Harris, fracking and Shapiro: Dem campaign looks for Pennsylvania breakthrough

Vice President Kamala Harris’ decision to reverse her support for a fracking ban is doing little to ease concerns among the fossil fuel industry and its workers — and cheerleaders for Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro see an opening.

Some Democratic Party allies fear Harris’ flip on fracking has still left her particularly vulnerable in Pennsylvania. What Harris needs now, the party’s boosters say, is someone like Shapiro — who has carved a middle ground in the country’s No. 2 natural gas-producing state — in the vice presidential slot.

A recent Fox News poll shows her in a dead heat with GOP nominee Donald Trump in the state, and her energy stances are already being used to attack Democratic Sen. Bob Casey . She’s also in a race to shore up the level of support among labor groups, many of which work in energy-intensive industries, that President Joe Biden enjoyed.

“She really needs to have face-to-face conversations with union leaders in the areas most affected by this and go on the record of being a supporter and proponent of natural gas — not just someone who won’t ban fracking,” Jeff Nobers, executive director of the Builders Guild of Western Pennsylvania, a union headquartered outside Pittsburgh, said in an interview.

Nobers predicted that Harris would “probably win” Pennsylvania if she tapped Shapiro as her running mate because of the governor’s close ties to unions.

Harris has not personally spoken about the drilling practice in recent years, but her campaign issued a statement Sunday saying “she would not ban fracking.” That stance walks back the position she held in 2019 during the Democratic presidential primaries.

While she tempered her own positions as President Joe Biden’s No. 2, Harris’ older comments have drawn new scrutiny from Trump, who cited them over the weekend to cast his new opponent as an "ultra liberal.”

Harris’ U-turn represents a concrete movement toward the center by a former senator who once co-sponsored the Green New Deal, which called for quickly weaning the U.S. off fossil fuels and expanding clean power. And as California attorney general, she sued the Obama administration to stop plans to use fracking off the state’s coastline.

That record became down-ballot campaign fodder for Dave McCormick, the GOP nominee challenging Casey, in a new ad hitting Harris over her 2019 fracking stance and other positions he said seek to “destroy American energy.”

Other Republicans are also finding plenty to mine from her career.

“She specifically said she wants to ban fracking. She said it,” Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.), the chief deputy whip in the U.S. House who represents the Pittsburgh area, said last week. “The problem for Harris is her track record is too long to sidestep it in a sprint to win Pennsylvania.”

On Sunday, Harris’ campaign noted that while the Biden administration passed the largest-ever U.S. climate change legislation, America still “has the highest ever domestic energy production.”

But Shapiro won his gubernatorial race in 2022 by 15 points, a huge margin in a state that went for Trump in 2016 and Biden in 2020. Shapiro also boasts a 64 percent approval rating while governing a state with the country’s only divided Legislature.

Shapiro has made an intentional effort to shape an energy strategy that weaves together environmental groups, fossil fuel interests and organized labor — the latter of which yields key political influence in Pennsylvania and helped vault Shapiro to his 2022 win.

Critics of Shapiro’s efforts to expand renewable energy also acknowledge the goodwill he and Biden have with Keystone unions and business leaders but found Harris’ conversion on fracking unconvincing.

“Simply to flip flop and say, 'Oh, I didn't mean that, my position is the opposite now,' that just strikes me as being completely opportunistic and insincere,” David Taylor, head of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association, a Harrisburg-based industry group, said of Harris’ fracking reversal.

Still, Shapiro has been using his reputation to stump for Harris in his state, where on Monday he traveled to suburban Philadelphia for a rally with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, another top contender for the vice presidential candidate spot.

State Rep. Mike Schlossberg, a Democrat from eastern Pennsylvania who serves as majority caucus chair, said he “1,000 percent” wants to see Shapiro as the vice presidential nominee — and “energy policy is one reason why” Shapiro could boost Harris.

Shapiro has struck a compromise deal on fracking regulations with one major gas producer in the state and publicly criticized Biden’s decision to pause exports from new liquefied natural gas projects. But in his previous job as attorney general and now as governor, Shapiro has sought to tighten health and environmental standards for fracking operations and collected penalties from violators in connection with a two-year investigation .

Shapiro’s mantra of “get shit done” has started to penetrate the electorate, too — and a Harris-Shapiro ticket could reenergize Democrats in the state who had soured on Biden’s ability to sell the administration’s investments in clean energy and manufacturing in Pennsylvania.

Celinda Lake, president of Lake Research Partners and a lead pollster for Biden’s 2020 campaign, said that voters attributed benefits from the bipartisan infrastructure law more to Shapiro than the Biden-Harris administration in a poll last year.

“People in his state really like him,” Lake said. “There’s no question he could help in his state.”

Ben Lefebvre contributed to this report.