HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Republicans ousted Democrats in two perennially contested U.S. House seats in eastern Pennsylvania, while U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, one of the chamber’s rightmost members, survived a challenge in a district in southern Pennsylvania with more moderate votes. politics.
The defeats of sixth-term Rep. Matt Cartwright and three-term Rep. Susan Wild came as the Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives was at stake and Democrats sought a last line of resistance to the White House’s agenda for the second term of Donald Trump.
The Republican victories also mean the Republican Party has regained a majority of the state’s congressional delegation since the party lost it in a series of defeats in 2018.
Republican Rob Bresnahan, a first-time candidate and developer who runs a family construction business, defeated Cartwright in a district around Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. Meanwhile, Ryan Mackenzie, a member of the House of Representatives, defeated Wild in a district around Allentown.
Both districts have limited Democratic registration advantages, but Republicans have heavily funded Cartwright and Wild’s challengers for years in hopes of defeating them.
Cartwright was one of only five Democrats nationally to run for re-election in districts Trump won in 2020, and the region has notably embraced Trump’s politics since the president-elect first ran for president in 2016 .
Sixth-term Perry defeated Democrat Janelle Stelson, a first-time candidate and longtime local TV news anchor who turned Republican-turned-Democrat.
Perry chaired the Freedom Caucus, a hardline faction of conservatives whose politics do not necessarily reflect the fast-growing district surrounding the cities of Harrisburg and York. Republicans have a slight registration advantage in the district.
Perry also has the distinction of being the only lawmaker to have his cell phone seized by FBI agents investigating the web of Trump loyalists central to his bid to cling to power in 2020.
Perry has not been charged with a crime.
Elsewhere in Pennsylvania, fourteen other incumbents were re-elected.
That included Democrats Brendan Boyle and Dwight Evans of Philadelphia; Mary Gay Scanlon, Madeleine Dean and Chrissy Houlahan from suburban Philadelphia; and Summer Lee and Chris Deluzio of the Pittsburgh area.
Republicans reelected were Guy Reschenthaler, Mike Kelly, Glenn Thompson and John Joyce of western Pennsylvania, as well as Dan Meuser, Lloyd Smucker and Bryan Fitzpatrick of eastern Pennsylvania.
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