CBS News reports that Republicans are trying to hang on to their House majority in the midterm elections, and that the party of the incumbent president has historically lost seats in the lower chamber. Roll Call lists Pennsylvania's 10th District, in South Central Pennsylvania, among the seats Democrats are targeting in the state. CBS News reports that the district covers Harrisburg, York and the surrounding areas. NBC News describes it as the type of area Republicans will need to win if they hope to keep control of the House.
Perry has served in Congress since 2013, when he was first elected in Pennsylvania's 4th Congressional District, and CBS News reports that court-ordered redistricting in 2018 made his new district more competitive. NBC News reports that Trump beat Joe Biden in the district by more than 4 percentage points in 2020 and that Perry defeated Harrisburg City Council member Shamaine Daniels by 7.6 points in 2022. In 2024, NBC News reports, Perry edged out Stelson 50.6% to 49.4%, a margin of 5,133 votes out of more than 400,000 cast. Roll Call reports that it was his narrowest victory margin going back to his first election in 2012, and that Trump carried the district by 5 points that year, according to calculations by The Downballot.
NBC News describes Perry as an Iraq War veteran, a former state lawmaker and a former Army brigadier general who served one term as chairman of the House Freedom Caucus. NBC News reports that after the 2020 election he attended a White House meeting to discuss pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to block certification of Biden's win, and that the FBI seized his cellphone in August 2022 as part of an investigation. He has not been charged with a crime, NBC News reports. CBS News reports that Perry says he did nothing wrong.
Stelson moved to Harrisburg in 1986 to become a reporter and weather anchor at ABC affiliate WHTM and joined NBC affiliate WGAL as a news anchor in 1997, NBC News reports, which also describes her as a former Republican. Roll Call reports that she lived outside the district during the 2024 race and told WGAL in 2025 that she had since moved to Cumberland County, inside the 10th District. CBS News reports that she beat Dauphin County Commissioner Justin Douglas for the Democratic nomination with the backing of Gov. Josh Shapiro and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which Roll Call reports named her to its Red to Blue list in February.
In the 2024 quarter that ended Sept. 30, NBC News reported, Stelson raised $2.85 million to Perry's $853,000. Roll Call reports that Stelson raised more than $2 million in the first three months of 2026, and lists Perry among the battleground Republicans outraised by their challengers in the second quarter. NPR reports that House Majority Forward, a group working to elect Democrats, has aired ads in the district on rising prices, while the economic message from Republican candidates and their allies centers on the 2025 tax law known as the One Big Beautiful Bill.
Stelson spoke in an interview with CNN about gas prices.
“We should be spending money at home, not $1 billion a day for a war in Iran”
Stelson spoke to NBC News about Perry's vote for the 2025 tax and spending law.
“He pretends he’s a fiscal conservative, but this is $4 trillion of new debt”
Stelson issued a statement announcing her second campaign against Perry.
“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”
Stelson spoke in an interview with NBC News during the 2024 campaign.
“I believe this has been botched by both parties for a very long time and that it’s one of those uniquely American problems that we need to appropriately fund”
Stelson spoke in an interview with NBC News during the 2024 campaign.
“Turns out women just don’t want to be told what to do with their bodies, no matter what kind of party they’re in, or have Scott Perry making the most intimate decisions they’ll ever face in their lives”
Perry issued a statement to City & State Pennsylvania, quoted by CNN.
“Like so many citizens across our region and nation, I want gas prices to come down, and I understand firsthand the strain these high prices put on families”
Perry was asked by NBC News about Stelson calling him a fiscal fraud.
“You should ask her to explain anything that she just said, because she’s being fed responses or quotes from the party that’s running her campaign”
Perry spoke in an interview with NBC News at the Capitol about the law's effect on the deficit.
“Of course, Washington, D.C., is often about compromise, and the things that you don’t love about a piece of legislation you have to accept for the things that you do want”
Perry spoke in an interview with NBC News at the Capitol about the 2017 tax cuts the law extended.
“Putting thousands and thousands of dollars in taxes on our citizens was not going to help them, the economy”
Perry answered a CBS News question at the Capitol about the House Jan. 6 committee subpoena.
“Let me characterize the question correctly, asking for an investigation — you term it otherwise — but asking for an investigation based on the wishes of my many, many, many constituents is an appropriate role for a member of Congress”
Platforms are on the candidates' own sites, linked above.