HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Democrat Josh Shapiro, who will become Pennsylvania’s 48th governor at the state Capitol on Tuesday, will serve as the A cold winter day swore in the fifth most populous state in the United States. A sweeping victory in November’s elections.
Shapiro, 49, will have more experience in state government than any of his recent predecessors, including eight years as a state legislator and six years as the state’s elected attorney general.
He will be sworn in on a stage erected behind the state’s ornate Capitol in Harrisburg, watched by lawmakers, members of Congress and others.
Aides will be on stage with a dozen people invited by Shapiro — including survivors of child sexual abuse, parents of children killed by gun violence and the widows of two state troopers killed in the line of duty. He said the men were emblematic of his role as attorney general and his bipartisan policies aimed at being governor.
Aides said Shapiro would not spell out specific policy goals, but he would emphasize themes he raised around the election: Voters are embracing democracy, rejecting extremism and seeking progress on important quality-of-life issues.
He would take over a sprawling state government — which employs about 80,000 people and handles more than $100 billion in state and federal funds a year — with billions in reserves and a slow-growing state economy Stronger than usual.
But he’s also moving across the street from the attorney general’s office to the Capitol’s executive suite at a time when the House is crippled by partisan scrambles for control and Republican lawmakers are looking to strip some of the executive branch’s leeway to craft rules.
Shapiro succeeds outgoing Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, who has a limited term, and will become the first Pennsylvania governor since 1966 to be elected to succeed a member of his own party.
Shapiro himself has touted bipartisanship, emphasizing his electoral support from independents and Republicans alike when he beat the far-right GOP candidate, State Senator Doug Master, by 15 points. riano.
Shapiro benefited from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol that angered Democratic voters, as well as the Supreme Court overturning the landmark abortion rights case Roe v. Wade.
In Shapiro, they see someone who will use his veto pen to protect abortion rights and ensure that the 2024 presidential election — when Pennsylvania is expected to be a major battleground again — will be free and fair if Republicans Even if you lose, you will not be overthrown.
Still, when Shapiro became governor, every new law had to be approved by Republicans, given their six-seat majority in the state Senate.
To that end, Shapiro has tried to avoid radioactive political issues, taking middle ground on various issues and hiring several Republicans for his cabinet.
Aides said Shapiro will sign an ethics order for his administration later this week and will deliver his first speech to the joint legislature when he presents his first budget plan on March 7.
When Shapiro is sworn in just after noon on Tuesday, he will resign as attorney general. In charge will be his top deputy for six years, Michelle Henry, a career prosecutor who Shapiro plans to nominate to fill the last two years of his term.
Chief Justice Debra Todd will take the oath while Shapiro, a devout Jew, will lay his hands on a stack of three Hebrew Bibles.
One is a family Bible; the second is from the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, where a gunman killed 11 worshipers in 2018 in the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history; the third is from 1944 D-Day Tome issued by the Army carried by Herman Hershman of Philadelphia.
Members of multiple faiths will pray at the event, which has a capacity of approximately 4,400 people.
Sworn alone in the Senate is former state congressman Austin Davis, who will become Pennsylvania’s first black lieutenant governor.
The inauguration will culminate in a sold-out, $50-per-ticket bash at Rock Lititz Studios in Lititz, featuring performances by rapper Wiz Khalifa, singer-songwriter Smokey Robinson and indie rock band Mt. Joy.
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