News & Brews October 26, 2026
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Shapiro’s glass jaw?
Axios reports that Gov. Shapiro is “widely seen as a likely contender for president in 2028. But strategists in both parties question how tested he really is.” The reason? “He hasn’t faced a well-financed opponent in recent contests, leading some political insiders to see him as more of a wildcard than his resume suggests.” And his “unfamiliarity with intense, bruising campaigns could become a liability in the 2028 Democratic primary, where if he [were] a top candidate, he’d be confronted with a barrage of attack ads, opposition research and rivals with deep pockets.” As one Democrat operative said of Shapiro, “It is totally possible that he has an incredible glass jaw.”
$66M to $7M: The race for governor
The latest campaign finance reports, due this past Friday, show Gov. Shapiro has spent north of $66 million this year on his re-election campaign, compared with just shy of $7 million for challenger Stacy Garrity. Shapiro has raised almost $42 million this year (he had $30M cash on hand at the end of 2025), while Garrity has raised about $9 million (she ended last year with $1M cash on hand). For comparison, Shapiro’s spending is more than double the $30 million former Gov. Wolf spent in 2018, the year he was re-elected.
GOP candidates lose AFP support over bad vote
Americans for Prosperity (AFP), the well-known libertarian advocacy organization that, among other things, mobilizes grassroots efforts to back fiscally conservative candidates, has yanked its support from multiple GOP state lawmakers running for re-election over their votes to expand Pennsylvania’s prevailing wage law. As the Commonwealth Foundation has explained, “Prevailing wage law dictates the minimum wage rates paid to workers on public construction projects if the project’s estimated costs exceed a certain threshold.”
In practice, “Prevailing wage requirements drive up costs on public construction projects, even far beyond the costs of equivalent private sector projects.” In other words, taxpayers bear the brunt of higher costs. As AFP explained, “We exist beyond Election Day. We are fighting back the threats from the progressive movement in Harrisburg, but at the end of the day we are also an accountability shop. We’ll hold members on both sides of the aisle accountable.”
4 Pa. congressional races in statistical dead heat
The New York Times reports that new polling in Pennsylvania’s four highly competitive congressional races shows “Democratic candidates are ahead in two, hold a narrow edge in a third and are tied in a fourth.” All four, however, are within the margin of error. The closest race is PA-10, where Rep. Scott Perry and challenger Janelle Stelson are tied 48-48. In PA-01, Democrat Bob Harvie narrowly leads Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick 48-46. In PA-07, Bob Brooks leads Rep. Ryan Mackenzie 49-44. And in PA-08, Paige Cognetti leads Rep. Rob Bresnahan 51-46. Of course, this is against the backdrop of just about everyone wondering what polls even mean these days.
Tracking Pa. data centers
Even as data centers have become a hot-button issue in the midterms, PennLive reports that “Hyperscale data center plans targeting more than a dozen Pennsylvania sites have advanced in the past two months despite intensifying public opposition in the communities where many of the sites are located.” Through an interactive map, the story tracks 85 data center plans in Pa., including 6 that have been withdrawn, 8 that are in the construction phase, 22 that are preliminary, 36 that are proposed, and 13 that have been rejected.
