Janelle Stelson wins Democratic primary in Pennsylvania to in 2nd challenge to US Rep. Scott Perry

Stelson beat progressive challenger Justin Douglas for the right to challenge Perry in the Harrisburg-area district.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro and Republican Stacy Garrity will face each other in November after winning their uncontested primaries in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, setting up a November contest for the executive suite in a premier presidential battleground state.

Shapiro will go into the fall as a heavy favorite to win reelection over Garrity, the state treasurer. Shapiro is on track to break his own campaign spending record and has reported outraising Garrity by more than 10-to-1.

For Shapiro, the election year is more than an opportunity to win a second term: It’s a chance show his battleground-state political strength should he decide to run for president in 2028.

In addition to trying to win his own race, Shapiro is aiming to help Democrats flip key Republican-held U.S. House seats in Pennsylvania and deliver Democratic control of the state Legislature to advance his own agenda.

Republicans acknowledge Shapiro’s electoral strength, and many in the party hope that Garrity can at least make it a close contest to help protect other Republicans on the ballot.

The U.S. House campaigns will put Pennsylvania on the front lines of Democratic efforts to retake control of Congress and block the last two years of President Donald Trump’s agenda.

Contested primaries in swing seats

First, Democrats in Pennsylvania must settle primary fights on Tuesday to shape their congressional slate for the fall election when they hope to capture the state’s four swing districts and ultimately a U.S. House majority.

Shapiro and national Democrats are promoting their chosen candidates over progressive rivals, the latest example of a fissure that has divided the party as it grasps for a path back to power in Washington.

Three of the four swing districts have contested Democratic primaries, in addition to a wide-open contest in Philadelphia that will almost surely anoint the next seatholder. Those three swing districts are held by Republican U.S. Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, Ryan Mackenzie and Scott Perry.

Shapiro and the House Democrats’ campaign arm, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, teamed up to endorse the same candidate in each of the three contested primaries.

Washington U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene, the chair of the DCCC, said the party wanted “top tier” candidates who were the strongest to take on Republican incumbents.

Two of those — Janelle Stelson and Bob Harvie — are facing opponents on the left, while another, Bob Brooks, is in a four-way primary contest.

Stelson, a former local television anchor and personality, is running in Perry’s south central Pennsylvania district and competing for the nomination with Justin Douglas, a progressive minister and a Dauphin County commissioner.

In Fitzpatrick’s district in suburban Philadelphia, Bob Harvie, a Bucks County commissioner, is up against Lucia Simonelli, a first-time candidate and climate activist.

Brooks’ primary is for the right to challenge Mackenzie in the Allentown-area seat. He’s facing former federal prosecutor Ryan Crosswell, former Northampton County executive Lamont McClure and former legislative aide Carol Obando-Derstine.

In the fourth swing district, Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti was unopposed for the Democratic nomination to take on GOP U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan, who also was unopposed in the primary.

Democrats see opportunity

In 2018, the last midterm election cycle under Trump, Pennsylvania Democrats flipped four Republican-held congressional seats. In 2024, Perry and Mackenzie’s margins of victory were among the slimmest in that year’s House races — smaller than the margin by which Trump won those districts in the presidential election.

Fitzpatrick won more comfortably, but he is just one of three House Republicans elected in districts that also backed Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

Fitzpatrick and Perry are perennial targets of Democrats, and have survived repeatedly. However, Mackenzie is a freshman in his first reelection test.

Without Trump on the ballot, Democrats hope they can capitalize on weaker Republican turnout. Shapiro won the same districts in 2022, and he’s on the top of the party’s ticket this year.

A Philadelphian will go to Washington

In Philadelphia, the Democratic primary for a seat in Congress there is widely viewed as a toss-up among three candidates.

No Republican is seeking that party’s nomination, making the Democratic primary winner a shoo-in to succeed retiring Democratic Rep. Dwight Evans.

It features a familiar name to many in the city: Sharif Street, a state senator, former state party chairman and son of the city’s former two-term mayor, John F. Street. He is backed by Mayor Cherelle Parker, former Gov. Ed Rendell and the city’s building trades unions.

A state lawmaker, Rep. Chris Rabb, was endorsed by progressive stalwarts U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and online streamer Hasan Piker and has drawn financial backing from the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Dr. Ala Stanford, a pediatric surgeon who started a Black doctors’ consortium during the COVID-19 pandemic, was helped by millions of dollars from 314 Action, a left-leaning political action committee aimed at electing scientists to Congress.

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