The Democratic Party should be a big tent, welcoming to a diversity of voices, Gov. Josh Shapiro told MS NOW’s Jen Psaki in a live event Thursday.
Following Tuesday’s primary races in New York that saw the election of more progressive and socialist candidates, Shapiro said the results — and elections around the country — show voters are energized about wanting change.
“I appreciate the passion that we are seeing from voters all across this country,” said Shapiro, at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, as part of MS NOW’s celebration of America’s 250th birthday.
People have pain, Shapiro said, because of rising health insurance costs, struggles to purchase a house, and the feeling that rights are being stripped away.
“They are channeling that pain into purpose, they’re channeling that into showing up at the ballot box, they’re channeling that into showing enthusiasm,” he said. “That is a good thing.”
But he stopped short of explicitly endorsing their ideologies or viewpoints.
He also dodged direct criticism of fellow Sen. John Fetterman, a fellow Pennsylvania Democrat who has become increasingly unpopular among the party’s voters, after Psaki posed the senator’s recent comments to Shapiro.
Fetterman referred to the candidates, endorsed by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, as “the dirtbag left” and “outrageous” on Fox News. (The phrase “dirtbag left” comes from the podcast Chapo Trap House and refers to a strand of democratic socialism that counters the political right by mimicking its dark humor, among other tactics).
Shapiro said “John should answer for himself.”
To show voters that Democrats hear that pain, the party needs to get “real stuff done to make people’s lives better,” he said.
Sandra Dungee Glenn, who attended the event Thursday, said Shapiro could have been even more forceful against Fetterman, who is viewed unfavorably by 43% of Philadelphia residents, according to a recent poll.
“Don’t even mention that name,” said Glenn, who lives in West Philadelphia, referring to Fetterman. “He’s a big disappointment.”
In addition to his own reelection campaign in November, Shapiro is focused on getting Democrats elected in four competitive Congressional seats and flipping the Pennsylvania state Senate, which what been under Republican control for three decades.
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Should the chamber flip, Shapiro said his immediate priority would be raising the state’s minimum wage and codifying the right to access abortion — blaming Republicans for standing in his way.
But Shapiro, a one-term Democrat, is also looking ahead, past 2026 and past Donald Trump’s presidency, as he builds a national profile and becomes a likely contender for the presidency in 2028.
He said Congress should pass a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that guards against corruption and gerrymandering, and railed against the 2024 U.S. Supreme Court decision that gave presidents absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions taken within their constitutional authority, following Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Shapiro said he is also open to adding more justices to the Supreme Court, which has been set at nine justices since 1869.
“I think we’ve got to have everything on the table. We’ve got to be bold,” he said.
Expansion has been pushed by progressives as a way to reform the court and end its conservative majority.
Leslie Berger, 69, who attended MS NOW’s event Thursday said she supports adding more justices to the court.
“These norms we have aren’t etched in stone,” she said. “We need to change this justice system and more justices would be a great start.”
Democrats, Shapiro said, need to be aggressive and elevate candidates who will drive down costs, increase access to health care, repair the country’s standing in the world and rein in artificial intelligence.
“We’ve got to understand that our sole mission right now is winning in these midterms and providing a check against Donald Trump at the state and the federal level,” he said. “Then as we go forward, I think we have to understand that rebuilding a federal government like it was before Donald Trump showed up cannot be the answer to the Democratic Party.”