Join WITF, others for unique conversation with congressional candidates

A Candidates' Night to Listen is an alternative to the traditional debate

• Randy Parker/WITF
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The voices of the voters will be at the forefront of A Candidates' Night to Listen on March 25.

Every now and then you need to shake things up and come at a problem from a different angle.  

Democrats in the 10th Congressional District have a big slate of candidates to choose from on April 23. Six candidates, to be exact. 

To help make sense of the various opinions, promises and perspectives, editors from four news outlets in the district put our heads together and concocted an alternative to a standard debate. It is, as one person described it, something of a reverse debate.  

WITF, The York Dispatch, York Daily Record and PennLive invited the candidates to join us for an evening in which they will spend much of the night sitting quietly, listening to the voices of the voters. 

With the help of Berwood Yost and Stephen Medvic of the Franklin & Marshall Center for Opinion Research, we will first meet with dozens of voters to discern what their top concerns are for the district. We will talk with them about what they need from their representative in Congress.  

The six Democrats – John Broadhurst, Rick Coplen, Shamaine Daniels, Blake Lynch, Michael O’Brien, and Janelle Stelson – have committed to be there. We invited incumbent Scott Perry, who is running unopposed in the Republican primary, but he declined.  

If you would like to join us, please register at march25th.eventbrite.com.  

This is to try to get beyond the nationalization of politics. We think our local representatives in Congress should focus on their constituents’ concerns. 

After we hear from the voters, Yost will moderate a conversation with the candidates based on what those voters surfaced. 

That discussion will be in front of nearly 300 people at The Rose Lehrman Arts Center on the main campus of HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College, at 7 p.m. on March 25. 

It’s different. It might be a bit chaotic. But we hope to manage a thoughtful, civil conversation about issues that affect everyday lives here in central Pennsylvania. We hope to put the voice of the voters at the forefront of the night. And we hope the candidates will learn something useful about the people one of them might serve in Congress.  

And be sure to follow witf.org/news for election coverage throughout the year.  

Disclosure: Blake Lynch was vice president and chief impact officer at WITF from August 2021-October 2023. In that role, Lynch had no direct influence on the newsroom and was involved in no news coverage decisions. We will cover his campaign as we would any other candidate in the 10th Congressional District race.

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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