By Marc Levy
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — In 2024, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro could face a more complicated sophomore year in charge of Pennsylvania after his first year brought a highway collapse, a budget stalemate and friction with allies and adversaries as he navigated the battleground state’s political divides.
He is under pressure to respond to a court ruling that Pennsylvania’s system of public school funding unconstitutionally discriminates against poorer districts.
His administration must also oversee a presidential election that, four years ago, was marred by a barrage of right-wing conspiracy theories, Donald Trump-allied efforts in court to overturn it and threats against election administrators.
And Shapiro, viewed nationally as a rising political star, must navigate the nation’s only politically divided legislature in which allies and adversaries alike are wary of him.
In 2024, Shapiro will have little runway to show how he’ll handle calls from public school advocates to propose billions of new dollars for the poorest public schools.
“I’m very mindful of the Commonwealth Court decision and that we need to have more equity in our system. I’m also very mindful that someone has to pay for that,” Shapiro told The Associated Press in a recent interview in his office.
A compromise deal may require Democrats to accept something they just defeated: a new $100 million taxpayer-paid voucher program to subsidize tuition at private and religious schools.
Republican lawmakers are wary of ramping up public-school spending by billions of dollars. But they are in step with Shapiro in pushing for a voucher program — a position that made Shapiro unique among Democratic governors in the U.S.
In the fall, Shapiro’s administration will be nationally watched for how it runs the presidential election, when Pennsylvania is yet again expected to be pivotal to the White House stakes.
The state remains in Trump’s crosshairs after he and Republican allies tried to overturn Biden’s 2020 victory there and Trump declared that “ bad things ” happen in Philadelphia.
Last month in Iowa, Trump told supporters to “guard the vote” and to “go into” Detroit, Philadelphia and Atlanta to “watch those votes when they come in.”
Shapiro — who as attorney general played a central role in defending Pennsylvania’s 2020 election against Republican efforts in court to overturn it — said administration officials have been meeting for months.
They are preparing on legal, law enforcement and election administration fronts “to administer an election that everyone, regardless of your choice of candidate, can have faith in,” Shapiro told AP. “That is one of our most serious responsibilities.”
The election is likely to be close.
Complicating it is a state law that prohibits counties from processing mail-in ballots before Election Day — raising the specter of another drawn-out count in Pennsylvania like the one in 2020 that gave a window to Trump-inspired conspiracy theories and false claims.
Nearly every other state allows mail-in ballots to be processed before Election Day. In Pennsylvania, Republican lawmakers have refused to allow it without attaching other election-related changes that Democrats oppose.
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