Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro sneakily undermined a member of his own party when he reportedly boosted a Republican candidate’s reelection bid as revenge for a political slight.
The Keystone State Democrat didn’t take kindly to remarks about his viability as a potential running mate for Kamala Harris in 2024 when state treasurer candidate Erin McClelland questioned whether the governor was “secure enough” to assume a subservient role to a female boss.
Shapiro retaliated by allegedly quietly boosting her opponent, Republican Stacy Garrity, who was the treasurer at the time and went on to win the election.
The shocking story was first reported by Axios, which obtained a recording of Shapiro-backed House hopeful Bob Brooks dishing the dirty details to Democrat students at Lehigh University last week.
Scoop w/ @hollyotterbein
Josh Shapiro secretly helped the Republican state treasurer’s 2024 bid after their Dem opponent criticized Shapiro as a potential VP pick, close Shapiro ally Bob Brooks said.
Brooks said he misspoke.
We have the audio:https://t.co/sylgRZD7Ol pic.twitter.com/F0AzC0wp6d— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) May 3, 2026
“Brooks, who’s also the president of Pennsylvania’s firefighters union, told students at Lehigh University last week that Shapiro had asked his union to back Republican Stacy Garrity over McClelland in the 2024 state treasurer’s race,” according to the outlet.
“That was a request, ironically, from Gov. Josh Shapiro because Erin McClelland was running against her,” Brooks confessed when asked about why his union backed the GOP candidate.
“Josh Shapiro had requested because Stacy, er, Erin McClelland came out hard about something on Josh Shapiro, and really, the Democratic Party as a whole turned on Erin McClelland. And he said, ‘I would like you guys to endorse Stacy Garrity,” he added in remarks that would soon come back to bite him.
“I want a VP pick that’s secure enough to be second under a woman, is content to be VP & won’t undermine the president to maneuver his own election & doesn’t sweep sexual harassment under the rug,” McClelland said in a social media post at the time.
“I misspoke and made an inaccurate comment,” Brooks said when asked to comment on the explosive remarks.
“Many people in our party — including organized labor across the commonwealth — were upset with McClelland’s bad-faith attacks against our governor. The governor did not ask my union to make any endorsements,” he added, according to Axios.
The governor’s spox Manuel Bonder, described Brooks’ remarks as “inaccurate,” stating that “The governor did not ask Bob Brooks to make any endorsements in that race — and the only races he is focused on are winning up and down the ballot this November.”
Shapiro was among those who drew the most buzz as Harris’ running mate after she was swapped out as the Democratic nominee in place of the obviously senile Joe Biden, an undemocratic process that circumvented a legitimate primary.
Instead of going with competence, Harris tapped Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who gladly played the role of her goofy sidekick, only to become an even bigger joke than she was.
The Harris-Walz ticket went on to lose in every single swing state, also resulting in President Donald J. Trump winning the popular vote.
Shapiro was savvy enough not to book passage on the doomed voyage, saving his political career from being sucked down with Harris’ doomed campaign. The governor said in his memoir that he took himself out of the running during the vetting process.
But it can’t be good for his future prospects if Shapiro were to be outed as engaging in petty revenge tactics over a perceived slight that could give him a reputation of not being a team player.
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