(The Center Square) – Pennsylvania’s heard a message of civility from its governor in the hours after President-elect Donald Trump secured a White House victory.
Josh Shapiro, at one-time a contender for Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate, issued a statement congratulating winners of Tuesday’s elections and calling for unity across party lines as the dust begins to settle.
“Pennsylvania is the birthplace of American democracy, and our commonwealth once again held a free, fair, safe, and secure election,” he said.
In the weeks leading up to the election, the pivotal state saw nationwide concern about the potential for interference and even violence. Though a few unsubstantiated emailed bomb threats slowed things down in individual precincts, none of those broader concerns came to fruition.
Shapiro also echoed calls from Harris and other Democrats to allow for a peaceful transition of power.
“As I have always said, the will of the people must be respected – and the people of Pennsylvania have spoken, electing Donald Trump to be the next President of the United States along with other Republicans and Democrats for state and federal offices on the same ballot.”
Sharing a similar sentiment, President Joe Biden spoke from the Rose Garden Thursday saying, “I’ve said many times you can’t love your country only when you win. You can’t love your neighbor only when you agree. Something I hope we can do no matter who you voted for is see each other not as adversaries but as fellow Americans, bring down the temperature.”
The governor emphasized his own work across the aisle, adding “we must work together to get stuff done for Pennsylvania.”
As of Friday, the power dynamic in the General Assembly remains unchanged: Republicans still hold a comfortable majority in the Senate, and Democratics maintain their one-seat advantage in the House.
The governor gave a slight nod to the uphill battle many on the left see ahead of them as they again negotiate policies with Trump – someone the party has declared an “existential threat to democracy” for the better part of the last decade.
Many are also concerned about Trump’s connection to Project 2025, a plan developed by the conservative Heritage Foundation that advocates for far-right policies on abortion, birth control and IVF, to name a few.
Trump, on the campaign trail, maintained that he respected the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade that returned the right back to the states. Although he hasn’t said he’d veto a nationwide abortion ban, he’s not endorsed Project 2025 either.
Democrats, so far, aren’t convinced. Shapiro, however, struck the moderate tone that appealed to a wide swath of voters across the aisle during his 2022 campaign.
“Let me also make clear: I will never back down from standing up for the freedoms I was elected to protect,” he said. “I will continue to defend our democracy, defend our fundamental rights, and ensure we continue the legacy of William Penn by building a Commonwealth that is warm and welcoming for all – and where all Pennsylvanians have the freedom to chart their own course and the opportunity to succeed.”
