Newz(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 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. 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 …
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