US Rep. Scott Perry wins reelection in competitive Pa. race against TV anchor Janelle Stelson

PHILADELPHIA — 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.