Ian Karbal, Pennsylvania Capital-Star

On Monday, President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. held a press conference claiming a link between Tylenol consumption during pregnancy and autism. It was the latest development in an effort promised in the early days of the Trump administration – to find a cause of what Kennedy has described as an autism “epidemic.”

While the claims drew immediate blowback from members of the scientific community, the way Trump and Kennedy have discussed autism over the past few months has also brought pushback from autistic people and their advocates in Pennsylvania and across the nation.

For example, in April, while announcing an initiative to study the environmental factors that may contribute to autism, Kennedy said the condition is a “tragedy” that “destroys families.”

“These are kids who will never pay taxes, they’ll never hold a job, they’ll never play baseball, they’ll never write a poem,” Kennedy said.

In a recorded cabinet meeting last month, Trump said, “autism is such a tremendous horror show,” while teasing the recent announcement.

Two state lawmakers in the commonwealth, both Democrats, are openly autistic. They have decried the administration’s approach to addressing the developmental disorder.

Rep. Jessica Benham (D-Allegheny) was the first lawmaker elected to the House with a publicly known diagnosis. She has been alarmed by the administration’s language when discussing autism.

“This is not the first time that autism has been politicized by this administration, and we cannot allow the whims of non-experts to determine best courses of medical care,” she said in a statement to the Capital-Star. “It’s critically important that pregnant women continue to listen to real experts and make healthcare decisions in consultation with their doctors.”

Rep. Abigail Salisbury (D-Allegheny), chair of the Pennsylvania Autism Caucus, is also autistic. She criticized how Trump and Kennedy characterized people with the condition.

“I just became a little bit disgusted with the language they were using to describe people who have autism, as well as the experience of their families,” Rep. Abigail Salisbury (D-Allegheny), chair of the Pennsylvania Autism Caucus, told the Capital-Star. “Imagine you are a child with an autism diagnosis. Let’s say your parents do get divorced, or you have some sort of family issue, what does that do to you when you’re hearing that — when you’re hearing you destroyed your family and you’re the cause of everybody’s problems?”

While some studies have found a link between Tylenol use during pregnancy and autism, many experts have called them inconclusive and said they haven’t established a causal relationship. That’s in part because it’s unclear whether Tylenol, or the underlying conditions and symptoms it was being taken to alleviate, may have contributed.

Many doctors also agree that an untreated fever during pregnancy can be more harmful to a fetus than Tylenol, which medical professionals say has fewer risks than many alternative treatments.

Steven J. Fleischman, president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said in a statement that the announcement was not backed by the full body of scientific evidence and “dangerously simplifies the many and complex causes of neurologic challenges in children.”

“It is highly unsettling that our federal health agencies are willing to make an announcement that will affect the health and well-being of millions of people without the backing of reliable data,” he added.

Last April, Benham, who is also a member of the Pennsylvania Autism Caucus, shared her concerns at a press conference. It was shortly after the National Institutes of Health under Kennedy announced plans to conduct a large study into the causes of autism.

“RFK Jr.’s comments are offensive,” she said at a press conference in April. “They’re offensive to folks on the spectrum, and they’re offensive to those who love us. We need more support and services for autistic people, not insults about how we contribute to society.”

It was reported that the study would involve the collection of private medical records from federal and commercial databases, effectively amounting to an autism registry.

Kennedy also hired David Geier to look into the links between vaccines and autism. Geier had previously been involved in retracted studies linking vaccine ingredients and autism, and was disciplined in Maryland for practicing medicine without a license.

“To weaponize autism research for political purposes is inappropriate and offensive,” Benham said. “We do not need fear-mongering tactics. We do not need scare tactics.”

As Republicans face increasingly critical crowds in town halls or avoid them altogether, Rep. Scott Perry (R) held a telephone town hall to answer constituents’ questions.

Perry’s event came a week after a Democratic state Senate candidate won a special election in a Trump+15 District in Lancaster County, not far from his own congressional district. And on Tuesday, a liberal candidate for Wisconsin’s state Supreme Court beat a conservative opponent. It was a race widely seen as a referendum on Trump’s agenda, and in particular the role of billionaire megadonor Elon Musk, who poured millions into the contest.

Perry expressed both praise and skepticism of Musk and his role as the figurehead of the Department of Government Efficiency, which has led the Trump administration’s efforts to slash tens of thousands of federal jobs and cancel contracts across federal agencies – usually without warning.

