Sen. J.D. Vance, the Republican nominee for vice president, said Tuesday that Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro wasn’t picked as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate because of antisemitism in the Democratic party.
Mr. Vance, who is running as vice president alongside former President Donald Trump, made the remarks on the Hugh Hewitt radio show shortly before Ms. Harris selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.
“I think they will not have picked Shapiro, frankly, out of antisemitism in their own caucus and in their own party. I think it’s disgraceful the Democrats have gotten to this point where it’s even an open conversation,” Mr. Vance said.
Mr. Vance isn’t the only politico who raised questions about whether antisemitism played a role in Ms. Harris passing over Mr. Shapiro, a Jewish Democrat.
Rod Blagojevich, the former Democratic governor of Illinois and a strong supporter of Mr. Trump, leveled a similar accusation.
“The dems can’t win without Pennsylvania & putting the Pa. Governor on the ticket would have helped. The only reason Shapiro wasn’t chosen is because a woman of color didn’t want to alienate the large number of anti Semite voices in today’s Dem Party,” he wrote on X.
Pennsylvania is a swing state with 19 electoral votes, the fourth most in the nation.
In a statement issued after Mr. Walz’s selection was announced, Mr. Shapiro praised the decision but didn’t address charges of antisemitism.
“As I’ve said repeatedly over the past several weeks, the running mate decision was a deeply personal decision for the vice president — and it was also a deeply personal decision for me. Pennsylvanians elected me to a four-year term as their governor, and my work here is far from finished — there is a lot more stuff I want to get done for the good people of this commonwealth,” he said.
Mr. Shapiro was among the three finalists on Ms. Harris’ short list, but had faced growing resistance from far-left activists angry over his support for Israel.
In recent weeks, a group operating as “No Genocide Josh” launched to thwart his chances of landing on the Democratic ticket.
The grassroots movement argued that Mr. Shapiro doesn’t align with many Democratic voters’ opinions on the war in Gaza. It argued that Mr. Shapiro would make it difficult to “win back the trust of disaffected voters” who feel betrayed by the Biden administration’s support for Israel.
Many young liberals have cast Israel as the villain in the war, citing the humanitarian crisis in the region.
Mr. Shapiro has been vocal about his support for Israel’s right to self-defense since the start of the war on Oct. 7. Some of his policies, such as deploying the National Guard to stop pro-Palestinian protests on Pennsylvania’s college campuses, have come under scrutiny by the party’s left wing.
Last week, Mr. Shapiro’s past remarks about Palestinians resurfaced in a report by The Philadelphia Inquirer, which quoted an opinion piece he wrote in 1993 as a student at the University of Rochester.
“Palestinians will not coexist peacefully. They do not have the capabilities to establish their own homeland and make it successful even with the aid of Israel and the United States. They are too battle-minded to be able to establish a peaceful homeland of their own,” he wrote.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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