Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has some obvious advantages as a potential running mate for Vice President Kamala Harris . He is a popular , moderate governor of a critical battleground state with strong ties to both law enforcement and organized labor .

In the two weeks since Shapiro emerged on Harris short list, however, he has also been subjected to a barrage of criticism largely from more progressive detractors and accompanying negative media coverage that would, at this point, make him more controversial with parts of the Democratic coalition than any of the other finalists for the No. 2 spot.

Initially, and perhaps most prominently, an ad-hoc group of individual left-wing activists and commentators has attacked Shapiro for being too pro-Israel with one self-described Jewish leftist erecting a website titled NoGenocideJosh.com .

The proximate cause of these activists ire is Shapiros comment on CNN in April that elements of pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses were engaging in antisemitism. Shapiro distinguished between different kinds of protesters and also warned against Islamophobia on campus, but one polarizing line sometimes stripped of context has raised progressive hackles.

We have to query whether or not we would tolerate this if this were people dressed up in KKK outfits or KKK regalia making comments about people who are African-American in our communities, he said.

Shapiros allies note he holds a mainstream Democratic position on Israel-Palestine: He supports Israels right to exist and defend itself, wants a two-state solution, and views Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as an obstacle to peace. In January, Shapiro called Netanyahu one of the worst leaders of all time.

Several pro-Israel Democrats have argued that singling out Shapiro, an observant Jew, is antisemitic.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, another Democratic vice-presidential finalist, has a similarly conventional pro-Israel record and relatively uncritical stance on Israels prosecution of the war in Gaza, but he has not elicited an attack campaign from the left. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly , two other Democratic contenders who have not attracted much progressive scrutiny, have likewise taken pro-Israel stances anathema to the left.

Singling [Shapiro] out, or applying a double standard to him over the war in Gaza, is antisemitic and wrong, Rep. Adam Schiff, who is Jewish and the Democratic Senate nominee in California, posted on X . Dont go there.

In the Atlantic , Yair Rosenberg has even proposed that Shapiros pro-Israel credentials make him uniquely suited to defend Harris amid inevitable disputes with the Israeli government and insulate the boss from charges of anti-Semitism.