PA Governor Shapiro Cannot Move Up … Because He is a Jew

In terms of the 2028 presidential election, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro should be a major contender – perhaps even a frontrunner. He is among the most appealing political figures in the Democratic Party. He is handsome, articulate, left of center without being on the fringe.

Shapiro will be flattered by Democrat leaders as a potential presidential contender. But do not be fooled. His chance of being the Democrat nominee in 2028 is extremely slim for one reason. He is a Jew – and the increasingly powerful antisemitic faction within the Democratic Party will not allow a Jew to be the standard-bearer. He will be opposed by such members of Congress as Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib – and other newly minted power players suchas New York Mayor Mamdani, and his three endorsed incoming members of Congress. And others.

When Vice President Kamala Harris took over the 2024 presidential campaign from the disabled President Biden, this writer wrote that Shapiro would be the strongest candidate for the second spot. Not only was he the best person, but he came from one of the most important battleground states, Pennsylvania – a state Harris had to win if she had any delusional hope of winning the election.

But this writer also predicted Shapiro would not be selected because he is Jewish. The influence of antisemitism within the Democratic Party trumped pragmatic politics. That was confirmed after Harris picked Minnesota Governor Tim Walz – and leaked reports indicated that Shapiro was not selected because he is a Jew. And that was when antisemitism in the upper ranks of the Democratic Party was not so obvious.

Today, the mask has slipped entirely. What began as fringe mutterings has metastasized into a dominant force that dictates party orthodoxy. Shapiro, for all his talents and moderation, finds himself in the crosshairs of a party that has traded electoral viability for ideological purity tests rooted in ancient hatreds dressed up as social justice.

Consider the Squad and their allies. Representative Ilhan Omar once infamously declared that support for Israel was “all about the Benjamins” – a sneering reference to Jewish money controlling American politics. This was not a slip of the tongue but a classic antisemitic trope once employed by Nazis — evoking images of greedy Jewish financiers pulling strings from the shadows. Far from facing rebuke, Omar received little more than a wrist slap from party leadership, which speaks volumes about the tolerance for such poison.

Her colleagues, Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have championed the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement against Israel. States and localities under strong Democratic influence have passed resolutions endorsing BDS, framing the world’s only Jewish state as a uniquely evil entity deserving economic strangulation. This is not policy debate. It is selective outrage that ignores genuine human rights abuses elsewhere while fixating on the Jewish homeland. It is antisemitism with an activist gloss.

Attacks on the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) have become ritualistic. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his endorsed candidates railed against AIPAC as a sinister force, laundering antisemitic conspiracy theories about Jewish lobbying power while conveniently ignoring the myriad other interest groups that influence Washington. Mamdani’s defenses ring hollow when his rhetoric emboldens harassment and worse.

The most visible manifestation appears on college campuses, once bastions of enlightenment. Following the October 7, 2023, Hamas atrocities, Jewish students faced harassment, intimidation, and outright violence. Left-wing protesters chanted slogans calling for the elimination of Israel, blocked Jewish students from classes, and turned encampments into zones of exclusion. University administrators, often beholden to progressive donor bases and faculty radicals, responded with equivocation or silence. Where were the fierce defenders of minority rights when Jewish students became the targets? They were busy issuing statements about “nuance” or condemning “Islamophobia” in the same breath.

This pattern reveals a profound hypocrisy. Democrats who lecture endlessly about systemic bigotry suddenly discover tolerance when the bigotry targets Jews. It echoes historical precedents where left-wing movements found convenient scapegoats in Jewish communities. Today’s version swaps brown shirts for keffiyehs and academic jargon, but the exclusionary impulse remains the same.

Shapiro’s predicament illustrates the broader rot. A capable governor from a pivotal state should be a natural fit. Instead, he must navigate a party where pro-Israel stances invite primary challenges and accusations of disloyalty – and just being a Jew is a detriment. Reports from his own statements and public record highlight the barriers he faced in 2024, barriers rooted not in competence but identity.

By contrast, most political leaders of both parties have long recognized the special bond between the United States and Israel as a shared commitment to democracy, innovation, and self-defense against radical Islamic terrorism. Support for Israel is not about “Benjamins” but about moral clarity and strategic alliance.

As 2028 approaches, Democrats will parade their diversity banners while quietly sidelining Shapiro and any other Jewish contender who fails the antisemitism litmus test. It is a party that claims to fight hate yet harbors it at its core. Shapiro may be handsome, articulate and competent, but in today’s Democratic Party that is not enough. He is a Jew – and that, sadly, remains an insurmountable disqualification for the highest office in the eyes of the radical left in the Democratic Party.

Until Democrats confront and purge this antisemitic cancer, figures like Josh Shapiro will remain tragic footnotes – capable governors denied national prominence not by voters, but by the bigoted gatekeepers within their own ranks.

So, there ‘tis.