The Republican lawmaker also answered questions on the sweeping tariffs announced by President Donald Trump earlier in the day, efforts to thwart federal judges who have blocked parts of Trump’s agenda, and concerns that Republicans will cut programs like Medicare and Social Security.

The town hall came after weeks of demands for Perry to communicate directly with constituents. He faced some tough questions, but not the rowdy crowds that met other Republicans who held events in person.

As Trump came into office and quickly began slashing federal spending and cutting tens of thousands of jobs, voters in the 10th Congressional District demanded their representative’s ear. Beginning in February, there were protests outside of his district offices. And last month, labor leaders and other advocates held a town hall in his absence at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Conference Center in Swatara Township, Dauphin County, that drew around 150 constituents.

White House staff secretary Will Scharf, left, adviser Elon Musk, joined by his son X Musk, center, and U.S. President Donald Trump appear for an executive order signing in the Oval Office at the White House on Feb. 11, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Multiple callers asked Perry about Musk, who has become one of the most prominent and controversial figures in the Trump administration’s orbit.

Perry, who has echoed many of Musk’s claims of fraud and waste on social media, expressed both praise and skepticism of the entrepreneur-turned-presidential advisor.

Ultimately, he said that it’s been a source of “frustration” that Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has not been more transparent about their claims that their sweeping cuts have saved tens of billions of dollars.

His statement was in response to a question about why lawmakers had to raise the debt ceiling, despite Musk’s claimed spending cuts.

“I will tell you, I have a personal frustration, and we have asked, ‘Let’s see the details on DOGE,’” Perry said. “We can’t see granularly at this point. I know there’s a website and it says, ‘We have eliminated this contract’ or ‘We have eliminated this spending.’ But we have to put that in a frame of reference in the appropriations bill to see where that came from.”

Musk’s DOGE has come under fire practically since it started operating, in part because of false or exaggerated claims of savings. Following media fact checks, the New York Times reported that DOGE made changes to its website which made it harder to independently verify claims of savings.

Though that has not stopped Perry from sharing Musk’s unverified claims of finding fraud on social media.

But, he also praised DOGE, and their work identifying inefficiencies in the government’s record-keeping systems. Perry noted those systems are too numerous and struggle to communicate with one another, opening them up to fraud. He also said that he’d like to see DOGE operatives look at how to cut spending in the Medicare and Medicaid programs

“Washington’s been on a reckless spending spree for way too long,” Perry claimed at the top of the call. “That’s why we have to codify many of the cuts proposed under the Department of Government Efficiency, ensuring that we actually reduce the waste and reign in the federal overreach once and for all. Quite honestly, the waste is simply breathtaking.”

Earlier on Wednesday, Trump unveiled his long-promised plan to place tariffs, which will affect more than 100 nations and trading partners.

Asked for his thoughts on the issue, Perry was generally supportive. Though he noted he had not had advanced notice of the details of the tariff plans and was still reviewing them. He also said that he would like to see exemptions for products like coffee and cocoa that generally can not be grown the U.S.

Since Trump promised to announce the sweeping tariffs on Wednesday, U.S. and foreign markets fell. Prices on a broad range of products are also expected to rise, and consumer confidence reached a four-year low.

Yet the hope for tariff supporters is that the move will bolster the consumption of American made products, and incite companies to move manufacturing into the U.S. – instead of importing products produced with cheaper labor elsewhere.

“I know there’s going to be some market adjustments, but I also know that prior to the national income tax, our country was basically funded by tariffs,” Perry said.

While tariffs were a primary source of income for the United States for decades, they were largely phased out following World War II, the introduction of income tax, and the increase of global trade.

Multiple people asked Perry about whether there will be cuts to benefit programs like Medicaid and Social Security.

All but one House Republican voted in February on a broad outline of a plan that would cut $2 trillion in federal spending. Perry was quick to point out that the fine points of how that spending will be cut haven’t been worked out.

“That’s what we call the top line, and these are the targets to get to,” Perry said.

Democrats have warned that the only way to make those cuts possible would be by eating into the funding of social programs. But, Perry noted that Senate Republicans were not likely to agree to such large cuts, and that they would ultimately have to compromise.

The congressman acknowledged that, in order to reduce the deficit, lawmakers will have to take a hard look at these programs. He expressed optimism that cuts could be made by eliminating alleged fraud.

