Janelle Stelson says it’s time to make Pennsylvania affordable again

Democrat Janelle Stelson is so fired up about improving the lives of Pennsylvanians that she quit her 30-year career as an Emmy-award-winning TV anchor to run for office. Now, she’s taking a second whack at President Donald Trump’s ally Rep. Scott Perry for the state’s 10th Congressional District seat.

Stelson came within a hair’s breadth of unseating Perry in 2024, winning 49.2% of the vote to Perry’s 50.9%. Now, as constituents struggle to keep up with inflated costs of living under the Trump administration, she says she’s looking forward to facing off with Perry again to advocate for the district.

Stelson said she meets constituents on a daily basis who can’t keep up with skyrocketing prices on gas, groceries, and housing—an affordability crisis she attributes to the Trump administration’s tariff policies.

“People are always like, ‘Janelle, what do you care about?’ Well, what I care about is to show you that I’m 180 degrees from Scott Perry,’” she said.

Stelson told The Keystone that many constituents are reportedly troubled by Perry’s direct involvement in Trump’s 2020 presidential election denial campaign. The New York Times called Perry a “ringleader” for his role in disputing former President Joe Biden’s victory, pointing to unsealed text messages where Perry and other Republican leaders discussed plans to advance Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud.

Many Pennsylvanians are also frustrated about Perry’s lack of accessibility, Stelson said. He hasn’t held a single town hall meeting since 2019, and went so far as to lock constituents out of his office this past January when they wanted to deliver letters to him.

Stelson positions herself as a contrasting figure to Perry, encouraging her would-be constituents to share their struggles. She believes she can do far more to make their lives great again than any MAGA hardliner—and she’s not shy about saying it. 

“Scott Perry voted for Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ more than a year ago, and now millions of Americans are losing their Medicaid, as are 310,000 Pennsylvanians,” she said. 

She blasted Perry for voting against extending federal subsidies for the Affordable Care Act, which has led to soaring health insurance premiums for Pennsylvanians.

“That’s really a problem and voters tell me every day that they can’t handle a 200% or 300% increase in their health care costs,” she said.” It’s too much, especially when prices for everything else in their lives are going up.”

She added that she’d like the federal government to increase the number of prescription drugs they negotiate on to get Americans lower prices. “And some of the already-negotiated drugs have age limits on them,” she said. “I’d like to see the age limits dropped.”

Stelson said she’s talked to a lot of small business owners struggling with tariff taxes.

“Small businesses are our backbone,” she noted. “I’m all for making sure they not only survive, but thrive.For example,I talked to Angel Fox, the owner of  Fox’s Laundromat in Harrisburg. She’s had to change the way she does business. Instead of having everything she needs delivered, she now has to constantly run around to find deals to make sure she survives.”

For his part, Republican Scott Perry has blamed Democrats for ignoring inflation, despite his party having control of the federal government. 

Stelson also said voters have told her they don’t approve of Perry’s support for Trump’s war in Iran—particularly the billions of taxpayer dollars being spent when the economy is already an issue here at home.

“He’s backing the bombing of Iran, which is costing us a billion dollars a day. He also backed bailing out Argentina, which I’ve heard cost between $20 and $40 billion, and he also backed (Trump’s plan) to buy Greenland for hundreds of billions of dollars,” Stelson said.

Stelson said people are feeling less and less safe in America.

“I worry about a terror attack here,” she said. “And I grieve for our servicemembers who have lost their lives. President Trump keeps warning that we will see more of that, so I’m very concerned.”

She said the last thing Pennsylvanians need during already difficult times is a hyper-partisan leader who makes life harder than it needs to be.

“Scott Perry always votes on the most conservative thing to do,” she said. “That’s a real problem. Most people live in the middle somewhere, and they don’t want us to be the paralyzing partisan.”

She added that the constant partisan bickering needs to end.

“Bickering is ridiculous. People want things to be done. When things cost too much, let’s get to work. Let’s reach across the aisle and behave like Americans and take care of our problems.”

As she prepares for the Democratic primary election on May 19—in which she’ll face fellow Democrat Justin Douglas—Stelson is rolling out her plan for voters to see who they’d be sending to the general election on Nov. 3. Here’s her agenda to fight corruption in Washington, DC:

• Limit Congress members to serving only 12 years in office. “We do not need more career politicians.”
• Set an age limit for members of Congress.
• Release the full Epstein files.
• Cut first class flights and other luxury perks of Congress members.
• Curb the president’s pardoning power.
• Ban members of Congress and their immediate families from trading individual stocks while in office, so they can’t profit from insider info. “Many of them are getting rich from insider information.”
• Ban all elected officials and executive branch employees from betting in prediction markets, since they have insider information.
• Pass a constitutional amendment to reverse the US Supreme Court’s decision in the 2010 Citizens United v. FEC case, which allowed corporations and wealthy individuals to spend unlimited amounts of money in elections.

Learn more about your voting options here.