Attorney General Josh Shapiro takes to the stage at IBEW 1319 in Kingston to offer remarks prior to Tuesday’s election, in which the Democrat is running against state Sen. Doug Mastriano to be the next Governor of Pennsylvania.
Gubernatorial candidate headlines Democratic Party rally in Kingston
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Rainbow Shapiro signs show the the support he has from the LGBTQIA+ community, next to labor union supporters, and many others.
Ryan Evans | Times Leader
The signs read ‘Carpenters for Shapiro,’ who promised to ‘protect the union way of life here in the Commonwealth.’
Ryan Evans | Times Leader
Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Moosic, and his wife, Marion, offer remarks at Friday’s rally.
Ryan Evans | Times Leader
Lt. Gov. candidate Austin Davis addresses the crowd at Friday evening’s Democratic rally. If elected, Davis would become the first Black man in the state to hold the office.
Ryan Evans | Times Leader
KINGSTON — Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s message was clear: come Election Day, it’s “a fight to save democracy.”
The gubernatorial candidate encouraged the crowd gathered at IBEW 1319 on Division Street on Friday to “do the hard work” over the next four days and get those ballots in, or to have a plan for voting at the polls.
Prior to Shapiro’s remarks, the crowd heard from Luzerne County Democratic Party Chair, Kathy Bozinski, U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright, candidate for Lt. Governor Austin Davis, and U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, who introduced Shapiro to the waiting supporters.
Bozinski rallied the crowd, offering her encouragement to John Fetterman in his U.S. Senate race against Dr. Mehmet Oz as well as stoking the pride of her party.
Cartwright took to the stage and asked, “We got any Democrats here tonight?” to raucous applause. “Let’s get Josh Shapiro elected our governor,” Cartwright said, running down the list of Democratic nominees including state representative candidates Jim Haddock, Vito Malacari, Eddie Day Pashinski and Fern Leard, state Senate candidate Jackie Baker, Fetterman, Davis, and finishing with, “give old Cartwright a vote.”
Next up was Davis.
“I’m damn proud to be a democrat and you should be, too,“ Davis said, “because we’ve always been the party of progress … ” Davis noted that if elected, he would become the first Black man to hold that particular office. “We are four days away from the most critical election of our lifetime,” he said, calling Shapiro’s opponent Doug Mastriano the most dangerous and extreme candidate for governor in the country. He spoke of Mastriano, a self-proclaimed historian, donning a Confederate uniform while serving as a senator in Gettysburg, calling it, “deeply offensive to a person of color.”
“It’s not hyperbole to say that our very fundamental rights and freedoms are at risk here in Pennsylvania,” Davis roared, speaking on the subjects of Right to Work Laws, defending union workers, a woman’s right to make her own reproductive healthcare decisions, among other hot-button issues on the line for upcoming elections.
He noted of his running mate, Shapiro, “he’s never backed down from the big fights,” further remarking that the democratic party has a message to send come Nov. 8. And that he does not forget those who came before him to ensure his voice could be heard, vowing to do the same for his constituents if elected.
Casey echoed similar sentiments to Shapiro’s willingness to take up the fight. “He put himself forward for this difficult campaign,” Casey said, noting that a victory for Shapiro is a “victory for the people of Pennsylvania.”
With that, Shapiro took to the stage and spoke for roughly 45 minutes about a variety of topics, including those much debated as the election draws near.
Shapiro said that one of his first moves if elected is to fully fund public school classrooms, and invest in vocational/technical programs. He promised to “protect the union way of life here in Pennsylvania,” and said on his watch, “This will never be Right to Work state. Never.”
He seeks to raise minimum wage across the board to $15 an hour, and on the topic of gun violence, Shapiro noted that all Pennsylvanians have the right not only be safe, but to feel safe. He remarked that he would work to remove college-degree requirements on certain state jobs.
“I know a little something about taking on big fights, just ask those student loan companies we took to court and won,” Shapiro said.
On the subject of the opioid epidemic, Shapiro remarked that even though he helped with the arrests of 8,200 drug dealers across the state, he understands that they didn’t manufacture the crisis, instead pointing to the finger to big pharmaceutical companies, saying “Drug addiction is a disease, not a crime, and we gotta treat it that way.”
On the subject of abortion, he said that his opponent would not only seek to outright ban abortion with no exceptions, Mastriano would pursue murder charges for women who do have the procedure. “That’s not freedom,” Shapiro noted.
He also spoke to Mastriano’s plans to review voting laws.
“That’s not freedom,” Shapiro continued, adding on that it’s not freedom to work a 40-hour work but not be able to belong to a union. He said it’s not freedom to tell children what books they could read or to tell people who they could marry.
“You get to marry who you love here in this Commonwealth,” Shapiro told the crowd.
He said real freedom comes when that little girl from Kingston can grow up safe, get a quality education, have opportunity in neighborhoods safe from gun violence, to worship how and where she chooses to. Real freedom, he said, comes from when citizens work to leave a better world for their children than the one they inherited.
He encouraged voters to raise their voices and be heard.
“The power is in your hands,” he said.
Shapiro’s closing messaging was equally clear. “I will bust my ass for you as governor for the next four years … Let’s get this done, Luzerne County. I appreciate you. I love you. Let’s do it.”
