If Josh Shapiro has a political philosophy, it is to “get s— done”. The Pennsylvania governor constantly uses the phrase, whether he is repairing a collapsed highway in a matter of days, negotiating a budget through a divided legislature, or posting on TikTok.
He even keeps a mug stamped with the mantra on his desk.
While less inspiring than some political slogans, it has helped Mr Shapiro position himself as a down-to-earth dealmaker who cares more about results than politics.
Now Kamala Harris looks likely to ask the popular, plain-talking governor to get something else done: to win her the key battleground state of Pennsylvania in the forthcoming presidential election.
While she has yet to formally anoint a running mate, there are several clues that suggest Mr Shapiro, one of an ambitious new generation of Democrats, is in pole position to be the Democrat’s vice-presidential nominee.
Donors have reportedly been pressed to send in their cheques before the end of the week, with the Harris campaign citing a rule that limits donations to a sitting governor.
At the same time, Mr Shapiro abruptly cancelled a series of fundraisers scheduled for this weekend in New York.
Sources have told US media that the vice-president is emphasising the need for a personal rapport with her running mate. She has known Mr Shapiro for almost two decades.
And Ms Harris’s first campaign rally alongside the vice-presidential nominee is planned to take place in Philadelphia, in Mr Shapiro’s home state.
None of these factors is conclusive, and Ms Harris is reported to be meeting with a shortlist of candidates this weekend as the final step in a vetting process.
But taken together, they suggest that the Pennsylvania governor is favoured over his main rival, Mark Kelly, the Arizona senator.
As Mr Shapiro said last month, Ms Harris’s road to the White House runs through the Keystone State.
It has the largest haul of electoral college votes of any of the swing states, but recent polling has the vice-president lagging four points behind Donald Trump. Although she can win the presidency without Pennsylvania, losing it significantly narrows her path to victory.
Moreover, Mr Shapiro has a proven appeal to the blue collar workers who were once the bedrock of the Democratic party’s support but have since moved over to Trump.
Ms Harris, a California Democrat, lacks his common touch and is already under fire for the radical proposals she made during the 2020 primaries.
Four years ago, she praised moves to defund the police, mulled abolishing the immigration agency, and backed a ban on fracking – anathema to blue collar voters concerned about crime and border crossings, in a state where thousands of jobs depend on natural gas. Mr Shapiro can protect that vulnerable flank.
Jamie Sychak, a maintenance technician from Butler, Pennsylvania, credits the governor with saving the steel mill where he works from closure by opposing a damaging federal government regulation.
“Josh Shapiro was a significant player in thwarting that and keeping our plant open,” he said, emphasising that he did not speak for the factory’s management. “He was an advocate for us.”
Mr Sychak said he was on the fence about how to vote in November, and that fellow union members – he leads a local chapter of the United Auto Workers – were evenly split.
But Mr Shapiro’s inclusion on the ticket would be a “definite point” in Ms Harris’ favour, he said, adding that he was the only Pennsylvania governor to have visited the plant in his almost 30 years in the job.
While Ms Harris’s entry into the presidential race has seen a polling bounce and a flood of donations, there was little enthusiasm for her in Steelton, a classic rust belt community marred by industrial decline in southern Pennsylvania.
It was founded around a vast steel mill that churned out railway tracks and employed some 10,000 people at its peak. Its population has dwindled with the rise of automation and exodus of manufacturing overseas.
Barbara Barksdale, a former nurse, said she witnessed a collective identity crisis among workers in the 1960s and 1970s as their jobs disappeared. “Some of these men couldn’t handle it,” she said. “They literally couldn’t mentally handle it.”
Like many rust belt states, Steelton is still reeling. Front Street, which backs on to the still-functioning mill, is dominated by rows of vacant shops, some of which have “for sale” signs placed optimistically in dusty windows.
The main attitude to politics is disillusionment. One man seated at a bar contemplated his drink for a long time before answering: “I think they all suck.”
