Josh Shapiro Signals Support for Abolishing Electoral College
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Center 0%
Right 50%
1 left · 0 center · 1 right
What happened
In the week following the 2026 midterm elections, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, gave high‑profile remarks in two different forums about his party’s priorities and the direction of national politics. In an interview aired Sunday on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” he said a new Democratic Congress taking office in January should first move to halt and reverse Trump‑era cuts to Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and the Affordable Care Act, and also pursue anti‑corruption oversight of the Trump administration. In that interview he cited state figures for Pennsylvanians losing health coverage and food assistance, and argued Democrats must both deliver economic relief and hold the administration accountable, while downplaying questions about a possible 2028 presidential run. Separately, at a Crooked Con event in Washington, D.C., Shapiro was asked by Pod Save America host Jon Favreau whether a Democratic‑led Congress might try to abolish the Electoral College, and according to the Washington Examiner he "expressed openness" to the idea of doing away with the current constitutional process for electing the president. The Examiner framed this comment against what it called a “decisive” Democratic victory in the 2026 midterms, suggesting it could enable ambitious institutional changes.
Sourcing check · Fully on the record · 2 articles
2 of 2 articles cite a named source for the story. It was on the record from the first report.
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- How it developed
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This is about who is cited, not whether the story is true. Each source below says what it names. How we count
Omitted — what each side leaves out
Unpacked
The biggest gap is that left‑leaning coverage leaves readers unaware that Shapiro has publicly "expressed openness" to abolishing the Electoral College, while right‑leaning coverage gives almost no sense of his detailed social and economic policy agenda. NBC presents him as focused on reversing Medicaid and SNAP cuts and strengthening the Affordable Care Act, citing large losses of coverage and assistance in Pennsylvania, but says nothing about his Crooked Con remarks. The Washington Examiner, by contrast, anchors its story on his willingness to consider ending the Electoral College after a Democratic midterm sweep, without mentioning his emphasis on healthcare, food aid, or oversight priorities.
A secondary pattern is an emphasis split in what each side treats as defining. NBC leads with Shapiro’s hopes that Democrats will prioritize "healthcare and food assistance" and only later notes speculative talk about 2028. The Washington Examiner leads with his Electoral College comment and describes a "decisive" Democratic victory, framing him less as a governor pushing bread‑and‑butter policies and more as a national figure aligned with structural election reform.
The unasked question is: What, exactly, did Shapiro say at Crooked Con about how the Electoral College should be replaced, and how high does he rank that goal compared with his stated priorities on healthcare, food assistance, and corruption oversight?
Bottom line
Right‑leaning coverage from the Washington Examiner tells you that after a "decisive" 2026 midterm win, Josh Shapiro "expressed openness" to abolishing the Electoral College, while NBC’s piece on the same governor never mentions that remark and instead presents him chiefly as a healthcare and SNAP defender, so each side leaves you with a different sense of what he is really aiming to change.
The receipts — 5 facts one side's coverage lacks
- Shapiro "expressed openness" at Crooked Con to abolishing the Electoral College when asked if a Democrat‑led Congress might do so.
- Shapiro says 510,000 people in Pennsylvania are losing healthcare coverage due to cuts approved during Trump’s second term.
- Shapiro says 143,000 people in Pennsylvania are losing SNAP or food assistance because of the same cuts.
- Shapiro urges a new Democratic Congress to make stopping and rolling back Medicaid, SNAP, and Affordable Care Act cuts one of its first actions.
- Shapiro argues Democrats must both pass cost‑cutting, war‑ending legislation and conduct accountability for corruption in Washington, describing it as a "both/and" rather than "either/or".
The Left View
Left‑leaning coverage centers Shapiro as a policy‑first governor urging Democrats in Washington to focus on immediate material concerns such as healthcare and food assistance rather than electoral positioning for 2028. NBC highlights his call to stop and roll back Medicaid and SNAP reductions and to address what he portrays as large‑scale losses of coverage and benefits in Pennsylvania, treating those numbers as evidence that reversing Trump‑era cuts should be an early priority for the new Congress. It also emphasizes his argument that Democrats must "walk and chew gum" by both passing cost‑cutting, war‑ending, minimum‑wage‑raising legislation and conducting rigorous oversight of alleged "corruption" in the Trump administration. The piece notes speculation about Shapiro as a 2028 presidential contender but stresses his stated focus on governing and advancing a progressive economic agenda in his state and nationally, without mentioning any position on the Electoral College or broader constitutional reforms.
The Right View
Right‑leaning coverage, via the Washington Examiner, spotlights Shapiro’s comments about the structure of presidential elections, presenting his "expressed openness" to abolishing the Electoral College as the newsworthy development. The article situates his remarks in the context of what it calls a "decisive" Democratic win in the 2026 midterms and raises the prospect that a Democrat‑controlled Congress could "lead a charge" to eliminate the current constitutional mechanism for electing presidents. By focusing on the exchange at the Crooked Con event and the hypothetical of a Democrat‑led effort to change the system, this framing implicitly portrays Shapiro as aligned with national Democrats who favor moving toward a different method, such as implied alternatives like a national popular vote, though no specific model is detailed in the text. The Examiner’s coverage does not discuss his comments about Medicaid, SNAP, minimum wage, or oversight, and presents him primarily as an influential Democrat openness to sweeping institutional change.
Our Take (balanced)
From the left‑leaning perspective, Shapiro’s most compelling point is that a newly empowered Democratic Congress has a concrete, measurable agenda to reverse Trump‑era cuts to healthcare and food assistance that he says are affecting hundreds of thousands of his constituents, and that this can be pursued alongside anti‑corruption oversight rather than instead of it. From the right‑leaning perspective, the strongest claim is that when a potential future national candidate, in the wake of a partisan wave election, signals openness to eliminating the Electoral College, that is an important indicator of where party leaders may be willing to go on the basic rules of presidential selection. The unresolved tension is whether Shapiro’s Electoral College comment represents a serious near‑term governing priority connected to his party’s new power in Congress, or a secondary, speculative position that is far less central to his agenda than the economic and accountability issues he emphasizes elsewhere.
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