Democrats likely to join the race
Josh Shapiro, 48
Current occupation: Pennsylvania Attorney General
Political history: Montgomery County Commissioner, State Representative
Hometown: Abington
Shapiro isn’t officially in the race for governor yet, but he’s been laying the groundwork for his bid for much of 2021 — and, many in Pennsylvania would argue, since the very beginning of his political career. Announcement notwithstanding, he is considered the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, and potentially the only major candidate.
The Montgomery County Democrat began his political career in the State House, then served as a Montco commissioner before becoming Attorney General in 2017, ending a period of instability in the office. Perhaps his most significant action as AG was presiding over the release of a landmark grand jury report on decades of sexual abuse of children in Catholic dioceses across Pennsylvania. He subsequently supported retroactive lawsuits in cases where people abused as children were barred from suing because too much time had passed.
Throughout the administration of former President Donald Trump he held himself as a firm opponent and added his name to dozens of joint lawsuits with other Democratic attorneys general on issues including Trump’s family separation policy on the Mexican border, his administration’s policies on contraception, and his election-time changes to post office operations. During the 2020 election, he was a frequent cable news commentator and Trump critic as well.
But Shapiro, generally considered a political pragmatist, has also clashed with those to his left. Progressive Philly DA Larry Krasner is a semi-frequent opponent; the two tangled over a bill that gave Shapiro more control over prosecuting Philly gun crimes (though Shapiro tried to smooth the conflict over) and Krasner later sued the AG for settling with opioid distributors and manufacturers.
Republican candidates
Lou Barletta, 65
Current occupation: Retired
Political history: U.S. Congressman (PA-11), candidate for U.S. Senate in 2018, mayor of Hazleton
Hometown: Hazelton
Barletta, a former four-term congressman who ran for U.S. Senate in 2018 and lost badly to incumbent Democrat Bob Casey, is one of the many Republicans in Pennsylvania’s 2022 races hoping to use Trump’s 2016 success in the state to his advantage.
Barletta decided to mount another statewide office run after being out of the political spotlight for two years, he says, because he was frustrated with Wolf’s pandemic mitigation measures. In the early days of COVID-19, they included broad business shutdowns.
He also says he wants to make sure coal, oil, and natural gas production doesn’t slow in Pennsylvania. He opposes the commonwealth’s expansion of mail-in ballot use, plans to protect police budgets from potential cuts, and would fight against “sanctuary cities” like Philadelphia, where local officials pledge not to cooperate with federal immigration officials to deport undocumented people.
Barletta was one of the first congressional members to endorse Trump, and Trump endorsed him in his ill-fated 2018 Senate run. Barletta remains a staunch supporter of the former president, supporting baseless calls for 2020 election audits, and convening what he calls an Election Integrity Advisory Board to come up with ways to repeal and replace the voting law that expanded Pennsylvania’s use of mail ballots.
Barletta began his career as mayor of Hazleton, a former coal boom town that in the wake of deindustrialization saw a sharp rise in its Latino population. During his tenure, Barletta attracted national attention for trying to pass an ordinance that would have punished landlords and businesses for renting to or employing undocumented immigrants. Court challenges kept it from being enforced, and it ended up costing Hazelton $1.4 million in legal fees.
William McSwain, 52
Current occupation: Private practice attorney
Political history: U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
Hometown: West Chester
McSwain, the recently-departed U.S. Attorney for Pennsylvania’s eastern district, is running on a tough-on-crime platform and raising some of the most heavily-discussed issues in conservative circles aligned with Trump, including: pandemic-related mandates, teaching about systemic racism in schools, and election security.
His tenure as U.S. attorney was marked by vocal opposition to self-identified “sanctuary cities,” like Philadelphia. He clashed repeatedly with Philly Mayor Jim Kenney and District Attorney Larry Krasner, opposing a city plan for a supervised opioid injection site and blaming their policies for rising homicide and gun crime rates.
McSwain stepped down as U.S. Attorney soon after Trump left the White House, and has since stressed the fact that he was appointed by the former president.
