News & Brews September 18, 2026
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Here’s what ad spending looks like in the Pa. gov’s race
Gov. Shapiro’s campaign war chest, fueled mostly by out-of-state donors (including the millionaires and billionaires the left pretends to hate), is no secret. Well, the Inquirer reports that Shapiro is deploying millions of that war chest on ads in the final weeks of the campaign, “spending more than $24 million with seven weeks left until the Nov. 3 election.” Since August 25, he’s spent more than $2.4 million per week.
On the other side the aisle, Republican challenger Stacy Garrity has spent $743,000 on ads so far. And “No top GOP groups, such as the Republican Governors Association … have purchased TV ads supporting Garrity.” With Shapiro continuing to lead strongly in the polls, why the big ad spend? Per Lehigh Valley political science professor Christopher Borick, Shapiro is “cautious. He wants to make sure nothing goes awry, and to do that, you buy insurance.”
Shapiro administration facing Medicaid lawsuit
Spotlight PA reports that a group of “four Pennsylvanians with intellectual and developmental disabilities filed a class action lawsuit” against the Shapiro administration, “challenging the new relative caregiver and travel rules, which their lawyers say ‘gravely impact’ them and their families.” The case stems from two rules that the Commonwealth Court previously struck down but that Shapiro’s administration effectively reimposed “through agreements and consent forms.”
As the story explains, “One rule limited how long the program would pay for support services when people traveled out of state, while the second limited how many hours per week relatives could work as paid caregivers. The decisions, one national advocate said, affected ‘whether people with disabilities have a real choice in where and how they live.’”
Shapiro takes aim at feds on AI
Gov. Shapiro, who bragged last year about making Pennsylvania a leader in AI and touted his ability to bring oodles of data centers to the state, yesterday took a different tone at the AI Horizons Summit in Pittsburgh, calling on the federal government to regulate AI development and (of course) blasting Trump—because that’s what potential 2028 presidential contenders are supposed to do. Meanwhile, WESA reports, “The political stakes for Shapiro’s handling of the matter were obvious at a panel discussion shortly before he spoke, as labor and industry leaders lamented public misgivings about the technology but urged Shapiro to move past them.”
90% of big tech donations fund Democrats
This is super interesting from the Committee to Unleash Prosperity: “Democrats have rallied behind policies – from antitrust lawsuits to regulations to new wealth taxes – aimed at slowing down and pillaging profits from … California-based tech companies. And yet Big Tech keeps masochistically pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the coffers of the Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warrens of the world as well as the DNC.” Indeed, “A recent study by The San Francisco Chronicle revealed … the employees of many of the state’s largest employers give overwhelmingly to Democrats in federal campaigns.”
Green Party candidate officially off the ballot
To borrow (as many others have done) from Kermit the Frog, “It’s not easy being green.” Yesterday, the state Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s ruling that Andrew Tupone cannot appear on the ballot as a Green Party candidate in the 7th congressional district in the Lehigh Valley. The Green Party itself said Tupone shouldn’t be on, claiming “he wasn’t endorsed by the party and improperly used its name to qualify for the race,” WFMZ reports. This race is one of four Pennsylvania congressional races that Democrats are targeting, hoping their candidate—Bob Brooks—can unseat incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie.
