Pa. Gov. Josh Shapiro calls on society to reject political violence following arson attack: 'Our shared responsibility to do better'

Gillian McGoldrick, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Apr 23, 2025

Published in News & Features

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HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro wrote that there is a “shared responsibility to do better” in an opinion piece published Wednesday in the New York Times, continuing his call for society to reject political violence after an arsonist attacked the governor’s mansion last week.

Shapiro, a first-term Democratic governor, similarly condemned political violence following an assassination attempt against President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler last summer, and when a man was arrested in Altoona in December after allegedly killing the United Healthcare CEO in front of a New York City hotel.

The violence came to Shapiro’s doorstep last week, when Cody Balmer allegedly started several fires at the governor’s residence while Shapiro and his family slept inside.

Balmer, who according to his family had stopped taking his medication for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and had become increasingly agitated, told police he was “harboring a hatred” toward Shapiro and would have beaten the governor with a hammer had he found him at the mansion that night.

“This level of violence has to stop,” Shapiro wrote in the Times, a sentiment he has repeated after the arson attack and other political violence in the state. “It is our shared responsibility to do better.”

The attack at the governor’s residence took place on the first night of Passover. While police have not released a motive, the suspect allegedly called 911 less than an hour later to admit to the attack, telling a dispatcher that he “will not take part in his plans for what he wants to do to the Palestinian people.”

Shapiro has refused to say whether he believed he was targeted for his faith, and has been critical of officials who have made judgments on Balmer’s motive, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D.-N.Y.

Instead, Shapiro said he trusts prosecutors to make the right determinations. The governor in the op-ed also continued his urgent call that elected officials have an “additional responsibility to speak and act with moral clarity.”

“To not just call out what’s right and what’s wrong but also to do the hard work of bringing people together to find common ground in a world that’s constantly trying to divide us,” he wrote.

Shapiro has largely returned to work following the arson attack, welcoming preschoolers back to the governor’s mansion on Tuesday for the annual Easter egg hunt, and said he plans to stay at the residence this week.

Shapiro, considered a potential Democratic front-runner in the 2028 presidential election, in the New York Times recalled details of the harrowing experience, including waking up to state police pounding on his door in the middle of the night and evacuating his family from the residence after the arsonist set several fires in the mansion’s banquet hall.

“This experience has made me more determined than ever to not only welcome people of all faiths back to the governor’s residence — where we’ve lit Christmas trees, held iftars and danced at a bar mitzvah — but also to do my part to address the political division and violence in America today,” Shapiro wrote.

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