U.S. Rep. Scott Perry wins reelection in competitive race against TV anchor Janelle Stelson

Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Perry won reelection for a seventh term representing the 10th Congressional District, defeating Janelle Stelson, a Democrat and former local news anchor who tried to flip the seat.

Perry won the district, which includes Dauphin County and parts of Cumberland and York Counties.

Perry faced a brutal challenge from Stelson, who left her career in local television news to challenge the conservative lawmaker.

Perry, 62, warded off past attempts to flip his seat, but this year’s race became increasingly competitive, first when Stelson, 64, entered the crowded primary and then as she maintained strong fundraising, outraising Perry.

Perry was able to hold onto the seat with a campaign that painted Stelson, a centrist and former Republican, as too left for the district. He also attacked her for living outside district lines in Lancaster.

While addressing his supporters Tuesday, Perry said Stelson’s campaign had been propelled by out-of-state donors, not a groundswell of local support. “They threw millions and millions of dollars at this district, this little district — people coming in from the West Coast — people who don’t know anybody here, people who don’t care about anybody here,” Perry said. “We knew it was going to be a fight.”

Stelson expressed optimism at her election night party when she held a modest lead, thanking supporters for their hard work and donations.

“Last I heard, we knocked more doors than any campaign in the state,” she said.

She said supporters had come together around her moderate message, including that “there is a woman’s right to determine what happens to your body — and maybe Scott Perry should not be involved.”

Perry is a Trump ally and former chair of the House Freedom Caucus. He tried to stir up doubts about the legitimacy of the 2020 election, and attempted to halt certification of Pennsylvania’s 2020 election results. He also had his phone seized as part of the FBI’s investigation into attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

Before being elected to Congress in 2012, he served as a representative in the Pennsylvania House for three terms. He lives in Dillstown, in York County, with his wife and two daughters.

Perry ran on a familiar GOP platform, calling for tax cuts, tougher border security, and anti-LGBTQ policies, as well as the defunding of Planned Parenthood. Perry sponsored the Life at Conception Act, which would serve as a national abortion ban, but he says on his campaign website that he now supports exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother.

He currently sits on the Transportation and Infrastructure, Foreign Affairs, and Oversight and Accountability Committees.

On Thursday evening, some voters in downtown Carlisle — the county seat for Cumberland County — didn’t know who the candidates were for Congress and said they voted along party lines, based on their presidential preference.

Some said they were dismayed by Perry’s involvement with Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election, while others said they voted for Perry simply because he’s in the same party as Trump.

But Diann Berry, 58, a bank officer who lives in Carlisle, said she has been a consistent Perry voter and is relieved he won the race. Berry, a Republican, said she usually votes Republican up and down the ballot, but not always.

”I just felt he was more in line with what I feel is better for Pennsylvania,” she said. “… Pro-life, obviously, was one of the major considerations.”

Stephen Wagner, a 75-year-old Carlisle Democrat, said he voted for Stelson because he believes she demonstrated better character than Perry.

”She showed a lot of respect and dignity, and I didn’t think Perry did that,” said Wagner, who is retired from the Pennsylvania National Guard.

”He kind of went along with that January 6 stuff. … That’s not supporting the Constitution of the United States,” he added.