From TikToks to a 24/7 live stream, Gov. Josh Shapiro’s I-95 response grows his national profile

It’s an image tailor-made for a political ad: Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro hovering above a collapsed portion of I-95 in a State Police helicopter, assessing the damage with a concerned but determined expression.

“The helicopter, the bomber jacket, the low angle — I did not think you could make Josh Shapiro look that cool,” said Tommy McDonald, a Democratic ad-maker based in Fishtown.

Shapiro has been at the center of the response to the June 11 bridge collapse, surveying the site, meeting with politicians and agency heads, and briefing the media with the kind of gusto usually reserved for a locker room halftime speech.

“We are going to show this great city, our commonwealth, and the world the grittiness, the toughness, the ingenuity, and the capacity to get this road reopened as quickly as possible,” he said Wednesday near the collapsed road.

From a podium already branded “REBUILD I-95,″ Shapiro compared the rebuild to “our championship.”

And on Saturday he took another aerial tour of the site, this time in Marine One with President Joe Biden, who said the governor was doing “one heck of a job.”

Shapiro managed to steal the show even on the day the president came to town, delivering the most impactful news for people in the region: an update that the critical roadway would be reopened “within the next two weeks.”

The assessment of how Shapiro handles the biggest emergency since he became governor is yet to come, sure to be determined by the pace of repairs, decisions made in the rebuild, and the overall impact of the reconstruction. But his initial response — from the flyover to impassioned press conferences to using TikTok creators to communicate — felt like the moments national campaigns are built on.

For the leader of a politically powerful swing state, those moments revived the not-so-hushed whispers of Shapiro’s national political aspirations.

“The way I saw him walk out through this thing … he looked more presidential than most,” said state Rep. Ed Neilson, who chairs the state House Transportation Committee and was with Shapiro at the site Sunday. “He handled this like a pro. He was just good at it.”

Leaders are often made or broken by how they handle crises.

“Good leaders never waste a crisis,” political strategist Mustafa Rashed said. “They use it to show they can convene and put a team together.”

Shapiro’s crisis was a critical roadway that burned and then pancaked after a tractor trailer carrying gasoline crashed, killing the driver trapped inside.

The collapse has slowed traffic and shipping across the East Coast,

frustrating commuters and businesses reliant on interstate travel.

“Listen, Philly’s a sports town and … I am competitive as hell,” he said Wednesday. “I want to get this road reopened as quickly as possible.”

The I-95 collapse is the second large-scale emergency Shapiro’s dealt with since taking office in January, but the first where he can take full ownership of the response. Shortly after his inauguration, a train derailed and released toxic chemicals into the air just over the border in East Palestine, Ohio.

Shapiro coordinated the response on the Pennsylvania side, receiving bipartisan compliments from state lawmakers.

» READ MORE: Federal officials warn I-95 collapse could affect shipping across the East Coast as local businesses feel the squeeze

Republican politicians gave him kudos this week, too.

“You couldn’t ask for more from the governor,” Republican City Councilmember Brian J. O’Neill said. “I think this will get done as fast as humanly possible.”

As for Shapiro’s possible national political future: “Too soon to tell, but he’s done very well so far,” O’Neill said. “And I think his whole career has been really good.”

Shapiro has consistently demurred at the suggestion of running for higher office, saying he’s focused for now on being governor, a job he’s had for almost six months.

But as Democrats look at their bench, the leader of one of the country’s most important battlegrounds would be an obvious person to put on it. At 50, Shapiro’s one of the younger Democrats with the resumé to run for the job. Supporters have hopes of him becoming the first Jewish president.

“He is the governor of a swing state, a purple state, with 19 electoral votes,” Rashed said. “It’s not an outrageous thought at all.”

Shapiro’s political rise began as a Montgomery County commissioner and continued to attorney general and now governor, a job he won in a commanding general election victory, albeit against a polarizing Republican opponent.

A number of Democrats are already lining up for a potential 2028 run, including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg — who also visited the I-95 site this week — and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Governors can have unique appeal, as they deal more on the ground with voters and are seen as outside the trappings of Washington. They often run on the moments when they led their states through crises.

Shortly after the bridge collapsed around 6:30 a.m. Sunday, senior officials briefed Shapiro.

His staff told The Inquirer the office wanted to communicate as quickly as possible as news started going national.

When the fire marshal determined the site was secure enough to visit, Shapiro boarded a State Police helicopter to do an aerial flyover. As he assessed the damage, a Governor’s Office photographer snapped shots of him from the ground below.

Once he landed, he got a briefing along with other officials. Neilson was struck by Shapiro’s compassion in the face of an immense infrastructure challenge — asking about the driver’s family and if they’d been contacted and checking in with everyone working on site.

“He was making certain that everybody there was important, from the firemen to the volunteers that are passing out bottles of water,” Neilson said. “He was really just making them feel good and comfortable and like they meant something. ... That motivates people to do even better things.”

» READ MORE: I-95 reconstruction after Philly bridge collapse: What we know and don’t know

Shapiro returned to the site again on Wednesday, briefing reporters with a speech that at times sounded more like he was going to battle than rebuilding a bridge. He talked passionately about “recycled glass aggregate fill.”

“We are ready to go, and I am proud as hell to be on the team with all these guys and gals,” he said.

On Saturday, Shapiro was by Biden’s side at the podium as the president gave remarks, and then ushered him over to check out a TV screen showing the rebuild live stream.

“Folks here in Philly have a real unique sense of civic pride for this project,” Shapiro said Saturday. “Hell, they were watching a live stream at Xfinity Live last night while they’re eating 95 cent wings.”

McDonald, the ad-maker, thinks Shapiro’s response was particularly appreciated in a city where Mayor Jim Kenney has shied away from the public-facing part of the job.

“Jim Kenney doesn’t want the job anymore, and Josh Shapiro hops in a helicopter and starts a live stream,” McDonald said. “It’s a unique contrast.”

The live streamed footage of the rebuild, an idea Shapiro credited to his chief of staff, Dana Fritz, immediately became Philly Twitter fodder, uniting a city through memes and videos of grainy backhoes set to music. It had about 2,000 viewers a day, and some bars and restaurants had it on.

The communications and digital teams also went beyond traditional media to get their messages out. They invited TikTok creator and comedian Alex Pearlman, otherwise known as Pearlmania500, to the press conferences, including the president’s visit. The Pearlman videos of the updates racked up more than a million views.

Pearlman, who describes his TikToks as him yelling into his phone from his suburban Philadelphia home, said he was struck by Shapiro’s competence and management of expectations.

“Over the last seven or eight years we as a nation have forgotten what we should expect from politicians,” Pearlman said. “All of us have gotten very used to yelling about what parts of the government that we hate and don’t work for us. I would really like to see us talk more about what is doing well, so we start doing more of the good stuff.”

Staff writer Jake Blumgart contributed to this article.