Gov. Josh Shapiro casts his mail ballot at a drop box in Abington, Montgomery County Oct. 26, 2024 (Capital-Star photo by John Cole)
ABINGTON TWP— With 10 days to go until the 2024 general election, Gov. Josh Shapiro cast his ballot at a Montgomery County satellite office on Saturday morning.
“It’s all on the line. Everything from the State General Assembly to your row offices to your member of Congress and, of course, to the President of the United States and the future of the United States Senate,” Shapiro told reporters after casting his ballot.
“There is so much power here in the hands of Pennsylvania voters really to likely decide who the next president of the United States is, to decide if we send Bob Casey back to the United States Senate, and have a real opportunity to continue to have a Democratic majority to advance positive causes in people’s lives.”
“Folks here in Pennsylvania have incredible power, and I hope that they get out and vote,” he added.
Shapiro did not say who he voted for in the row office elections when asked by the Capital-Star, but thanked Montgomery County Commissioner Jamila Winder, who joined him on Saturday, for making the process “seamless.”
“Listen, who you vote for is a private matter,” Shapiro said. “I’ve been really open about my preferences in this election, but I cast my ballot, and that’s something that people do in private here in this country.”
Over the past few months, Shapiro has hit the campaign trail for Democrats up and down the ballot in Pennsylvania and beyond. While he has publicly backed Democrats Eugene DePasquale for attorney general, an office he previously held, and Malcolm Kenyatta for auditor general, he did not endorse a candidate in the race for treasurer between incumbent Republican Stacy Garrity and Democrat Erin McClelland.
McClelland criticized Shapiro publicly when he was mentioned as a potential candidate for vice president, which resulted in pushback from Pennsylvania Democratic Party Chairman state Sen. Sharif Street, saying he was “offended” by McClelland’s comments.
Shapiro told reporters that he believes Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s candidate for president, would have a positive impact on the world order, while former President Donald Trump, the Republican Party’s nominee, would bring “an extraordinary amount of chaos.”
Other down ballot races of importance in Pennsylvania are the races for the General Assembly, where the Democrats hold a one seat majority in the state House and Republicans hold a multiple seat majority in the state Senate.
Shapiro told reporters he’s “investing heavily” in making sure Democrats maintain their majority in the House and working to elect more Democrats to the state Senate.
“Regardless of what the voters decide and it’s in their hands, I’ll be prepared to work with anyone to make sure that we advance the cause of freedom here in this commonwealth,” he said. “We continue to invest in education and safer communities and economic development. The kind of stuff I’m advocating for is really common sense, and what I’ve proven is we can bring Democrats and Republicans together to get stuff done here in Pennsylvania.”
Montgomery County is the third most populous county in the state. Winder said election officials are aiming to have high voter turnout in the upcoming election in the Philadelphia suburban county, as they have in past elections.
“We’re hoping to rival what we did in 2020 and so this year, we’ve been very proactive in terms of communicating the diversity of ways that voters can vote and vote early,” she said. “And so we’re hoping that everyone that is eligible to vote will turn out, but we’re hoping to beat what we did in 2020.”
Shapiro said at this point in 2020, there were about 2.9 million mail-in ballots requested, while as of Saturday, almost at 2.1 million. Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt told reporters on Friday that officials are expecting fewer mail-in ballots in the upcoming election than in 2020, when many voters decided to cast mail ballots amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The deadline to request a mail-in ballot application is Oct. 29 in Pennsylvania and election day is Nov. 5.
While Shapiro was walking to cast his ballot, he struck up a few conversations with people passing by. One woman told him that she “can’t wait” to see him run for president one day.
He responded by saying “I love being governor.”
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