Stelson thanks supporters at election night event in Hershey

The battle for Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District has not yet been decided, as the race between U.S. Rep. Scott Perry and Democrat Janelle Stelson remained too close to call as of 11:30 p.m. on election night. 

Stelson spent election night with supporters at the Englewood Hershey, a restaurant, craft brewery and event space in Dauphin County. In remarks to the crowd, Stelson outlined many issues important to her campaign: protecting Social Security, defending abortion access and reproductive rights, and enacting term limits for members of Congress.

“This campaign has never really been about me. I appreciate your support, but it’s been about all of you,” Stelson said on Tuesday night. “I sure hope we get the opportunity to take those voices to the halls of Congress and make sure they are heard there.”“You’ve given me so much, and I am so grateful,” she added.

In the weeks and months leading up to Election Day, the race had appeared to move in Stelson’s favor. In mid-October, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report updated its rating of the 10th Congressional District race from “lean Republican” to “toss-up.” 

Stelson raised more than $2.8 million in the third quarter of 2024, while Perry’s campaign finance filings showed the incumbent congressman raised just $853,301.95 during the same time period. The Democratic challenger also led in a PA-10 poll conducted by the Harrisburg-based Susquehanna Polling & Research, which in October found Stelson leading Perry 48% to 39%, with 11% of voters undecided. 

Perry and Stelson met for their first and only debate of the election cycle on Oct. 8 – an event hosted by abc27 in Harrisburg. Several days after the debate, Perry was joined at a fundraiser and media availability by U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, who said the American people needed Perry’s experience in Washington. 

“We desperately need his leadership,” Johnson said of Perry. “I had two appointments that I was able to make when I became Speaker of the House to arguably one of the most important committees – maybe the most important committee in Congress right now – and that is the House Select Intelligence Committee. I had two open positions. I gave the first one to Scott Perry because he’s that important to us, because he has the level of expertise and insight that’s necessary in a dangerous moment. We all recognize we’re probably facing the most dangerous moment since World War II in our nation’s history, and we need steady hands at the wheel.”

Perry’s involvement in efforts to challenge and potentially overturn the 2020 presidential election results had been made a prominent issue by Democrats looking to unseat the six-term congressman. During the course of its investigation, a U.S. House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol frequently singled out Perry for his actions following the 2020 election. 

The committee, in its final report released in December 2022, described Perry as one of Trump’s “key congressional allies in the effort to overturn the election’s results.” “Representative Perry was an early supporter of the ‘Stop the Steal’ campaign and, as noted above, addressed the crowd at one such event outside the Pennsylvania State capitol in Harrisburg on November 5, 2020. Representative Perry was also one of 27 Republican Congressmen who signed a letter requesting that President Trump ‘direct Attorney General Barr to appoint a Special Counsel to investigate irregularities in the 2020 election.’ The letter was dated December 9, 2020 – more than 1 week after (then-U.S. Attorney General William) Barr told the press there was no evidence of significant fraud.”

The report added that Perry attended a Dec. 21, 2020 meeting in the Oval Office with other congressional Republicans “to discuss the strategy for objecting to the electoral college votes on January 6th.” The report continued: “Representative Perry also supported Texas’s lawsuit against Pennsylvania and three other states. That is, Representative Perry supported Texas’s effort to nullify the certified electoral college vote from four states, including his own home state.”

Stelson stopped short of claiming victory on Tuesday night, but did take a dig at the GOP incumbent over how he handled the 2020 general election results.

“I’m sorry that we don’t know the final vote count right now,” she said. “We may not have full answers tonight. There’s only one election-denier in this race and it’s not me, so I’d prefer that we count all the votes.”