Differences in fundraising plan for Scott Perry and Janelle Stelson show both sides are optimistic

Influential Democratic campaign groups plan to spend large to defeat U.S. Rep. Scott Perry (Perry) and boost the Democratic campaign Janelle Stelson, a former television journalist and former Republican, hopes to change a red district. Republicans, however, aren’t too concerned about the race.

The House Majority PAC (HMP), a super PAC focused on electing Democrats to the United States House of Representatives, has been announced in April that it will spend $2.4 million in Stelson-Perry Central Pennsylvania commercials district as part of a $186 million nationwide purchase, signaling a major push to focus efforts on this district.

The race also recently landed on the coveted spot “Red to Blue” which outlines the districts that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) – the Democratic campaign arm of the House of Representatives – wants to redraw. DCCC announced the first round advertising bookings on Tuesday, and although the Perry-Stelson race was not on the list, the commission said it was prioritizing “crowded and exorbitant” broadcast markets in states with competitive top-ticket races.

The second race in Pennsylvania on the Red to Blue route the list is Ashley Ehasz’s challenge to Republican U.S. Brian Fitzpatrick in Bucks County’s 1st Congressional District, which was also on Tuesday’s spending list. Stelson and Ehasz have already begun working together to support each other’s campaigns, such as a co-signed email fundraising call for both parties.

The House Majority PAC has been eyeing Perry’s 10th Congressional District before Stelson won a crowded Democratic primary, challenging Perry. A district that includes Dauphin County and parts of York and Cumberland counties, has an electorate that is 44% Republican, 38% Democrat, and 17% unaffiliated or third-party voters.

The district preferred incumbent Donald Trump to Biden by four percentage points in 2020, and in the hotly contested 2022 Pennsylvania Senate race. came in in favor of Republican Mehmet Oz over John Fetterman. But on the same ballot, the district’s voters swung toward the center-left when they elected Josh Shapiro over far-right state Sen. Doug Mastriano as governor, showing a desire to break away from the GOP.

” READ MORE: Scott Perry’s Democratic opponent, Janelle Stelson, thinks she can get Republican support. She used to be one herself.

Perry he became a national political figure in 2020 when he tried to throw out the state’s electoral votes to keep Trump in the White House. Democrats are framing him this year as too extreme for the district, while Perry tries to lump Steelson in with President Joe Biden as too left-wing. Perry also attacked Stelson for living outside the district in nearby Lancaster County, even though Stelson was a familiar face on television and had lived in various parts of the district over the years.

Perry, who was first elected in 2012, won his races decisively, but Democrat George Scott was close in 2018, less than three points behind him.

GOP strategists have said they consider Perry’s district safe and sound, and Republican National Campaign Committee spokesman Mike Marinella called the change “a pipe dream.” The Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF), the super PAC tasked with electing Republicans to the U.S. House of Representatives, has not signaled an investment in the race in its May ad booking announcement. The Republicans’ $141 million ad buy didn’t mention Harrisburg – the market for the Perry-Stelson race – but it did include the Philadelphia market and targeted Fitzpatrick’s race.

“If Democrats want to waste their money in a district that President Trump is able to carry by a significant margin, then by all means,” CLF communications director Courtney Parella said in a statement.

However, House Majority PAC communications director C.J. Warnke stated that the real reason CLF is not investing in the race is “because they know that insurrectionist Scott Perry and his extremist policies aimed at hindering law enforcement and limiting access for in vitro fertilization will doom him in November.”

Perry voted for the Default on America Act, which cut funding for federal law enforcement, and is a longtime sponsor of the bill Act on Life at Conceptionwhich would guarantee the “right to life” starting from fertilization.

CLF stated that it had issued over $1.5 million regarding Perry’s 2020 ads and that additional ad bookings will become available as the cycle progresses.

And just as CLF can add money to the race, HMP can withdraw.

Spending announcements may be symbolic. CLF AND HMP both took money out of racing as they progressed.

Stelson was just behind Perry in polls conducted for her campaign, as well as in: Franklin and Marshall College Poll, which had a margin of error of 6.1%. A national GOP strategist said Perry polling at 50% or higher is a good sign he’s safe, but Democrats see the results as positive for Stelson.

However, if F&M’s results are representative of reality, voters have a lot to learn about the candidates before casting their ballots – and they could still change their minds before November or skip voting altogether. Turnout is likely to be a deciding factor in the 2024 election, and polls show many voters are unimpressed with the two leading presidential candidates.

According to a Franklin-Marshall poll, more than a quarter of voters in the district did not know that Perry voted against certifying the 2020 election results and that he helped craft a plan to pressure former Vice President Mike Pence to throw electoral votes out of the ballot. states that Biden won. Half of voters didn’t know Stelson lived outside the district’s boundaries, and more than 40% didn’t know enough about her to have an opinion about her.