After Democrats lost up and down the ballot this month in Pennsylvania, Gov. Josh Shapiro strode onto a construction site outside Philadelphia with a pitch to help turn things around.
One of the party’s rising stars — with even more attention on him after Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss of the Keystone State — Shapiro faces his own limits after Democrats failed to retake the state legislature. But the moderate governor is making a bet on embracing at least one priority of Republicans: permitting reform.
“We need to move quickly to get big projects built and to get Pennsylvanians on the job faster,” Shapiro said last week.
Standing in front of excavators and earthmovers, the governor described permitting reform with some of his trademark phrases — it’s a way to “get stuff done” and “put points on the board” — before making an admission.
