Who’s running in Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District?
(WHTM) – Several Democrats have announced or are planning to get in the 2024 race for Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District.
The seat is currently held by Republican Scott Perry, who has served in Congress since 2013 after winning the 2012 election with 59.7% of the vote. Perry overwhelmingly won the 2014 election with 74.5% and the 2016 race with 66.1%, but in his last three he’s received strong challenges.
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This Week in Pennsylvania
In 2018 Perry defeated George Scott by less than 8,000 votes with 51.3%. Against Eugene DePasquale in 2020 Perry received 53.3% and finished with 53.8% against Shamaine Daniels in 2022.
The 10th Congressional District consists of Dauphin County and parts of Cumberland and York counties.
Here are the candidates for the 10th Congressional District seat in 2024.
Democrats
Shamaine Daniels
In April, Harrisburg City Council Member Shamaine Daniels announced a second run for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District.
Daniels, who was first elected to the City Council in 2013, lost the 2022 race to Perry by more than 24,000 votes
In her campaign announcement, Daniels described Perry as “out of step with this district.”
Daniels added that in 2022 the Democratic party “thought we had no chance against Perry and gave us no help” and that she ran on a “shoestring budget.”
Mike O’Brien
Mike O’Brien, a retired U.S. Marine and TOPGUN F-35 Stealth Fighter Pilot launched his campaign in September.
O’Brien recently retired from the military as a Lieutenant Colonel and is a graduate of the Naval Academy. He also has a Master’s Degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Mechanical Engineering.
“I spent the last 20 years defending democracy overseas. But we need more of that. Right here at home, right now. Congressman Scott Perry and his far-right gang of insurrectionists are a threat to democracy and a threat to our freedoms,” O’Brien said in a video posted to X, formerly Twitter, announcing his campaign.
Rick Coplen
Rick Coplen announced in June 2023 that he plans to run for Congress.
According to his campaign website, Coplen attended West Point and served in the U.S. Army with the 82nd Airborne. He’s also taught at West Point, Elizabethtown College, and the U.S. Army War College.
“Republicans like Scott Perry have betrayed the Constitution, betrayed the Country and betrayed all of us in doing so,” says Coplen on his campaign website. “I’m running for Congress to fight for our democratic ideals and all of our freedoms.”
Janelle Stelson
Former abc27 News and WGAL anchor Janelle Stelson joined the Democratic primary on October 4.
Stelson had worked for WGAL since 1997 after beginning her journalism career at abc27. According to her biography, she has a Politics and Government degree from the University of Puget Sound and previously wrote speeches at the Embassy of Egypt in Washington D.C.
“I have lived and worked in Central Pennsylvania for nearly 40 years. It has been my honor to tell the stories of thousands of people. But there’s one story that’s getting harder to ignore, because it keeps getting worse: Our Congressman, Scott Perry,” Stelson said in her video campaign announcement.
John Broadhurst
Pennsylvania businessman John Broadhurst is a Villanova graduate who began his career as a truck driver for his father’s business. Broadhurst has since worked as an entrepreneur and consultant in international business development since the 1990s, including living and working in China.
Broadhurst says he “will not base my campaign on anti-Trump or anti-Perry sentiment alone.”
Blake Lynch
Blake Lynch, who recently served as the Senior Vice President and Chief Impact Officer of WITF, is making a congressional bid.
Lynch previously served as the Director of Community Relations and Engagement for the Harrisburg Bureau of Police. He had worked at WITF, a public news media and programming outlet for 19 Pennsylvania counties, since August 2021 before resigning in October to run for Congress.
“As a lifelong Central Pennsylvania resident, I know firsthand the challenges facing my neighbors from Harrisburg to Carlisle to York,” said Lynch. “I know that regardless of what neighborhood you live in, people want safe streets, good schools and good-paying jobs. And they expect their government to work for them and their democracy – and not against it.”
Republicans
Scott Perry
Scott Perry was first elected to Congress in 2012 after serving in the Pennsylvania State House and Senate. Once Chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, Perry also sits on the House Committees on Transportation & Infrastructure, Oversight, and Foreign Affairs.
Perry made national headlines for his alleged connections to attempts to overturn the 2020 election and the January 6 insurrection. He was cited more than 50 times in a Senate Judiciary report released in October 2021 outlining Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the election results.
In August 2022 Perry disclosed that his cellphone was briefly seized by the FBI on a search warrant, saying the action was “banana republic tactics.”
Matt Beynon, a spokesman for Perry’s re-election campaign, said Perry is “putting his record of service and accomplishment before the voters next November, and he is confident they will again return him to Congress.”
No longer running
Bob Forbes
Army veteran Bob Forbes announced on February 12 that he was dropping out of the race after not being able to collect enough petition signatures.
Forbes deployed overseas multiple times to countries including Afghanistan, Iraq, Korea, and Haiti and served in the 82nd Airborne as a Master Jumpmaster and the 10th Mountain Division.
“We had a great candidate but you also need a path to victory and we do not have one,” said Forbes on X. “Best of luck to everyone who continues and it’s back to the classroom.”
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