DCCC - Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee

09/23/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/23/2024 08:36

New York Magazine “The Election Will Be Decided Here” In Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District

With less than 45 days until Election Day, far-right extremist Scott Perry is uniquely vulnerable according to new reporting from New York Magazine.

While PA-10 "has become more moderate," Perry hasn't changed his "uncompromisingly" far-right views - including his support for a national abortion ban without exceptions. He also has made no attempt to distance himself from his actions as one of the architects "in the efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election," "insisting he did nothing wrong."

Knowing his extremism is unpopular with Central Pennsylvanians, Perry refuses to be held accountable, acting "almost incognito" among his own constituents.

DCCC Spokesperson Aidan Johnson:
"Scott Perry is vulnerable for a reason: he refuses to stray from - or own up to - his chaos and extremism. After 30 years in politics, the only person he is representing in Washington is himself."

  • The topic of subverting democracy is a touchy one. The former chair of the House Freedom Caucus, [Scott] Perry was one of Donald Trump 's key congressional allies in the efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election - federal investigators even seized his phone. He has long insisted he did nothing wrong and compared his efforts to ensure "election integrity" were like a murder investigation where "we have got to find out who did it," which he says is different from "trying to resurrect the body."

  • Perry is the only member of the Freedom Caucus to represent a swing district and, despite that, he has not changed his political views an iota even though the swath of central Pennsylvania he's represented for six terms has become more moderate. A traditionally Republican-leaning area that includes the state capital, Harrisburg, the district has recently moved thanks to the mid-Atlantic transplants filling subdivisions over what used to be farmland.

  • It is the congressional race, though, that is most like the presidential one, pitting Perry, a Republican firmly associated with the party's MAGA wing, against Janelle Stelson, a Democrat banking on the revulsion of suburban women over the Dobbs decision.

  • For the incumbent, the big question is whether his uncompromisingly conservative approach can still appeal to enough voters… Both Democratic and Republican operatives believe he's uniquely vulnerable as the district's political make-up shifts.

  • Last Saturday, Stelson was busy campaigning at the Hispanic Heritage Festival in Harrisburg, where she occasionally dodged processions of paraders carrying Puerto Rican and Dominican flags. Attendees stopped her for selfies given her status as a bona fide local celebrity after decades as an anchor on the local NBC affiliate. At one point during our sit-down interview, a man named Omar recognizes her while riding by on his bike and stops for a picture, proclaiming that Stelson is his "idol." After nearly 40 years on TV, Stelson is particularly gifted at retail politics for a first-time candidate, telling starstruck locals, "I'm out of my box. I have legs."

  • Stelson recalls with perfect clarity the day she decided she would run for office: June 24, 2022, when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. "And then I was live on the set when it happened, and it took a chunk out of my heart that day," she says. "I had to look out into the camera in my best nonpartisan way at the time every woman watching had her rights rolled back 50 years." Abortion is a centerpiece of her campaign, which features a television ad hammering Perry for co-sponsoring a bill that says life begins at conception.