Republican Scott Perry defeats Democrat Shamaine Daniels to retain 10th Congressional District seat

The key figure in former President Donald Trump’s attempt to stay in power despite losing the 2020 election will serve a sixth term in Congress.

• Brett Sholtis
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  Brett Sholtis was a health reporter for WITF/Transforming Health until early 2023. Sholtis is the 2021-2022 Reveal Benjamin von Sternenfels Rosenthal Grantee for Mental Health Investigative Journalism with the Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism. His award-winning work on problem areas in mental health policy and policing helped to get a woman moved from a county jail to a psychiatric facility. Sholtis is a University of Pittsburgh graduate and a Pennsylvania Army National Guard Kosovo campaign veteran.
• Scott Blanchard/WITF
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  As director of journalism, I work on things like newsroom strategy, culture, ethics, and training; I work with reporters (mainly climate reporter Rachel McDevitt) on stories; and I'm deeply involved with our community engagement efforts and collaborations with other news organizations.
  
  My roots in journalism go back to growing up outside Washington, D.C., reading Woodward and Bernstein in my hometown paper, and being drawn to the ideals of freedom of the press and holding the powerful to account. I also idolized the Post’s sports columnists, and in fact was a sports reporter/editor before I moved to news.
  
  I followed journalism’s call to the University of Missouri, then to jobs in Virginia and Maryland before landing in Pennsylvania, and I’ve lived near Gettysburg for more than two decades. Living in rural Pa. helps inform my work as a journalist and my belief that listening is one of the most important things we can do.
  
  If I’m not doing journalism stuff, I may be traveling, bird-watching, or both.

 Robby Brod / WITF

Pennsylvania Congressman Scott Perry speaks to reporters at election watch party. (Robby Brod)

Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Perry has been given another term, after defeating Democratic challenger Shamaine Daniels.  

The Associated Press called the race for Perry at 2:10 a.m. Wednesday

Perry, a key figure in former President Donald Trump’s attempt to stay in power despite losing the 2020 election,  will serve a sixth term in congress and represent Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District. 

He said he planned to focus on fighting inflation. 

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“I think that the priority for everybody in elected office right now is to make sure that the people we represent can afford to feed their families, put gas in their car, find things on the shelves, so that’s really got to be what we’re looking at,” Perry said Tuesday night. 

At about 12:05 a.m., Daniels got ready to leave her election-night gathering at a sports bar in Harrisburg, accepting hugs from staff and volunteers. One told her, “I’m still cautiously optimistic.” Another said, “I think we’ve got a chance. We’ll see how it plays out.”

Amid a close U.S. Senate race that Democrat John Fetterman claimed early Wednesday morning, Perry would not commit to telling voters that they should trust election results in races where Democrats win. 

“A few years ago we knew the election results in Pennsylvania on election night,” Perry said. “This spring, it took three weeks to figure out who won the primary, right? It doesn’t seem like we’re heading in the right direction about instilling trust in the people of the Commonwealth, and in some places across the country, in our election process.”

Earlier in the evening, Pennsylvania Secretary of State Leigh Chapman said, “In a very dynamic environment, Pennsylvania once again executed a free, fair and secure election.”

Scott Perry responds to questions from @BrettSholtis asking about whether he will accept election results and the DOJ. @witfnews #ElectionDay pic.twitter.com/E90fjLQUto

— Robby Brod (@RobbyBrod) November 9, 2022

Perry’s victory comes as he is refusing to comply with a subpoena from the House Jan. 6 committee investigating the U.S. Capitol attack, which Daniels made an issue in her campaign.

Her campaign website includes a tab labeled “About Scott Perry” that begins with his Jan. 6-related actions. In a Sept. 28 debate, she said she wanted voters to remember “that Congressman Perry has refused to make statements under oath, which carry significantly more weight than statements in the press or on Twitter.”

Perry has acknowledged introducing Trump to former Department of Justice Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Clark, whom Trump sought to install as head of DOJ because Clark promised to use the agency to push Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud. 

An aide to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows testified to the Jan. 6 committee that Perry later asked Trump for a pardon. Perry has denied that.

Alex Wong / Getty Images

A video featuring Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) is played during the fifth hearing by the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol in the Cannon House Office Building on June 23, 2022 in Washington, DC.

Perry also pushed conspiracy theories that the 2020 vote was somehow fraudulent, despite evidence showing it was free and fair. The Jan. 6 committee outlined how Perry pressured the Justice Department to investigate debunked allegations about the results — including one that Italian satellites were switching votes.

And in August, the FBI used a warrant to seize Perry’s cell phone as part of an unnamed investigation, and secured another warrant to search its contents. Perry has said he’s been told he’s not a target of the investigation.  Tuesday night, he declined to comment on the likelihood the DOJ would indict former president Donald Trump in coming days or whether he could be in legal peril. 

Yet Perry, chair of the House Freedom Caucus, was favored to retain his seat in Congress representing the 10th, where registered Republicans outnumber Democrats by roughly 44 percent to 40. The district includes portions of Cumberland, Dauphin and York counties.

But he trailed in the vote count for most of the night. Daniels said the early mail-in ballot numbers gave her hope – she said they showed she was getting “more Republican support than I initially anticipated I would get.

Perry closed the gap and then overtook Daniels as the counting continued. Around 12:10 a.m., Bachman checked the numbers and noted Perry had a 23,000-vote lead.

“Oh – that’s … a lot more,” Daniels said.

Perry, a former state representative from Dillsburg, who retired as a brigadier general in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, has had only one close race for Congress: In 2018, he beat Democrat George Scott 51.3 to 48.7 percent. In 2020, he got 53.3 percent of the vote against Democrat Eugene DePasquale. 

Perry supporter Mark McGahen of Mechanicsburg brushed aside concerns about Perry’s role in efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election result. 

“I want to see strong border protection, a strong economy and being able to produce our own goods,” McGahen said.   

Elizabeth Gallo grew up in Dillsburg near Perry and has supported him since graduating college in 2016. 

“He’s never backed down from supporting our president,” Gallo said, referring to former President Trump.  

A collection of interviews, photos, and music videos, featuring local musicians who have stopped by the WITF performance studio to share a little discussion and sound. Produced by WITF’s Joe Ulrich.

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