Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro Heads Into Re-Election With $3 Million In Campaign Account

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro will report that he headed into his 2020 re-election year with more than $3 million in his campaign bank account, about 40% of what he spent to get elected in 2016 to his first four-year term. In a preliminary report his campaign gave to The Associated Press, Shapiro, a Democrat, will report to the state that he raised $3.3 million in 2019 and had $3.1 million left over as of Jan. 1.

He spent $523,000 last year, partially offset by the $365,000 that he had left over from 2018, according to the report.

Shapiro spent nearly $8 million in 2016 when he beat former state Sen. John Rafferty by nearly 3 percentage points in that year's general election after winning a low-turnout, three-way Democratic primary.

This time around, no Democrat has stepped forward to challenge Shapiro in the primary.

With barely five weeks to go before major-party candidates must file petitions to get on the primary ballot, one Republican has raised her hand: Heather Heidelbaugh, a long-time Pittsburgh-area litigator with little experience in electoral politics as a former one-term member of the Allegheny County Council.

Copyright 2020 The Associated Press.