When Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro showed up on “The Late Show” last week, Stephen Colbert asked him a very important question: “Have you ever lost an election?”

Shapiro chuckled before recounting his getting “whupped” and finishing third in 11th grade when he ran for student body president.

The governor forgot to mention who won that race (it was me) or why he lost — the mother of all campaign promises (an ice cream vending machine in the student lounge) and the best campaign poster ever (a portrait of the candidate as Indiana Jones courtesy of Fred Raskin, now a film editor who works with the likes of Quentin Tarantino and James Gunn).

Shapiro may have left out the key details of that 1990 race at Akiba Hebrew Academy, a middle school and high school in suburban Philadelphia now known as Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy, but he did showcase the style and themes that could make him a formidable candidate in 2028.

Colbert kicked off the interview by asking about the April arson attack on the governor’s mansion where he and his family were sleeping just hours after hosting a public Passover seder.

After recounting the details of the attack, Shapiro quickly turned spiritual. Not some anodyne, won’t-offend-atheists spiritual. Good old-fashioned amen spiritual.

“And I’ve got to say, for as dark as that moment was, Lori and I found a whole lot of light in the days after from the people of Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said, to a burst of applause.

“I’m a prayerful person,” he continued. “I pray every day. But I never had people praying for me like that. People from all different faiths, all different backgrounds. And, Stephen, I know this sounds crazy, but I actually could feel their prayer, I actually felt strengthened by their prayers, and that helped me and Lori and our four children heal.”

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro speaks outside a Harrisburg firehouse, April 17, 2025. (Screenshot)

From there, Shapiro recounted how Pennsylvania’s first family organized a “thank you” meal cooked by celebrity chef Robert Irvine for the North Penn........

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