PHILADELPHIA — Attorney General Josh Shapiro — the first non-incumbent to run unopposed in a Democratic gubernatorial primary since 1930 — has secured the party’s nomination for the state’s highest office.
Shapiro, 48, who lives in Abington Township and is a former chair of the Montgomery County Commissioners, was able to win endorsements and raise money without ever even announcing his candidacy.
It helped that he had won statewide elections convincingly in 2016 and 2020.
Historically, Democratic gubernatorial primaries have been contentious, involving multiple candidates.
Not since 1930 had a Democrat won the nomination without opposition in the primary. That year the candidate was John H. Hemphill of West Chester, who was anti-Prohibition. He was defeated in the general election by Republican Gifford Pynchot, a staunch Prohibitionist and an architect of Pennsylvania’s liquor laws.
