The Pennsylvania Attorney General is a constitutionally elected office in the executive branch of the Pennsylvania state government. She serves as the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of Pennsylvania and represents the state and its agencies in any lawsuit brought by or against them. The Attorney General is responsible for collecting all debts, taxes, and claims against the state. The Attorney General serves on boards and committees including the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, the Board of Pardons, the Board of Finance and Revenue, the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, and the Education and Delinquency Commission. training of municipal police officers and the Enforcement of Law on Organized Crime Networks in the Great Lakes of the Mid-Atlantic.
The Attorney General is elected during the presidential election years and cannot remain in office for more than two consecutive terms.
Pennsylvania has a Democratic Triplex. The Democratic Party controls the offices of governor, secretary of state and attorney general.
Josh Shapiro held Attorney General for Pennsylvania till 2021
During his public service career, Josh Shapiro embraced the status quo, brought people together to solve difficult problems, and delivered results for the people of Pennsylvania. He has served as the People’s Attorney General since 2017 and works every day to challenge powerful institutions and protect the rights of Pennsylvanians. Now Josh is on a journey to become Pennsylvania’s next governor, advancing our commonwealth and tackling our greatest challenges.
Josh grew up in Pennsylvania watching his parents serve their community: his father was a pediatrician and his mother a preschool teacher. Her example inspired Josh to enter public service, and from a young age Josh knew he wanted to spend his career serving others.
Because of this, after graduating from the University of Rochester, Josh began working in government while attending law school at night.
After marrying high school sweetheart Lori and welcoming their first child, Josh returned to his hometown and successfully ran for state representative. As a representative, Josh helped write and pass some of the toughest ethics laws in the state’s history. His work has earned him a reputation as a rare official willing to embrace the status quo: “a breath of fresh air in the smoky back rooms of Harrisburg’s quid-pro-quo.”
Josh then led tax and ethics advances as Chairman of the Board of Commissioners in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania’s third-largest county. Before he took office, Montgomery County had a $10 million budget deficit and an unfunded pension for county employees. Josh put the county back on solid financial footing, took the first steps to fight the heroin epidemic, helped Pennsylvania’s first LGBTQ+ couples get married, and fired Wall Street money managers to help millions of taxpayers and retirees.
In 2016, Josh successfully ran for Pennsylvania Attorney General. As an AG, he restored the integrity of an office in need of reform and worked with great commitment for the people. She has shown the citizens of Pennsylvania that she can bring people together to solve difficult problems and is not afraid to enforce the law without fear or favor.
Josh condemned the Catholic Church’s decades-long cover-up of child sex abuse, identified 301 predatory priests and thousands of victims, and launched investigations across the United States. He pushed through a settlement between two of the Commonwealth’s largest insurance companies that protects access to health care for 2 million Pennsylvanians and has gone to court repeatedly to defend Pennsylvanians’ reproductive rights and women’s right to choose.
He has held more than 90 officials, Republicans and Democrats, accountable for breaking the law. Working with local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, he arrested thousands of mid-level and high-level drug dealers and took thousands of illegal guns off our streets.
During the 2020 presidential election, Josh defended Pennsylvania’s voting rights and election results, winning dozens of times in court before and after Election Day. She continues to expose the dangerous lies that are undermining our democracy and provide consistent, strong, and competent leadership to protect voting rights in Pennsylvania.
In January 2021, Josh was sworn in for his second term as Attorney General and continues to protect Pennsylvanians, take on big fights and deliver real results.
Josh fights the opioid epidemic head-on. He arrested more than 6,000 drug dealers while investigating and prosecuting drug companies and CEOs who knowingly perpetuated the crisis to line their pockets. He protects everyday consumers, seniors, and scammed students from being exploited by private lenders by providing over $ 328 million in aid to scammed Pennsylvania citizens. He is a leader in criminal justice reform, bringing together activists and law enforcement to start a new state database of police misconduct by employers stealing from workers in Pennsylvania.
Josh Shapiro knows that the Pennsylvanians need a governor to face the biggest battles and solve our most pressing problems. As long as Josh serves our Commonwealth, he will continue to protect the Pennsylvanians and deliver results.
Josh and Lori live in Montgomery County with their three school-aged children and their eldest daughter attends the University of Pittsburgh.
Attorney General Michelle Henry is the current Attorney General for Pennsylvania
Michelle A. Henry is an Attorney General of Pennsylvania and a lifelong public servant with 26 years of experience as a prosecutor. Her unwavering commitment to public service has been widely recognized throughout her career. She began her journey as an intern in the Westmoreland County District Attorney’s Office and rose to become the chief legal officer for the Commonwealth.
Michelle grew up in Westmoreland County and graduated from Greensburg-Salem public schools, where she remains a proud Golden Lion. She holds degrees from Allegheny College and the Widener University School of Law. She started her career working for the Westmoreland County Legal Aid Office and clerked for retired Lancaster County President Judge Michael Georgelis.
Before her current role, Michelle spent over 20 years working for the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office, where she held various critical positions, including Chief of Major Crimes, Chief of Child Abuse, and First Assistant. She was appointed Bucks County District Attorney in 2008 with a bipartisan vote. Michelle was renowned for leading by example, taking on the toughest cases, and initiating major programs like the county’s children’s advocacy center. She also played a crucial role in educating junior prosecutors from across the Commonwealth.
As the First Deputy Attorney General under former Attorney General Josh Shapiro, Michelle oversaw all legal matters, including criminal cases, civil suits, and public protection cases that fought for the rights of Pennsylvania consumers. Her tireless work safeguarding the Office’s mission to protect and serve Pennsylvanians as the legal advocate for the Commonwealth earned her several accolades, including admission to the American College of Trial Lawyers, one of the top legal associations in North America. She also received Widener University Commonwealth Law School’s 2017 Excellence in Public Service Alumni Award for her “extraordinary contributions” to public service.
