Pennsylvania Democrat Janelle Stelson, who narrowly lost a battleground race in the Harrisburg-based 10th District last year, announced Monday her long-awaited second challenge to Republican Rep. Scott Perry.
Perry won a seventh term last year by defeating Stelson, a former broadcast journalist, by just over a percentage point, his narrowest victory margin going back to his first election in 2012. Democrats hope that Stelson, running for a second time, can capitalize on a stronger political environment and opposition to Perry’s support for House Republicans’ reconciliation measure to oust the former House Freedom Caucus chair.
“Scott Perry has spent more than a decade in DC taking votes that hurt us instead of delivering results – and he just sold us out again by casting the deciding vote for the largest Medicaid cuts in history, all to fund more tax cuts for billionaires,” Stelson said in a statement. “People around here are sick and tired of career politicians like Scott Perry betraying them at every turn.”
Donald Trump carried the 10th District by 5 points last year, according to calculations by The Downballot, but Stelson outran the top of the ticket and lost by just over 5,000 votes.
House Majority PAC, a super PAC with ties to House Democratic leadership, released a poll Monday that found 46 percent of district constituents saying they would vote for Stelson and 43 percent saying they would support Perry. Another 11 percent were not sure.
It’s not clear whether Stelson, who won a six-way Democratic primary to challenge Perry last year, will have the primary to herself this time around. Dauphin County Commissioner Justin Douglas said last week that he was exploring a bid.
A handful of Democratic outside groups endorsed Stelson shortly after she announced her campaign, including EMILY’s List, which backs Democratic women who support abortion rights, and the New Democrat Coalition Action Fund, the campaign arm of the eponymous center-left House group.
A Perry campaign spokesman dismissed Stelson’s latest challenge, accusing her of wanting to raise taxes and calling her a “carpetbagger,” referencing a vulnerability for Stelson last cycle when she lived outside the district.
“Janelle Stelson will lose again because the Voters of the 10th congressional district know they have a leader in Scott Perry fighting for them,” Perry campaign spokesman Matt Beynon said in an email Monday.
But Stelson on Monday told WGAL that she had since moved to Cumberland County, inside the 10th District.
“For people to be talking about that instead of Scott Perry’s record, that’s a distraction. And if I can remove any distractions, I’m all about, you know, laser-focused on everybody knowing what I stand for and what Scott Perry stands for so they can make a good choice,” she told the outlet.
Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rates the race Tilt Republican.
Battleground state
Pennsylvania is expected to play a key role in the fight for the House next year, with five seats, including the 10th District, seen as battlegrounds.
Democrats are targeting two seats that Republicans flipped last fall: the Lehigh Valley-based 7th District represented by Rep. Ryan Mackenzie and the 8th District in northeast Pennsylvania, held by Rep. Rob Bresnahan Jr.
A handful of Democrats have already launched campaigns to challenge Mackenzie, including former utility company executive Carol Obando-Derstine, Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure and former federal prosecutor Ryan Crosswell. No Democrat has yet announced a challenge to Bresnahan in the neighboring 8th District. Former Rep. Matt Cartwright, who lost reelection last year, announced last month that he had decided against seeking a rematch.
Inside Elections rates the 7th District race a Toss-up and the 8th District election as Leans Republican.
The other two Pennsylvania lawmakers in battleground districts include Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, one of three House Republicans representing seats that Kamala Harris carried last year, and Democratic Rep. Chris Deluzio in the Pittsburgh area.
After defeating Democrat Ashley Ehasz in back-to-back elections, Fitzpatrick, who was one of just two House Republicans to oppose his party’s sweeping reconciliation bill this month, is poised to face a new challenger next year, with Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie entering the race for the seat outside Philadelphia.
Deluzio has yet to draw a prominent Republican opponent in the 17th District.
Inside Elections rates Fitzpatrick’s reelection as Likely Republican and Deluzio’s as Likely Democratic.
This report has been updated to include Janelle Stelson’s remarks to WGAL that she has moved to the 10th District since the 2024 election.
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