 2016.[14] He had never previously served as a prosecutor, but he was a member of the state bar and worked with the law firm Stradley Ronon.[15] Shapiro campaigned on his promise to restore the office's integrity following the resignation of Kathleen Kane, and he also promised to work to combat the opioid epidemic[10] and gun violence. His campaign was supported by President Barack Obama and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg was among the largest donors to Shapiro's campaign.[16] He won the Democratic primary for attorney general in April 2016, defeating Stephen Zappala and John Morganelli with 47% of the vote.[17] In November 2016, Shapiro won election as attorney general, defeating Republican nominee John Rafferty Jr. with 51.3% of the vote.[18]

Upon taking office, Shapiro joined with several other state attorneys general in opposing President Donald Trump's travel ban,[19] and he also filed a lawsuit to block the implementation of a rule that would have made it easier for employers to deny health insurance coverage of contraceptives.[20] He also joined a lawsuit against ITT Technical Institute, a for-profit educational institute, that resulted in a $168 million settlement (with about $5 million of that settlement going to Pennsylvania students).[21] In 2018, he reached an agreement with federal officials to prevent the distribution of blueprints for 3D printed firearms.[22] In 2019, he came out in support of the legalization of marijuana for recreational use by adults, joining Governor Wolf and other leading Pennsylvania Democrats.[23]

In 2016, shortly before Shapiro took office, the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office began an investigation of allegations of sexual abuse by the Catholic Church. Shapiro chose to move forward with the investigation, and, in August 2018, he released the results of an extensive grand jury report. The report alleged the sexual abuse of more than 1,000 children at the hands of over 300 priests.[6] His report prompted similar investigations in other states, an inquiry by the federal government, and proposed legislation to change the statute of limitations in Pennsylvania.

In May 2019, it was reported that Shapiro and State Senator Jay Costa had directed paid communications staffers to edit their Wikipedia pages with positive material.[24][25]

He was reelected in 2020.[26]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Josh Shapiro.

• Attorney General Josh Shapiro official website
• Campaign website
• Appearances on C-SPAN

• Profile at Vote Smart
• Follow the Money - Josh Shapiro
  • 2006 2004 campaign contributions