Democrats hope a rematch can dislodge Trump loyalist Perry in Pennsylvania

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Of all the Republican members of Congress who represent swing districts, there may be none as closely linked to President Donald Trump as Scott Perry of Pennsylvania.

Perry backed Trump’s signature tax-cutting laws in 2017 and 2025. He’s aggressively defended Trump’s war with Iran. And when Trump tried to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential election victory in 2020, Perry sought to invalidate Pennsylvania’s electoral votes and elevate an acting attorney general who would act on conspiracy theories.

Now the question is whether Perry’s ties to Trump will be his undoing in a midterm election where the president is dramatically unpopular and Perry faces a second challenge from Democrat Janelle Stelson after he narrowly defeated the former local television anchor two years ago.

Asked if he needed to differentiate himself from an unpopular Trump to win, Perry brushed off the question.

“I speak for myself. I don’t speak for him, and he doesn’t speak for me,” Perry told The Associated Press. “If you want to know where I stand on an issue, the issue is mine. I’ve always been that way. Nothing’s changed.”

Democrats see Perry as vulnerable

Democrats have long believed that Perry was vulnerable because of his hard-right politics that look increasingly out of step with a Republican-leaning district that is moderating as Harrisburg’s suburbs grow.

He defeated Stelson by only 1 percentage point in 2024, making it one of the country’s closest House races that year. Trump won the district by 5 percentage points against Democrat Kamala Harris, a performance that analysts say suggests that loyal Trump voters pulled Perry across the finish line.

The Trump administration seems interested in helping Perry win.

The Department of Homeland Security attacked Stelson in a public statement after the arrest of a Nigerian man who it said was in the country illegally and working for Stelson’s campaign. Stelson’s campaign, however, said it didn’t employ the man, spending records didn’t show a payment to him and a nonpartisan watchdog said the department had violated a law intended to keep the federal government from trying to help or hurt candidates for office.

Perry served as leader of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus in 2022 and 2023, when the caucus was a key player in two high-profile speakership fights.

The federal investigation into Trump’s effort to prevent Biden from taking office also put Perry in a national spotlight. He became the only member of Congress to have his personal cellphone seized by federal authorities.

A federal judge later ordered Perry to turn over texts and emails to FBI agents. He was never charged with a crime.

Perry insists he’s independent of Trump

Perry is quick to point out that he has disagreements with Trump.

For instance, he voted in February against a $1.2 trillion spending plan backed by Trump to end a partial federal government shutdown and said he opposes Trump’s plan to allow 600,000 Chinese students into American universities.

“I’m one of the guys that stands up against my own party when I think they’re going the wrong way,” Perry said. “And not just quietly. Vocally.”

In a recent visit, Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters said he told Perry to lean into his strengths, such as Perry’s nearly four decades in the Army and the National Guard that included flying helicopter missions in Iraq.

“When you compare his record of service, not only to Pennsylvania but the country, I think it’s lights out,” Gruters said. “And that’s where he wins.”

However, Perry has already suffered because of his association with Trump.

One Republican voter, Terry Wallace, a retired Army colonel, said he had voted for Perry before the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters but won’t anymore.

“I mean, he led the effort to throw out the Pennsylvania votes from the presidential election,” Wallace said. “I remember the next thing he claimed was the Brits were fixing our voting machines. And then he accused a person, the CIA director, of a cover-up.”

It’s the same story with Tracy Pawelski. She used to work in the U.S. Capitol and had friends in the Capitol Police, and she came to see Perry as an “election denier and minion of the president” who can’t be trusted.

Scott Trompeter, a Republican who dislikes Trump, said he’s unhappy that Perry has backed the president at a time when Trompeter, an Air Force veteran, and his girlfriend are clipping coupons to make ends meet.

On top of rising food and gas prices, Trompeter is aghast at Trump-fueled “nonsense” like Trump’s plans to host military drones, snipers and ammunition inside a ceremonial arch that he wants to build across the Potomac River from Washington.

“Like, what is going on?” Trompeter said. “And then people like Scott Perry will vote for that if it comes to a vote.”

Stelson is targeting moderate voters

Stelson spent almost four decades working in television, mostly as an anchor at the NBC affiliate in the Harrisburg market. She also embedded with the Pennsylvania National Guard in Kosovo, moderated debates and interviewed presidents and other politicians.

Running for office for the first time in 2024, she easily won a six-way Democratic primary to challenge Perry, despite drawing flack because she didn’t live in the district and had just changed her registration from Republican to Democrat.

Then, as now, Stelson has crafted a platform designed to sway moderate Republicans. She portrays Perry as helping jack up the cost of living, plays down criticism of Trump and avoids associating herself with the Democratic Party’s left flank.

For instance, she talks about how Trump strengthened border security while Biden failed, calls herself a fiscal conservative and rejects Perry’s accusation that she would align with the socialist left if elected.

“He’s lying, and he knows he’s lying,” Stelson said.

She quips that, to beat Perry, she needs to win 5,134 more Republican votes — one more vote than her losing margin in 2024 — and dismisses suggestions that pursuing moderates will cost her the Democrats she’ll also need.

What she worries about, she said, is what people tell her about every day, and that’s their struggle with the cost of living.

“They don’t ask me where I sit on a political spectrum,” she said. “I don’t think they care.”

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Follow Marc Levy at http://x.com/timelywriter.