“There’s fraud and abuse and that and improper payments,” Perry said about Social Security. “We’re finding out that people have abused these systems to the tune of hundreds of millions, and maybe billions and billions, of dollars. We can’t continue down that road. At a minimum, we should make sure that that stuff is stopped, so that the people that have paid in can get out what they’re expecting.”

A recent audit of the Social Security program found billions in improper payments between 2020 and 2023, but those makes up a small fraction — less than 1% — of all payments made by the multi-trillion dollar program. And not all of those overpayments were due to fraud.

Perry also said he’d be open to making fewer Americans eligible for Medicaid.

“Working adults have become the largest subgroup of Medicaid because of the way it’s been expanded,” Perry said. “The real problem … is that we can’t afford it, because we have just a huge amount of spending where we never had it before … It wasn’t what it was designed for.”

Medicaid was vastly expanded under the 2010 Affordable Care Act. Since then, virtually all American citizens who haven’t aged into Medicare, and can’t obtain comparable insurance through an employer or spouse, can get on a federally-funded plan. Though what the government’s share of that cost is depends on a recipient’s income.

“The expanded population is 90% of [what the] federal government is paying, and so it’s actually diverting the resources away from the truly needy people,” Perry said. “We’ve got to take a look at it to make sure that the eligibility requirements are being met for the truly needy”

Another constituent asked about the impact of cuts to the Social Security Administration’s workforce, and whether it would make it more difficult to access services.

Perry said while people may be experiencing difficulty getting a golf of Social Security employees since workforce cuts to federal agencies, the issue isn’t new.

“I’m not for cutting the staff if the staff is necessary,” Perry said. “But we’ve dealt for a long time with Social Security in our office, because people could not get timely answers. And unfortunately for us, that’s not a new circumstance.”

“I don’t know if it’s becoming more acute,” Perry added.

Medicaid sign at U.S. Senate Democrats’ press conference on Feb. 19, 2025. (Photo by Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom)

“Activist judges”

Perry was asked by a Trump-supporting constituent what he hoped to do about judges that have blocked some of the administration’s policies from taking effect. That includes his ban on birthright citizenship, his efforts to strip deportation protections from Venezuelans, and blocking federal funding for institutions that provide gender-affirming care for youth.

“We have these activist judges just right and left impeding him every step they go,” the caller said. “Why isn’t funding being pulled?”

Injunctions with nationwide effects ordered by federal judges have drawn the ire of numerous Republicans lawmakers. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), has warned that lawmakers may take action, including defunding or restructuring federal courts.

Perry, however, took a more measured approach.

“We do control the power of the purse, but I don’t know that there really is any way to single out individual judges,” Perry said. “We would be essentially forced to cut the entire portion of some judiciary and I don’t think that’s probably responsible when there’s one or two bad actors.”

Perry also said he does not believe impeachment is wise. He said it could “bog down” Congress, and would almost certainly fail in the Senate where a two-thirds vote is required.

But Perry was asked specifically about a resolution introduced by Arizona Republican Rep. Andy Biggs, which contends that judges can be removed with a simple majority vote by taking advantage of a constitutional loophole.

The Constitution states that judges “shall hold their offices during good behavior,” and Biggs’ resolution argues that Judge James E. Boasberg, who attempted to block Trump from deporting hundreds of alleged gang members to El Salvador, has violated it. Though it would likely face legal challenges, the resolution is an effort to skirt the two-thirds vote requirement of impeachment.

Perry warned against the tact.

“There’s oftentimes activism on both sides,” Perry said. “When Republicans are in the Executive branch, then there might be activists on the Democrat side, and vice versa. So you’ve gotta understand that things cut both ways.”

Pennsylvania is home to an estimated 155,000 undocumented migrants, according to the American Immigration Council. And around 30,000 of them may work in the state’s agricultural sector, according to estimates from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.

With the state’s agriculture industry already facing a workforce shortage, President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to begin a mass deportation program at the start of his term next week could exacerbate the problem.

Lerae Kroon, a supervising attorney at the Pennsylvania Farmworker Project, said that a mass deportation program like Trump has pitched would “cause chaos and pain for everyone in the community.”

