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Shapiro, 48, is the first Democrat to enter the race, taking on the many Republican candidates who are already running for governor in the 2022 election.
Among those are Lou Barletta, former U.S. representative, Charlie Gerow, conservative activist and vice-chair of the American Conservative Union, and William McSwain, former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Shapiro said in a two-minute campaign video there are already Republican candidates who "want to lead us down a dark path, undermine free and fair elections, strip away voting rights, and permanently divide us."
“Simply put, Josh Shapiro’s record disqualifies him from serving as governor,” Barletta said in a statement. “He has zero real-world experience and would lead Pennsylvania even further in the wrong direction than Wolf has.”
Gov. Tom Wolf, who was first elected in 2014, is term-limited and cannot run for re-election a third time.
Shapiro was elected as the state's highest prosecutor in 2016. He previously served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and as chairman of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners.
He started his second term as attorney general in January.
He is best known for his appearances on national television, where he denied former President Donald Trump's claims that the 2020 presidential election was "rigged."
He's also recognized for leading a grand jury investigation into sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.
That investigation uncovered 300 "predator priests" who had been credibly accused of sexually abusing over 1,000 child victims in six Pennsylvania dioceses over the previous seven decades, CNN reports.
“I understand people feel like our politics are divided and broken right now, but we can’t just take our ball and go home," he said in the video. "There's too much on the line."
The video included endorsements from state representative and Democratic nominee in the 2021 Pittsburgh mayoral election Ed Gainey, former Montgomery County Director of Finance Brian Regli, and sexual abuse survivor Mary McHale.
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