HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) – Congressman Scott Perry (R) and former television news anchor Janelle Stelson (D) will debate for the first time with less than a month until the November 5 election.
The debate on Tuesday, October 8, is expected to be the only debate between the two candidates to represent Pennsylvania’s 10th District in Congress.
The one-hour 10th Congressional District Debate will begin at 7 p.m. and be moderated by abc27 anchor Dennis Owens. The debate will be broadcast on WHTM-TV abc27 and streamed on abc27.com.
The debate will stream in the player above starting at 7 p.m.
The 10th District includes all of Dauphin County and sections of Cumberland and York counties.
Stelson is no stranger to viewers as she appeared on televisions across Central Pennsylvania for nearly 40 years, including on abc27. She graduated from the University of Puget Sound with a Politics and Government degree and worked at the Embassy of Egypt in Washington D.C., writing speeches.
Stelson, a former registered Republican, won a crowded Democratic primary by more than 12,000 votes. Throughout the primary Stelson was criticized for living outside the 10th District in Lancaster, however, she pledged before and after winning the primary that she would move into the district. According to voting records, Stelson is still registered to vote in Lancaster County.
Perry has served in Congress since 2013 after first being elected in the former 4th Congressional District that, prior to redistricting, comprised of York, Adams, and part of Cumberland counties.
Perry is a graduate of Northern High School, the Cumberland-Perry Vo-Tech School, and Penn State University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration Management. In 1980, Perry enlisted in the U.S. Army and was deployed to Iraq, where, according to his campaign website, he flew combat missions.
He served as the Commander of the Fort Indiantown Gap National Training Site, was promoted to Brigadier General, and retired from military service as the Assistant Adjutant General with the Pennsylvania Army National Guard.
Before being elected to Congress, Perry served in local government, including being the chairman of the Carroll Township Planning Commission. In the 1990s, he began a mechanical contracting firm with his mother in Dillsburg.
In August 2022, Perry disclosed that his cellphone was briefly seized by the FBI on a search warrant as part of the investigation into January 6, saying the action was “banana republic tactics.”
Perry was cited more than 50 times in a Senate Judiciary report released in October 2021 that outlined Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the election results.
There are no third-party candidates on the ballot in the 10th District.
