Ex-GOP leaders slam Republican rep up for reelection in urgent letter

Editor's note: A previous version of this article said that Mediate was first to report the letter. The article has been updated to note that Axios was first to report the letter.

In a letter published on Monday, five former Republican leaders called on Pennsylvania voters to oust Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) by voting for his Democratic opponent, Janelle Stelson.

"As current and former leaders from the Republican Party, it is rare for us to endorse a Democrat running for Congress," former US Reps. Barbara Comstock (R-VA), Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), Denver Riggleman (R-VA), Dave Trott (R-MI), and Joe Walsh (R-IL) — who all signed the letter — wrote, Axios reported.

The letter continued:

Where Stelson will work with Republicans and Democrats to find common ground, Scott Perry is consistently rated as one of the least bipartisan members of Congress. He is routinely the only member of the Pennsylvania delegation – Republican or Democrat – to oppose common sense measures that would improve the lives of his constituents, including legislation to protect firefighters and crack down on human trafficking.

Scott Perry also turned his back on our brave veterans by being the only Republican or Democrat in the Pennsylvania delegation to vote against legislation to house homeless veterans. He also opposed the bipartisan PACT Act, the largest expansion of VA benefits in history, which provided healthcare and compensation to servicemembers who suffered from toxic burn pit exposure. These are the men and women who risked – and in many cases, gave – their lives to defend our freedom.

Perhaps nothing is more emblematic of Perry’s brazen self-interest than his involvement in the plot to overturn the results of the 2020 election. After playing a direct role in the effort to nullify the will of Pennsylvania’s voters, Perry had his cell phone seized by the FBI and has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal defense fees. Former White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson testified under oath that Perry requested a presidential pardon for his actions in the leadup to the deadly January 6th insurrection.

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Pittsburgh's WESA FM reports that the GOP lawmaker's "district has modestly favored Republicans since it was redrawn in 2018, and [Donald] Trump won it by 4 percentage points in 2020. But as Perry runs for a seventh term, he faces a vigorous challenge."

Axios also reported last week that Scott hasn't been raking in the financial support he needs to beat Stelson.

He's received "little financial help from GOP leadership so far, with the National Republican Congressional Committee and Congressional Leadership Fund spending effectively nothing on ads in his district as of" October 12, the news outlet noted.

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