A young man who gave his name as Mike, speaking over the traffic that roars along Front Street and rarely slows down, said America needed a “George Washington or Abe Lincoln” figure to save it.
“Nobody is out there,” he added.
Trump’s appeal has not completely passed Steelton by, however. One house was decked out in Trump-Vance flags, while a passer-by called Dominic said he was leaning towards voting for the former president.
“He gave everybody money when Covid hit – everybody that was unemployed, couldn’t pay, he sent them $700 a week,” he said. He has seen little improvement under Joe Biden and believes Ms Harris – “Biden’s partner” – would be more of the same.
Some are sceptical that Mr Shapiro can keep his magic touch among Trump supporters if he teams up with Ms Harris, and that he will tarnish his own reputation instead of enhancing hers.
“Trump voters are Trump voters first, and everybody else second,” said David Urban, a former senior adviser to Trump who still advises his campaign in an ad-hoc capacity.
Mr Urban, who is credited with spearheading the Republican’s shock win in Pennsylvania in 2016, predicted: “The second Shapiro becomes a partisan candidate against Trump, these people are going to drop him like a hot potato.”
Charlie Gerow, a Pennsylvania-based Republican strategist, said a potential weakness for Mr Shapiro was that he could be cast as someone too busy climbing the political ladder to “get s— done”.
The 51-year-old ran to become Pennsylvania’s attorney general in his first term as a county commissioner, before leaving early in his second term when he was elected governor.
“He hasn’t even been in office two years and he’s looking to run for another office,” Mr Gerow said. “Kamala might want to take a look over her shoulder.”
At a Trump rally on Wednesday in Harrisburg, a few miles away from Steelton, the former president’s supporters were scornful about Mr Shapiro teaming up with Ms Harris.
A woman who gave her name as Peggy dismissed him as a career politician, saying: “He’s two years into the office and I’ve heard he has been vying for this vice-presidency job for years.
“I don’t know anything that he’s done, really. I don’t know what he stands for.”
Earline Klapka, a former Democrat voter who was waiting in line with her grandchildren, said she had no idea what Mr Shapiro had done for Pennsylvania.
She broke with the party when Barack Obama was elected president, claiming he had been weak on the economy and immigration. “We knew then – no more Democrats,” she said.
Even if Mr Shapiro can peel away some of the Trump base, then he could cause problems in other states. As a vocal supporter of Israel, he could isolate voters in Michigan, a swing state with a high concentration of Muslim and Arab Americans, and young voters.
Mr Urban believes it is futile for Ms Harris to chase blue collar voters and that her only shot in Pennsylvania is to run up her margins in urban areas like southern Philadelphia.
“Trump still is in the 60-40 camp of winning the state, as it stands today. You add Shapiro to that, it goes 55-45. It’s closer, maybe even closer than that – but Trump still wins,” he said.
“Mark Kelly – he’s a legit navy fighter pilot, combat-decorated, gun-owning, tough on the border. He scares me the most.”
The Arizona senator, a Gulf War veteran and former astronaut, has pushed the Biden administration to take a tougher stance on illegal migration. Many believe he could deflect attacks on Ms Harris as a failed “border tsar” who has overseen record crossings.
He is popular with voters – including the crucial Latino demographic – in Arizona, which Mr Biden narrowly won in 2020. Paul Wade, a teacher in the bellwether Maricopa County, praised Mr Kelly’s “integrity” and “obvious competence” and said he wanted him to join Ms Harris’s ticket.
“Kelly brings a message balance between a guy who shores up Kamala’s greatest weakness, which is the immigration issue, with a higher level of appeal to Latinos than Biden and Harris,” Mike Madrid, a political consultant who has previously campaigned against Trump in Arizona, said.
However, Mr Kelly is vulnerable in other ways, with his links to Chinese investors and lucrative corporate speaking jobs being scrutinised in recent days.
He has said he will be in Arizona next week, when the vice-presidential nominee is scheduled to campaign in Philadelphia.
