Pennsylvania Republicans reignite bid to unseat Maga congressman

A group of Republicans in Pennsylvania are relaunching their efforts to unseat Congressman Scott Perry, the fervent Trump ally who represents the state’s 10th congressional district, according to plans first provided to the Guardian. The “Republicans Against Perry” (Rap) group began in late 2023, backing the congressman’s Democratic opponent, Janelle Stelson, who ended up losing by less than two points in the 2024 election. Now, Rap is restarting their grassroots campaign on Thursday, which includes a slew of electronic billboards throughout the district. With Republicans’ razor-thin margin in the House, the seat will be one to watch closely in the midterm elections. Politics PA called Perry’s seat the most vulnerable of the 2026 congressional races they are watching. While Rap is backed by the WelcomePac, which focuses its support for Democratic candidates, the group is not throwing its weight behind any candidate challenging Perry just yet. “It’s premature to make a sort of final determination,” said Craig Snyder, a Pennsylvania-based Republican organizer who is running the campaign. “Our reason for being is to defeat Scott Perry, and if that does not happen in the primary, then we are very, very likely to support the Democratic nominee.” Stelson, a former local news anchor, has announced her bid to run for office again. While Karen Dalton, a former Republican staff attorney in the Pennsylvania state house, has launched a primary challenge against Perry. Perry, the four-term incumbent, is a member, and former chairman, of the House’s ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus. Following Joe Biden’s presidential victory in 2020, he maintained that the election was stolen, and in the lead-up to the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol, Perry introduced Donald Trump to fellow election denier Jeffrey Clark, who was then a justice department official. Perry pushed for Clark’s appointment as acting attorney general to continue an effort to undermine the 2020 election results. In December 2023, the congressman was ordered to turn over more than 1,700 text messages, emails and other communications to federal prosecutors investigating his role in Trump’s attempt to block the peaceful transfer of power. The congressman’s district, which sits in the south-central corner of the state, includes the capital, Harrisburg, and is home to one of the largest shares of federal employees throughout Pennsylvania. The advertising campaign to oust Perry will use the ongoing government shutdown to appeal to furloughed government workers. “The government has shut down. Perry still gets paid, you don’t,” one billboard reads. Snyder, who also had a leading role in the Republicans for Harris group during the last presidential election, says Perry is representative of the “ascendancy of the Maga movement” within the GOP. (Scott Perry’s campaign has not responded to the Guardian’s request for comment.) “We believe we can successfully finish the job that we started in 2024,” Snyder added. “To have this mismatch between the sort of centrist, moderate, all-American aspect of the district, versus the extremism of the congressman, may be one of the most pronounced misrepresentations in the whole country.” But for Vince Galko, a Pennsylvania strategist who served as the executive director of the state’s Republican party, the Rap effort “rings hollow” and doesn’t “hit home” with local voters. “The name itself hurts its credibility. They’re against Scott Perry, OK, then what do you support? What policies do you agree with Scott Perry’s opponent?” Galko said, adding that the incumbent lawmaker was aware that the district’s demographic is changing and is ready for the challenge. “I do think that the Perry campaign will learn from last time, keeping in mind that it was a presidential year, and turnout this time around will be much lower.” For his part, Snyder is confident that Perry’s time in office is ultimately on shaky ground, given that he will be on the ballot without Donald Trump at the top of the ticket in 2026. Snyder believes that if Josh Shapiro, a Democrat who won the 2022 Pennsylvania gubernatorial race by a landslide, seeks a likely re-election run, it could impact the race down ballot. “Even if the primary challenge is not successful, it’s going to really help us mobilize for November,” Snyder added. “We’re going to be able to see geographically where the anti-Perry Republicans are because Pennsylvania is a closed primary state. We will know where those folks are, and we’ll be able to target them even more accurately than I think we already did in the last cycle.”