A ‘Top Gun’ veteran and a Central Pa. news anchor both think they can beat Scott Perry. Who has what it takes?

Democrats’ mission to oust U.S. Rep. Scott Perry could fall on the shoulders of either a former newscaster or a “Top Gun” veteran.

Perry, a Republican who represents Dauphin County and parts of York and Cumberland Counties, is deeply aligned with former President Donald Trump. The former chair of the far-right House Freedom Caucus urged lawmakers to throw out Pennsylvania’s electoral votes hours after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, and later tried to block the feds from accessing his phone after it was seized by the FBI.

Democrats hope to convince voters in the politically mixed district that Perry is too extreme to serve another term due to his views against abortion and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Meanwhile, Perry’s legal trouble has put a strain on his campaign’s bank account.

The field of challengers is crowded, with six Democrats on the ballot who are all eager to oust Perry. But experts say two candidates have emerged above the rest: Mike O’Brien, 42, who launched his campaign in September after retiring from the Marine Corps, and Janelle Stelson, 63, who left her job as a WGAL television news anchor to launch her campaign in October.

They are joined by Shamaine Daniels, a Harrisburg City Councilmember who lost to Perry in 2022; John Broadhurst, a progressive businessman; Blake Lynch, a former WITF radio executive and former director of community relations for the city of Harrisburg’s police department; and Rick Coplen, a combat veteran, teacher, and Carlisle school board member who lost to Daniels in the 2022 Democratic primary.

Districtwide, there are more than 500,000 voters, of which 44.4% are Republicans, 38.5% are Democrats, just over 13% are independents, and just under 4% are registered with another party. Although the district voted for Trump in 2020, it split the ticket in 2022 by voting for both U.S. Senate candidate Mehmet Oz, a Republican, and gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro, a Democrat.

Shapiro’s success against far-right Trump endorsee Doug Mastriano shows that voters in the district are open to going blue for the right Democrat.

“To run and win across the entire district, which Josh Shapiro did, I think you need to talk about getting things done and working for people who live in this district,” said Michael Fedor, a former political operative in the district.

When Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, Stelson had to deliver the news in a nonpartisan way. She moderated two of Perry’s debates without sharing her opinion of him. Now, she’s free to speak her mind.

“At some point, I realized I needed to move from the public service of telling about our concerns and issues to actually trying to do something about them, to get to Washington, raise my right hand and work on the issues and concerns that people have been telling me about for 38 years now,” she said.

Until recently, Stelson stood out among her competitors for not having a page on her campaign website listing her priorities, which made her platform — beyond defeating Perry — less clear.

That could reflect her training as a broadcaster to express complex ideas through soundbites. In a video she has had on her website, she vows to support civil rights, abortion rights, workers’ rights, funding the police and FBI, and democracy. She said in an interview she also wants to address “kitchen-table issues,” such as the cost of living.

Stelson has the benefit of name recognition while entering the race with a clean slate, unlike politicians who have legislative records that can be picked apart.

But her opponents have attacked her for living outside the district’s lines in Lancaster County, and for just registering as a Democrat last year.

Stelson argues that she knows the district better than anyone from telling its stories for decades. She’s also lived in various parts of the district, she said, and would move back, if elected.

The former journalist has voted in Republican primaries most years spanning 2010-2023. She said she initially registered for her parents’ party – not putting much thought into it because her job required her to be nonpartisan – and wrote in candidates in the primaries and voted for Democrats in general elections.

Her background as a former Republican and as an impartial broadcaster could help her in the general election if she makes it through the primary, said David Wasserman, senior editor and elections analyst at Cook Political Report. The publication changed its rating of the race from “likely Republican” to “lean Republican” in December, citing Stelson’s entry into the race.

O’Brien served in the Marines for two decades as a “Top Gun” fighter pilot and lieutenant colonel, and his wife is also a Marines superstar.

He said he can use his background as a real “patriot” against Perry, who touts his military service and uses the title in his own campaign.

“He likes to use patriotism, national service leadership, as his self-stated advantages,” O’Brien said. “I think that the candidate who can beat him is the one who can take those self-stated advantages and turn them into disadvantages, and that’s what I can do from a position of recency and credibility.”

He said working as a commanding officer was akin to being a CEO, “but you’re responsible for people’s lives and making life-and-death decisions.”

O’Brien was born in Philadelphia, raised in Elkins Park in Montgomery County, and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He just moved his family to the district from California after retiring from his storied military career – which for years defined his residence – to declare his candidacy.

The vet casts himself as a moderate who is willing to work across the aisle “from the middle out as opposed to the outside in,” with the exception of reproductive rights and democracy itself.

O’Brien had raised a total $736,227 as of April 3, maintaining a lead over Stelson, who had raised $577,019 as of the same date. Coplen and Lynch are are the next highest fundraisers in the Democratic field, both raising less than $90,000.

Wasserman said it’s a “two-way race” between O’Brien and Stelson, though Daniels could make an impact by siphoning votes. The New York Times called it a race to watch, pointing to Stelson’s candidacy.

The four other candidates have more thorough platforms on their websites than Stelson and O’Brien, with some going into great detail on policy ideas. But in a competitive race, a platform can only be as good as the resources behind it.

The House Majority PAC, a Democratic super PAC, announced in early April that it will spend $2.4 million on ads in the district, signaling an aggressive push to flip it blue.

Perry has raised more than $2 million himself, though he has less than a quarter of that cash on hand.

Mike Beynon, a spokesperson for Perry’s campaign, called the Democratic candidates “carpetbaggers.” He said that Perry “will again provide voters with a clear contrast between their support for reckless spending and open borders with his advocacy for the priorities and values of south-central Pennsylvanians.”

Perry, who was first elected in 2012, won his most recent election against Daniels in 2022 by 7.6 percentage points.

Daniels, 45, blamed the Democratic Party for a lack of support in that race. She said she’s confident voters want someone who already has a record in the district

“I think having that record is incredibly, incredibly, important to reassure voters that when they come out, they’re not getting a marketing product,” Daniels said. “They are getting a person who has values, and who shares their interests.”

Daniels has gone after Stelson for missing several candidate forums and using a racist trope in a joke she made on air, saying Asians make “cat tacos,” which was posted on YouTube nine years ago. Stelson said in a statement that her “comment was wrong” and said she “apologized for it at the time.”

But Daniels’ fundraising lags behind that of other candidates, including O’Brien and Stelson, who have poured thousands into television ads. Daniels said her team isn’t buying any, and instead is reaching supporters through the use of phone banks and canvassing. Her campaign’s artificial intelligence interactive robocaller, called Ashley, has helped identify her base, she said.

Lynch, the youngest candidate in the race, has argued that he best understands the needs. The 36-year-old was born and raised in the district, has kids in its public schools, and said in a debate that he knows what it’s like to balance family expenses with student loans.

Coplen, 65, has contended that he is the only candidate with a record of winning a Republican district because of his elections to the Carlisle school board.

Broadhurst, 57, has been running as an anti-establishment candidate and said in a WGAL debate that voters should look down upon endorsements. He said the Democratic Party should embrace the “progressive ideals of Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy,” and has raised the least in the race.