PENNSYLVANIA, USA — The battle for the 10th Congressional District seat between Republican Congressman Scott Perry and Democrat and former news anchor Janelle Stelson has become one of the closest-watched races in the country.
FOX43 sat down with both candidates to tell you where they stand on the issues that matter most to the people of the district.
Both candidates say they hear from residents over their concerns about the economy and affordability. Inflation reached its highest levels in more than 40 years back in 2022 but has dropped close to pre-pandemic levels since.
Consumers remain concerned, however, about the price of everyday goods.
"First of all, quit spending all of America's taxpayers money that they don't have," Perry said when asked what the next Congress can do to help affordability. "They can't afford it, and they don't want to buy things that they can't afford and don't need.
"This is a Congress that is just so deeply broken," Stelson said when asked the same question. "I'm a first-timer. I don't know all the ins and outs of Congress. Scott Perry's had 12 years to try to get his act together and make life more affordable, and clearly has failed."
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, also known as the Trump tax cuts, is set to expire next year. The Act cut income taxes across the board but contributed to a sharp increase in the federal deficit and the national debt. Nearly half the benefits of the Act have been reaped by the top tax bracket.
"I'd like to see it changed," Stelson said when asked if she would extend the bill. "I'd like to see the most wealthy individuals among us and wealthy corporations pay their fair share. I do not want the middle class to pay any more taxes. If anything, I'd like to see us cut our taxes."
"The bottom line is that people here in this county and in this district, just like all others, work hard and it's their money. They should be able to keep as much as they can," Perry said when posed the same question. "The last couple years there's been more revenue at the federal level than ever before. So more money is coming into the federal government. It's not necessarily a problem of letting people keep more of the money that they earn. The problem is that the federal government spends more than it should."
Funding the whole government has also become an issue, with multiple threats of government shutdowns coming after members of the House Freedom Caucus, including its former chairman Perry, voted against bipartisan measures from two different house speakers to break an impasse on government funding levels.
"It's bankrupting the country," Perry said, explaining his reasoning behind the "no" votes. "Every 100 days, we add a trillion dollars more to the debt. There's no bill that says 'I'm going to shut down the government today.' Nobody is voting for that. But Washington is an enterprise of leverage, and to get the spending cuts, to get to the federal government, to tighten its belt and to rein itself in, it's not going to do it on its own."
"I just think this is a disgrace that Congress can't get its act together enough to actually handle the most basic functions of government, including making a budget," Stelson said. "You have to live within your means, but for Scott Perry to shut down the government and continue to try to take a paycheck when so many people here would not be being paid because he was being an obstructionist, Washington is deeply broken, and he's a big part of it."
On immigration and the southern border, both candidates say the border needs to be secured and that illegal border crossers should be deported.
A bipartisan group of senators, led in part by Oklahoma Republican James Lankford and Arizona Independent Kyrsten Sinema, unveiled a bipartisan border security bill earlier this year.
The bill included provisions such as ending the policy of “catch and release” for migrants, hiring more border patrol officers and giving the Department of Homeland Security the power to decide whether to close the border when the number of law enforcement encounters an average of 4,000 over one week, with the border automatically closing at 5,000.
Opposition from former president Donald Trump, as well as from House Republicans including Perry, helped lead to the bill's defeat in the Senate.
"It wasn't a solution," Perry said. "You can call the bill anything you want to call it, right? They call it a border bill. But the problem right now is that the administration is disregarding the law and allowing millions of people to come across the border illegally. That bill didn't change any of that. As a matter of fact, it said we're going to now let 5,000 people come illegally every single day."
"It wouldn't solve the whole problem, but it would solve part of the problem, and any step we can take to secure the border is something I'm going to back, especially if people have reached across the aisle to try to accomplish that," Stelson said. "This is an American problem, not a Democratic, not a Republican, and we need to work together to secure the border."