Pa. Republicans defend Trump’s agenda but acknowledge ‘extremely difficult’ election year at annual conference

CAMP HILL — Pennsylvania Republicans — bracing for a series of tough elections this fall — assembled Friday for their largest annual gathering, where attendees defended President Donald Trump’s track record amid mounting public dissatisfaction around his international and economic agendas.

The conference, attended by the state’s most prominent Republican leaders and grassroots organizers, offered a glimpse into the party’s messaging as it tries to motivate a base that helped usher in sweeping wins less than two years ago.

Now facing new headwinds, U.S. Rep. Scott Perry (R., York), who is among those facing a highly competitive reelection this fall, called for “total vigilance.”

“Venezuela is no longer a threat to the United States of America. Cuba is on the verge of toppling. Iran, I guarantee you, Iran is going to back down,” Perry said, pacing the stage in front of a couple hundred cheering conference attendees. “And, oh, by the way, men are not going to be competing in girls’ sports. And we’re going to stop the attempted Islamification of the United States of America.”

The Pennsylvania Leadership Conference arrived this year at a precarious moment in Trump’s second term.

Nearly six weeks into the largest military campaign in the Middle East since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, polls have shown voters are deeply divided over the president’s decision to attack Iran. The war has spiked gas prices to a nationwide average of $4.15. The Department of Homeland Security has been largely unfunded for almost two months. And Trump’s threat this week to kill the “whole civilization” of Iran — before backing down and agreeing to a ceasefire — led to Democrats calling for his forced removal from office as Republicans mostly remained silent.

Perry brushed aside concerns about the threat to wipe out Iran. He said he understood people who “want our president to be magnanimous” and that he personally doesn’t “love my kids having to see those kinds of things.”

But he told attendees to focus on the results. He claimed Iran had “finally caved to somebody,” though he also indicated a few minutes later that it had not yet done so: “Iran is going to back down. It’s going to happen.”

Some critics have said they are concerned Iran may emerge from the war in a stronger position than before it started.

U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick (R., Pa.), who narrowly skated to a win with the momentum behind Trump in 2024, did not acknowledge the president’s threat during remarks at the conference. Still, he defended the war at length and suggested that U.S. military forces should be used further to “finish the job” if negotiations fail.

“We need to use our military capability if they don’t open the [Strait of Hormuz], in a very targeted way,” McCormick said of the essential oil and shipping channel.

As Iran continued to control the strait and reportedly stalled the start of negotiations on Friday, McCormick did not say how quickly he believed those attacks should resume, though he stressed urgency.

“The gas prices have gone up by a buck a gallon and that is not going to work for very long for most families in Pennsylvania,” McCormick said. “So we’ve got to get that wrapped up and get our energy prices back to where they need to be.”

McCormick and other speakers mostly painted a rosy picture of Trump’s first 15 months back in office and took shots at Gov. Josh Shapiro, the Democrat and potential 2028 presidential candidate who Republicans hope to unseat in Harrisburg this year.

They advocated repeatedly for Republican policies — from the pending federal legislation to require voter ID in all elections to the recent push to invest in health savings accounts rather than the expired Affordable Care Act credits in order to keep healthcare costs manageable.

The crowd cheered as Education Secretary Linda McMahon, the featured speaker who opened the conference day, talked about her efforts to dismantle her own agency and make teachers’ pay dependent on “merit.”

She and others also called on Shapiro to opt in to a policy that passed in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year that would permit up to $1,700 in tax credits if individuals donate to organizations that give out K-12 scholarships. Some Democrats have opposed the program because its goal is to incentivize private school attendance.

McMahon said Shapiro, who in the past has supported school choice policies, had “done some good things” on the issue so she was “surprised, actually, that he has not opted in.”

Guy Ciarrocchi, a Republican commentator who emceed the conference, said while talking with McCormick on stage that neither Shapiro nor Govs. Gavin Newsom, of California, or J.B. Pritzker, of Illinois, had joined the program.

“What do they have in common?” McCormick said, picking up the bit about how all three are rumored presidential contenders in two years. “It’s a head scratcher.”

Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity, the Republican running to prevent Shapiro from winning a second term this year, was set to speak to the conference Friday night.

The gubernatorial battle will be the premier race for Pennsylvania voters this year — but there’s no shortage of other significant contests on the ballots across the state.

Critically, four Republicans running for reelection to Congress are in competitive districts and being targeted by Democrats, who need to flip only three seats in the entire country to win back the majority.

Perry, whose York County-based district includes the area where the conference was held, was the only one of those four set to speak at the conference. The seven-term Republican won his 2024 reelection by just over 5,000 votes out of nearly 407,000 cast and is likely to face the same Democratic challenger again this year.

A former leader of the hard-right Freedom Caucus, his speech on Friday was one of the most emphatic of the day. He praised Trump’s actions in Iran and railed against Democrats who he claimed were “defunding the police” by blocking the Homeland Security funding. Democrats have mostly demanded reforms to immigration enforcement before passing the agency’s budget, though some have called for the abolishing of ICE.

While Perry didn’t focus on his own reelection race, at least one other speaker referenced the challenge he’s facing.

“We need to spend every dollar we have on Scott Perry and protect him at all costs,” said Cliff Maloney, the CEO of Citizens Alliance, a conservative group that aims to turn out voters.

Shapiro has promised to use his political capital — which comes with a hefty war chest and favorable polling — to help oust Perry and the other three congresspeople who Democrats are targeting in the state: U.S. Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, of Bucks County; Rob Bresnahan, of Lackawanna County; and Ryan Mackenzie, of Lehigh County. Fundraising reports this week showed Shapiro’s campaign with a whopping $36 million in the bank compared to Garrity’s $1.5 million cash on hand.

At a New York City event on Wednesday hosted by Rev. Al Sharpton, Shapiro said he was “going all in on [those races] so we can make Hakeem Jeffries the speaker of the House.”

The strategy, he said, was straightforward — making every election “a national referendum on Donald Trump.”

“If you don’t like what you see on TV, if you are upset and angered — rightfully so by the chaos and the cruelty and the corruption that we see every day — well, you’ve got to get out and vote,” Shapiro said.

National Republicans also have their eyes on protecting the vulnerable Pennsylvania members. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) headlined fundraisers for all four of them in the state this week, according to Politico.

As the campaigns begin to heat up before Pennsylvania’s May 19 primary, polls suggest Republicans across the country may face an uphill battle.

Trump’s national approval ratings to start April had dipped to the lowest point of his presidency, around or less than 40%, according to an average of polls listed by The New York Times, RealClear Politics and other groups. Generic questions about which party should control Congress have also increasingly tilted in Democrats’ favor, the polls show.

“I’m telling you right now, 2026 is going to be extremely difficult,” said Maloney, the conservative activist. “It’s not a kumbaya moment. I don’t want us to all think, ‘Oh, it’s going to be fine.’ They’re coming at us with everything they have.”