Janelle Stelson officially launches her rematch campaign against US Rep. Scott Perry after razor-thin loss

Aliya Schneider, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Jul 14, 2025

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PHILADELPHIA — Janelle Stelson is at it again.

The Democrat and former broadcast journalist lost her congressional race challenging U.S. Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) by just a little more than 1 percentage point last year, and she’s officially launching her rematch campaign on Monday for the 2026 election.

Perry, a Republican who has represented a Central Pennsylvania district since 2012, is a longtime ally of President Donald Trump and former chair of the Freedom Caucus in Washington. He’s successfully held onto his seat through various challenges over the years, but Stelson got the closest in a year that was in many ways brutal for Democrats in Pennsylvania. Her margin in the district was 4 points better than former Vice President Kamala Harris’.

“It is time we had a Representative in Congress who actually listens to us and fights for us,” Stelson, 65, said in a statement announcing her 2026 campaign.

“Scott Perry has spent more than a decade in DC taking votes that hurt us instead of delivering results — and he just sold us out again by casting the deciding vote for the largest Medicaid cuts in history, all to fund more tax cuts for billionaires,” she added. “People around here are sick and tired of career politicians like Scott Perry betraying them at every turn.”

Stelson was registered as a Republican until 2023, and changed her party before launching her 2024 Democratic campaign. She had been working as a nonpartisan journalist in central Pennsylvania for decades before deciding to run for office. Political analysts began to view the district as more viable for Democrats after she first announced her plan to challenge Perry in 2023.

She went on to win a six-way primary with 43% of the vote for the coveted chance to face Perry and ended up raising more money than him.

Trump already endorsed Perry’s reelection in April, calling him a “MAGA Warrior, who always puts AMERICA FIRST” in a post on Truth Social, the president’s social media platform. The National Republican Congressional Committee praised Perry’s “growing momentum” for 2026.

Attacking Perry will play a hallmark role in Stelson’scampaign, from going after his support for Trump, election denialism, and Jan. 6 ties, to his history of antiabortion views and vote for the recent budget bill that makes cuts to Medicaid and food assistance.

Stelson’s campaign will mix more universal Democratic messaging like defending reproductive rights and Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid while taking a more centrist tone over securing the border and supporting law enforcement. She also pledges to tackle lowering the cost of living, enacting term limits, and honoring veterans.

Her campaign says she “bears no allegiance to paralyzing partisan politics and stands ready to bring a fresh perspective to Washington.”

In 2024, Perry, 63, attacked Stelson as too far left for the district and for living outside the district’s lines in nearby Lancaster.

The 10th Congressional district includes Dauphin County and parts of Cumberland and York Counties. Close to 45% of the district’s voters are registered Republicans and a little more than 37% are registered Democrats.

The district voted for Trump by a 5.2-point margin in 2024, a 1.1-point swing farther to the right than in the 2020 presidential election. But parts of the district have shifted left, like Cumberland County, which includes suburbs of Harrisburg and went 1.1 points farther toward the Democratic presidential candidate.

The district voted in favor of Republican Mehmet Oz, who now works in Trump’s cabinet, over Sen. John Fetterman in 2022, but also voted for center-left Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro over far-right State Sen. Doug Mastriano.

Stelson has so far received endorsements from various Democrats in her region as well as Lt. Gov. Austin Davis, who is part of a new initiative to broaden the Democratic Party’s messaging tactics.

She was also endorsed by a handful of former Republican public officials, including former U.S. Rep. Denver Riggleman, of Virginia, who worked as an adviser to the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

Shapiro, who won Perry’s district in 2022, is not listed with the other endorsers, but he is slated to appear with Stelson at an event this week.

Stelson is framing her campaign as one against Perry from the start, which she also did last time. But it’s too early to say for sure what the Democratic primary field will look like.

Mike O’Brien, a veteran who came in second place in Stelson’s primary last year with about 23% of the vote, is now running for Cumberland Valley School Board and is endorsing Stelson in the congressional race.

Dauphin County Commissioner Justin Douglas, a progressive pastor, announced last week that he’s considering running for the congressional seat and put together an exploratory committee. Douglas was elected to his position in 2023, flipping the county commission for the first time in over a century.

“There’s a lot of unfinished business in Dauphin County, I’m not gonna lie,” Douglas told WGAL. “I want to continue to see that work through. I do think at the federal level I’ll have some opportunities to continue on that work.”