Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) is mixing it up with celebrities as he campaigns for reelection as Pennsylvania’s governor, but whether it will raise his profile before a possible 2028 presidential run remains an unanswered question.
Weeks after Shapiro promoted his pitch to the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, LeBron James, to become a forward for his commonwealth’s Philadelphia 76ers, the governor this week made a cameo appearance in rapper Meek Mill’s music video for his new song, “Nightmares to Dreams.”
Shapiro, who in 2024 also attended a Bruce Springsteen concert with Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), then-New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, and former Texas Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke, similarly boasted to some social media influencers during a breakfast in June that comedian Jerry Seinfeld once “laughed at my joke.”
There, too, was a social media video Shapiro recorded in 2024 to Beyonce’s “Texas Hold ‘Em” underscoring the importance of advocating abortion rights.
But despite politicians, particularly Democrats, long deploying popular culture in political campaigns, some party strategists advise Shapiro the strategy does not always result in a political slam dunk, even with James coming to town.
“I don’t believe celebrity is transferable,” Democratic strategist Christopher Hahn told the Washington Examiner. “If it was, Hillary Clinton would be president and so would Kamala Harris.”
Another Democratic strategist, Stefan Hankin, contended that the politicization of popular culture “has to feel authentic and real for people to remotely pay attention and for it to ‘work.’”
“At the same time, these things rarely hurt unless you really screw it up,” Hankin told the Washington Examiner. “Does going on a popular podcast win an election? No. Can it help? Possibly. But [it] won’t hurt unless you bomb.”
To that end, Pennsylvania-based Republican strategist Christopher Nicholas conceded, at least regarding James, that Shapiro “has been a huge basketball fan since forever.”
However, another Pennsylvania-based Republican strategist, Charlie Gerow, added that Shapiro, who captained his high school basketball team before being cut as a freshman in college prompted him to run for student government and consider a political career, thought he was “James at one point.”
“He worked hard to channel Barack Obama for a long while,” Gerow told the Washington Examiner, mentioning the former president, another basketball fan and politician who has politicized popular culture. “He should try being himself and a much better governor instead of constantly worrying about whether or not he’s ’cool.’”
Matthew Beynon, a spokesman for Shapiro’s Republican gubernatorial opponent, Stacey Garrity, agreed, criticizing the governor for being distracted by celebrity when he should be concentrating on Pennsylvanians.
“If the term Napoleon Complex had a picture next to it in the dictionary, it would be a portrait of Josh Shapiro,” Beynon told the Washington Examiner. “Josh Shapiro is more focused on sitting at the cool kids table so he can run for president than fixing the problems facing hardworking Pennsylvania families.”
Beynon also cited last month’s U.S. News & World Report Best States Study, which ranked Pennsylvania’s economy at 47th in the country, though CNBC’s Top States for Business ranked the commonwealth’s economy higher at 13th during the same month but using different measures.
A spokesman for Shapiro declined to comment when the Washington Examiner requested a response.
Although Pennsylvania Democrats who spoke to the Washington Examiner were more sympathetic to Shapiro’s politicization of popular culture, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), with whom Shapiro does not have a close relationship, had this quip when asked whether the governor should take credit for James becoming a Philadelphia 76er.
“He’ll certainly try,” Fetterman told CNN. “That’s one of his superpowers.”
Regardless, another Democratic strategist, who was permitted to speak anonymously, emphasized that “this isn’t a new play” for Shapiro.
“Josh Shapiro’s had a relationship with Meek Mill for years, and he’s been a Sixers fan since he was a kid,” the party strategist told the Washington Examiner. “This is part of how he governs.”
Franklin & Marshall College Center for Opinion Research Director Berwood Yost echoed that Shapiro appeared less concerned about “being perceived as ‘cool’” and more preoccupied with keeping up appearances with respect to getting “shit done.”
“Realize that Sixers’ fans have been waiting a long time for a championship and this has energized them,” Yost told the Washington Examiner. “The relationship with Meek Mill, as I understand it, comes from the governor’s involvement with criminal justice and sentencing reform when he was attorney general.”
Shapiro did support the “Free Meek” movement after the rapper was arrested and received a two-to-four-year prison sentence in 2017 for breaking minor terms of the probation agreement reached in a 2008 gun and drug case.
In response to the public campaign, Mill was granted bail in 2018 after five months in prison before his conviction was overturned in 2019.
In turn, Mill endorsed Shapiro for vice president in July 2024 when former Vice President Kamala Harris succeeded former President Joe Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Yost, the pollster, argued that Shapiro’s aides likely expect “that these stories will reinforce his image as an effective leader, but it is notable that they speak to two separate audiences.”
“One audience is sports fans who might be less involved and interested in politics, but who might take notice of something like this, and the second is the activists within the Democratic base who want to see systemic reforms,” he said. “It remains to be seen what kind of bump this coverage will provide an already popular governor, but the strategy driving both stories seems pretty smart.”
Before November’s gubernatorial election, Shapiro is, on average, polling 20 percentage points ahead of Garrity, according to RealClearPolitics’s aggregation of survey data.
Simultaneously, Shapiro is polling in single digits in hypothetical 2028 Democratic presidential surveys behind Harris, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who all poll in the double digits, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), whose average is 9 points.
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Shapiro told The Stephen A. Smith Show last month that he encouraged James to sign with the Philadelphia 76ers during a dinner.
“When I saw LeBron James at a dinner about a week ago, I shot my shot,” he said. “I told him how Philly would love to have him, he could win a championship here, and this would be a great place for him to bring his talents. … I’m damn glad he chose Philly.”