Josh Shapiro criticizes J.D. Vance for suspending SNAP program
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro says Vice President J.D. Vance betrayed his Appalachian roots by agreeing to the administration's freeze on SNAP subsidies. (Language warning)
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vice president JD VanceThe Office of the President on Monday hit back at Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who used a press conference in Philadelphia to criticize Vance while laying out the state's contingency plan to maintain SNAP (food stamp) benefits during the government shutdown.
Shapiro joined 24 states to successfully sue the USDA over the suspension of SNAP benefits in November. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania itself was not a plaintiff, as Republican Attorney General David Sunday was not involved in the case.
Shapiro referenced Vance's “Hillbilly Elegy” and the Ohioan's strong ties to his elders in Breathitt County, Kentucky – the heart of Appalachia – as he addressed what he called the vice president's “bull politics” that belies his Appalachian roots.
“America has a president and a vice president who don’t care about all Americans,” he added.
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Vance spokesman Taylor Van Kirk responded in comments to Fox News Digital on Monday, saying the governor should “look in the mirror if he wants to see who is to blame for this.” Closing Democrats“
She said Shapiro and the Democrats supported “shutting down Schumer” and thereby “screwing working-class men and women.”
“While little Josh was whining like a child about the problems his own party had created, The Trump administration is preparing a deal work with common-sense Democrats to reopen the government and fund SNAP benefits,” Van Kirk added.
Shapiro joined fellow Montgomery County Democrat Val Arkush to discuss Consequences of the SNAP Freeze and what he and Arkoosh—the state's social services director—were doing to help affected families.
When a reporter told Shapiro that Vance had criticized court order requiring release of SNAP fundsthe governor said he expects the president Donald Trump to do so, but Vance's history does not foreshadow the same reaction.
“JD Vance is a complete fake… [he] gained fame by writing a book about growing up in Appalachia, where so many people receive SNAP,” Shapiro said.
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The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), led by longtime co-chair Gayle Manchin and 2025 co-chairman Wes Moore of Maryland, considers 423 counties from Alabama to New York to be part of Appalachia, including three quarters of Pennsylvania. ARC reported that 1.4 million households in its region participate in SNAP, including 14% of households in Appalachian Pennsylvania.
“[Vance] made millions of dollars telling their stories and then turned his back on the very people he loves to write about and call his own,” Shapiro said.
He added that Vance calls himself a man of faith and cited a passage from the book of Deuteronomy that says people should respond with an open hand to those in need.
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J.D. Vance (left); Josh Shapiro, that's right. (Go Nakamura/Reuters; Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Images via Getty Images)
“So now J.D. Vance has to turn around after spending his entire life saying all of this and literally go to court to stop hungry people from eatingIt’s not only false, it’s shameful.”
“You'll excuse me for getting emotional about this, but when I see hungry people in my state going hungry because of J.D. Vance's bullish policies, it makes me angry. And that’s why I went to court.”
At the press conference, Shapiro explained that Arkush's office was able to fund SNAP through a state disaster declaration and funneling millions of dollars to food banks through the Feeding Pennsylvania program.
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“Republicans in Congress “must work on all fronts to quickly reopen the government and protect food assistance and access to health care for the millions of people in Pennsylvania and across the country who are still at risk due to this ongoing inaction,” Arkoush said in a statement.
A war of words may foreshadow potential 2028 match as both Vance and Shapiro are considered top potential contenders for their parties' presidential nominations in the next cycle.