He has also attempted to curry the president’s favor when it comes to election fraud claims — while carefully avoiding saying he thinks any actual fraud took place. Before the 2020 election, McSwain issued a pointed statement saying he intended to watch carefully for potential election issues — though he ultimately didn’t file any fraud cases. Ahead of his formal campaign announcement, McSwain sent a widely-discussed letter to Trump — which Trump promptly publicized — asking for his support and claiming that former Trump Attorney General Bill Barr had prevented him from publicizing his concerns about election “irregularities.” Barr strongly disputed McSwain’s re-telling, calling his letter “deceptive” and saying McSwain was simply trying to keep Trump from publicly insulting him.
McSwain, who lives in West Chester, is a Harvard Law graduate and former Marine infantry officer. Before his appointment as U.S. attorney, he worked as a federal prosecutor and was a partner in the Philadelphia law firm Drinker, Biddle & Reath, mainly focusing on white-collar criminal defense. After his departure from the U.S. attorney’s office, he started with the Philadelphia law firm Duane Morris LLP.
Charlie Gerow, 66
Current occupation: GOP strategy and communications; CPAC vice-chair
Political history: Worked on Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign, repeat RNC delegate, congressional candidate in 1998 and 2000, longtime political analyst
Hometown: Harrisburg
Gerow, a central Pennsylvania-based Republican strategist, and frequent conservative commentator has so far run a campaign that stresses his establishment conservative bona fides, while also echoing popular rhetoric from the Trumpist wing of the party.
In the video announcing his campaign, he accused established politicians and “the liberal media” of trying “to cancel” people who critique them, and said he wanted to fight against “liberals, socialists or anarchists out to destroy what our founding fathers sacrificed for, and our soldiers bled for.”
Gerow has pledged to support the natural gas industry and oppose pandemic mask mandates. He told the Pennsylvania Capital-Star that he thinks the commonwealth should be more cautious about using no-excuse absentee ballots, but also told the Philadelphia Inquirer that he acknowledged Joe Biden as the legitimate winner of the 2020 election.
He noted in his introductory campaign video that he started his career as a staffer for Ronald Reagan’s first presidential campaign. He has since been a fixture in Harrisburg, founding the public affairs company Quantum Communications in 2001 after unsuccessful bids for state senate and congress in the ‘80s and ‘90s.
Joe Gale, 31
Current occupation: Montgomery County Commissioner
Political history: Worked as a clerk in the county Recorder of Deeds department
Hometown: Plymouth Township
Gale, a Montgomery County commissioner since 2015, has sought to brand himself as the most Trump-aligned candidate in the field.
On his campaign website, Gale calls himself “pro-life, pro-2nd Amendment, pro-small business, pro-shale, pro-pipeline, pro-Trump and, most importantly, not controlled, influenced or endorsed by Republican Party bosses.” He also claims Trump’s presidency was “sabotaged” and told WHYY that virtually no Republican currently in elected office in Pennsylvania is conservative enough.
Gale was elected to his commissionership at 26 and has since tangled repeatedly with both his Democratic fellow commissioners, as well as his county’s Republican party.
The other commissioners called for his resignation after he said Black Lives Matter protesters were “hate groups” committing “urban domestic terror” during 2020’s widespread protests. After the Jan. 6 insurrection, he claimed there was a double standard for violent acts committed by the left and right wings. Commission Chair Valerie Arkoosh, who is running for U.S. Senate as a Democrat, has publicly called him a “racist.”
Guy Ciarrocchi, 57
Current occupation: just-departed CEO of Chester County Chamber of Business and Industry
Political history: led Chesco Chamber for eight years, was chief of staff for several Pa. politicians — Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley, Congressman Jim Gerlach, and State Sen. Melissa Hart
Hometown: Paoli
Ciarrocchi, a longtime Pennsylvania politics insider, is running on a primarily pro-business platform, citing a desire to “promote free enterprise” and grow local economies.
He was heavily involved in recent GOP efforts to use constitutional amendments to blunt Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s emergency powers during the pandemic, and says he wants to “reign-in uncontrolled gubernatorial power, restore ‘checks & balances,’ and ensure that citizens are involved in decisions that regulate their lives and livelihoods.”
He’s one of the few Republican candidates who appears eager to court city-dwellers. He grew up in South Philly and argues on his campaign website that “our cities ought to be places we are excited to go to, not places we flee from.”
Along with his tenure as top staffer for several Republican politicians, Ciarrocchi served as Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools, worked on George W. Bush’s 2004 campaign, then became a Housing and Urban Development regional director under Bush, and was director of public affairs for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
