Janelle Stelson is back to finish the job
Stelson came within a point of being the 219th House Democrat in 2024. Now she's back to finish the job
Today, Janelle Stelson announced a re-match against the most extreme swing seat Republican: Scott Perry.
WelcomePAC endorsed Stelson in 2024 when she came within 1.2 points of defeating the former House Freedom Caucus Chair and FBI investigatee Scott Perry.
Now she’s back for a rematch and the path to victory is clear. We are thrilled she’s in the race.
Last month, WelcomeFest attendees heard how Stelson over performed (watch that video here).
Janelle has what it takes to win over Republican and swing voters in PA-10 because she’s already done it. In 2024, Stelson nearly shocked the political world when she came within 5,133 votes of defeating Scott Perry. A race that started the cycle as Likely Republican ended up as a Toss Up and one of the closest races in the country.
This race will be one of the closest watched races this cycle and will help determine control of the US House of Representatives (she was 1.2 points away from being the 219th Democrat in 2024). The early polling is strong for Stelson, with a House Majority PAC poll showing her ahead 46% to 43%.
Diligence
Entering the 2024 cycle, race-raters claimed the race was “likely Republican” after being “Safe Republican”.
But we saw an opportunity. We scoured the country to identify the most vulnerable Republican extremist. Our diligence process started with 36 potential districts, and after months of research, dozens of conversations with candidates and local leaders, a series of calls with partner organizations and district visits, we identified Scott Perry as the unlucky winner of that process.
We wrote in 2023 about why Scott Perry was vulnerable in what (at the time) was a race that was not in the national conversation, and encouraged Democrats to go on offense and challenge Scott Perry in 2024:
Perry, however, is vulnerable. His Harrisburg-based district gave Trump just 51% of the vote in 2020. He is the archetype of an opponent that Democrats and their Never Trump allies must target in the 2024 elections.
We knew that this combination of GOP extremism and Democratic moderation would create the potential for an upset. Perry provided plenty of GOP extremism, and Janelle Stelson provided the Democratic moderation by focusing on winning the middle and nearly put Scott Perry out of a job.
Most Extreme Swing Seat Republican
We have written plenty about why Scott Perry should not be in Congress. A few lowlights:
Perry was “central to the planning of January 6.”
Perry’s phone was seized by the FBI as part of an investigation into his role in the plot to overturn the 2020 election .
Perry admitted to doctoring reports related to the illegal dumping of sludge on the back of a local creek.
As a former head of the House Freedom Caucus, Perry brought the country to the brink of a shutdown multiple times. He even questioned if people would be affected by them, saying, “Who’s living that they’re not going to make it to the next paycheck?”
When the mother of a disabled child reached out to Perry with concerns about losing Medicaid coverage, he sent her a letter telling her that her concerns were based on the media’s “desperate, fearmongering propaganda.”
Scott Perry’s extreme views mean he is often the lone lawmaker from the Pennsylvania delegation voting against vital legislation, like protecting firefighters from cancer, something Stelson’s ads have taken advantage of.
Since his re-election in November, Scott Perry has continued to be absent in the district and ignore his constituents. His district office doors were locked, no one in his office across the district answered phone calls, and voters couldn’t remember the last time he held a town hall.
Perry’s latest vote to pass the “One Big Beautiful Bill” will have a huge impact on the nearly 173,000 people in PA-10 who are on Medicaid.
Janelle Protects Democracy By Practicing It
Janelle outperformed the top of the ticket by 4.2 points by building a cross-partisan coalition that included thousands of Trump/Stelson voters. How was she able to do this? Trust. For over 30 years, Stelson worked as a local journalist and anchor who delivered the news in a factual and nonpartisan way. Voters knew and trusted her before she even entered the race because she had been in their living rooms speaking the truth for decades.
A Philadelphia Inquirer piece from last year shows how Stelson approached her race:
“I’ve been the trusted, nonpartisan voice,” she said. “If I haven’t been sitting in your living room doing a story on you in all that time, I’ve been in your living room on your TV, chances are.”Even her ex-husband, whom she called a “hardcore Republican” donated to her campaign, she said.
“It’s hard to go up against an entrenched incumbent,” she said. “But again, having so many Republicans and independents reach out to me the way they have been over the past several months lets me know this is possible.”
Scott Perry is an election denier, but Stelson understands that the way you beat election deniers is by building broad coalitions, and focusing on economic issues.
Last cycle, Perry’s extremism and absenteeism nearly cost him his seat, sneaking in by just over a point. This cycle, with Janelle leading the way, let’s finish the job.