A 38-year-old man pleaded guilty on Wednesday to attempting to murder Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro in an April arson attack on the politician's residence, in which he set part of the house on fire with beer bottles filled with gasoline while Shapiro and his family were sleeping inside, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
Cody Ballmer also pleaded guilty to terrorism, 22 counts of arson, 21 counts of reckless conduct and a number of other charges, according to transcripts from a court in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.
A Pennsylvania judge sentenced Ballmer to 25 to 50 years in a state prison.
The April attack was part of a wave of political violence in the United States. There have been about 150 politically motivated attacks in the country in the first half of 2025, nearly double the number in the same period last year, according to researchers of political violence.
During an emotional statement at a news conference, Shapiro said the attack had a profound impact on him and his family, and that despite the rising level of political violence in the United States, no one should "stand still and do nothing" regarding such things.
"We need real accountability for acts of political violence, and today is the day for real accountability for the violence that has come here in Pennsylvania," said Shapiro, who is considered a potential candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 2028 election.
After the attack, Ballmer told police that he "hates" Shapiro and would have beaten him with a hammer if he had met the governor at the residence.
According to a police search warrant issued in April when Ballmer called 911 to confess, he told police that he believed Shapiro, who is Jewish, was promoting the war in Gaza and "he needs to stop killing my friends." and "our people have suffered too much from this monster".
Since the attack on Shapiro's residence in the United States, there have been other acts of political violence that have targeted figures from both the right and left of the political spectrum, Reuters notes.