For Pennsylvania Gov. Shapiro, an arson attack revealed his family’s vulnerability in an age of rising political violence

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, accompanied by his wife Lori Shapiro, speaks during a news conference after Cody Balmer plead guilty to attempted murder and other charges, on Tuesday in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Matt Slocum/AP

Cody Balmer stood outside an iron fence surrounding the resolute brick mansion, waiting and watching the home where his target slept. In a bag, he had stuffed two beer bottles filled with gasoline and a weighty metal sledgehammer.

In the early morning hours of April 13, he scaled the fence of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s official residence and shattered a window with the sledgehammer, throwing one of his Molotov cocktails inside, prosecutors say.

Windows were already beginning to glow with firelight when Balmer smashed another window and infiltrated the ho