Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) on Sunday said supporters of President Joe Biden who are troubled by his low poll numbers should “stop worrying and start working.”
In an interview with ABC’s “This Week,” Shapiro was asked to weigh in on the fact that polls in Pennsylvania, a swing state that could determine the outcome of the 2024 presidential election, show Biden and former President Donald Trump essentially tied in a potential rematch with each other.
“Well, the race is close, but understand, the campaign hasn’t really even joined yet,” Shapiro said. “And this is the reason why we run races. And I would say to folks who are worried about the numbers, stop worrying and start working.”
Shapiro added that every time Pennsylvanians have gone to the polls after 2016, when they voted for Trump over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, they have opposed extremists.
“What we have seen really since Donald Trump’s election here in 2016 is every other time Pennsylvanians have had the opportunity to go to the ballot, they have voted for freedom and against extremism,” Shapiro said. “They rejected Donald Trump in 2020. They voted for me by a historic margin in 2022.”
Shapiro defeated far-right, election-denying Republican Doug Mastriano by nearly 15 percentage points in November 2022.
Shapiro also brushed aside calls for Biden to exit the 2024 race, including by New York Times opinion columnist Ezra Klein.
“I think Biden, as painful as this is, should find his way to stepping down as a hero,” Klein said Friday in an episode of his podcast, “The Ezra Klein Show.” “That the party should help him find his way to that, to being the thing he said he would be in 2020, the bridge to the next generation of Democrats. And then I think Democrats should meet in August at the convention to do what political parties have done there before: organize victory.”
Shapiro argued that the race is ultimately less about the two likely candidates, and more about the future of the country that voters are rooting for.
“In many ways, this election is less about Joe Biden and Donald Trump, and more about us and the kind of country that we want to build,” he said. “And I’ve got confidence in the American people that, just as they did in 2020, they will rise up, they will demand more, they will seek justice, and they will look to defend freedom in this nation and they will reject Donald Trump.”