More good calls, this time into Pennsylvania

Alongside workers in the hospitality industries -- hotels, airports, etc. -- organized by their union UniteHERE, volunteers have been calling the battlegound state of Pennsylvania this week. Specifically, the state capital Harrisburg. It's a learning experience.

Obviously, our main aim is supporting VP Kamala Harris, but there's more at stake here. Such as, the state's Congressional District 10.

That race is between far right Republican Scott Perry, the sitting Congressman, and Democratic newscaster Janelle Stelson, whose 38 years on TV give her a lot of recognition. The candidates are attracting national attention for good reason: their differences tell us so much about what this election is about.

The Los Angeles Times' David Lauter highlighted this contest in a column entitled "All politics local? Not in this election". 

... The former head of the House Freedom Caucus, Perry is one of the few members of that far-right group to represent a closely divided district, rather than one that is solidly Republican.

Since first being elected in 2012, Perry has won five times, but in recent years, his district has grown more Democratic. Republicans have lost ground in the suburbs of Harrisburg, the state capital, and across the Susquehanna River to the west, where the growing population of Cumberland County is increasingly Democratic.

As the district has changed, Perry has become an increasingly uncomfortable fit.

According to the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 riot, he took a prominent part in meetings with Trump advisors on efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. In 2022, FBI agents seized his cellphone as part of the investigation into the election plot. In 2023, after Republicans took control of the House, he was one of the 20 far-right lawmakers who repeatedly held up Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s election as speaker.

His opponent, Stelson, worked for 38 years as a television reporter and anchor for stations in the area. That’s given her wide, favorable name recognition.

“The viewers have gotten to know me as a trusted, nonpartisan voice,” she said during the debate, contrasting her pragmatism with Perry, whom she characterized as “the chief obstructionist” in a Congress that has accomplished little.

A former registered Republican, Stelson says she decided to run for office after the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe vs. Wade and ended the nationwide guarantee of abortion rights.

Stelson repeatedly hit Perry for his past backing of a nationwide abortion ban without exceptions.

The decision over ending a pregnancy should be left to women and their doctors, she said.

“There’s no reason why Scott Perry knows better than they do what to do with their own bodies in their most intimate decisions.” ...

It's hard to knock off a sitting Congressperson, but just maybe, thanks to women rebelling against being told what to do and support like the national phonebank, Stelson may pull an upset. 

Phone banking isn't glamorous or even always fun, though often interesting. But when enough of us work together, we win.