“Many undocumented workers live with and support multi-generational and mixed status families, who will be in economic distress,” Kroon said. “The labor shortage will only get worse as folks are swept up in raids – and even documented workers may decide that the risk is not worth it and leave agricultural jobs.”

According to Kroon, increased hostility towards immigration is already being felt in Pennsylvania.

“We have heard from clients and community partners who are scared,” Kroon said. “Anti-immigrant rhetoric is already driving folks further into the shadows, and we expect that will continue.”

Pennsylvania elected officials are urging the incoming Trump administration to proceed with caution, ensuring that any changes to the immigration system ensure that seasonal workers are able to enter the country legally.

Gov. Josh Shapiro addresses reporters at the Pa. Farm Show on Jan. 8, 2025 (Ian Karbal/ Capital-Star)

‘Let’s see what the president-elect actually decides to do’

Speaking to a crowd at the Pennsylvania Farm Show last week, Gov. Josh Shapiro called filling workforce shortages in the state’s agriculture sector “critically important.”

Shapiro said his administration has made investments in agricultural education and apprenticeship programs to bring younger people into the workforce. He also said it’s important to ensure that immigrant and seasonal workers, who make up a large share of the agricultural workforce, are able to work in the country legally.

Though Shapiro didn’t mention Trump by name, the president-elect has repeatedly promised to enact “the largest mass deportation program in American history,” which he’s said will begin on his first day in office in less than a week. Trump has also floated ending birthright citizenship and potentially deporting entire families with mixed immigration status.

“We also need a thoughtful, responsible immigration reform at the federal level that prioritizes the needs of our ag industry,” Shapiro said. “I hope our federal partners will be able to come together to accomplish that.”

Asked during a news conference after his speech how he would support agricultural workers and business owners if Trump takes a more extreme approach to his deportation plans, Shapiro was noncommittal.

“Let’s see what the president-elect actually decides to do here — he’s said a lot of different things,” Shapiro said. “Our administration will be prepared.”

The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture has estimated that nearly half of Pennsylvania’s crop farm workers, roughly 30,000 people, may be undocumented immigrants, according to 2017 census numbers. The American Immigration Council, an immigration advocacy group, estimates that immigrants, both documented and undocumented, make up around 9.7% of the state’s total workforce, according to 2022 data, and that a large share work in the agricultural sector generally.

According to Bailey Fisher, the federal affairs specialist at the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, some Pennsylvania industries that rely heavily on migrant labor include dairy, mushroom, fruit and Christmas tree farms.

“The jobs that foreign-born farm workers fill are specialized, technical and grueling,” said Kroon, speaking to why migrant workers are so prominent in the agricultural sector. “They are also historically low-paying. As labor shortages in agriculture continue to grow, the work still has to be done and some undocumented workers are willing to do it.”

Trump has said at times that he would focus his early deportation efforts on criminals. He also told NBC’s Meet The Press after winning election that he would be open to deporting all undocumented immigrants in the country over the course of his next term.

‘A devastating impact’

Shapiro’s response to Trump’s statements are similar to other remarks he’s made since Trump’s election in November. Other Democratic governors have taken a more hard-line stance, saying they will try to block deportation efforts or instruct law enforcement in their states not to cooperate with federal agents.

As governor, Shapiro could take a leading role in shaping the state’s response to any deportation plans enacted by Trump. And he has some history of pushing back on Trump’s immigration policies. When he was Pennsylvania’s attorney general, Shapiro joined a multistate lawsuit to stop Trump’s family separation policy that saw young children taken from their parents. He also pushed back on Trump’s attempts to ban Muslims traveling to the United States and his first administration’s policies that made it more difficult for immigrants living in the U.S. to change their immigration status.

Pennsylvania state House Rep. Jose Giral (D-Philadelphia), vice chair of the Pennsylvania Legislative Latino Caucus and a member of the House Labor and Industry Committee, called for more measured immigration reform.

“President-Elect Trump’s mass deportation plan would have a devastating impact on our agriculture industry – our largest industry generating tens of billions of dollars in revenue and economic activity every year – and losing these workers would send everyone’s grocery bill skyrocketing,” Giral told the Capital-Star in a statement. “The federal government should focus on immigration reform instead of targeting hardworking and essential farm workers.”

But some Democrats, like Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, have shown more willingness to work with Republicans on immigration reform. Fetterman recently signed on as a cosponsor of the GOP-led Laken Riley Act, named for a young Georgia woman whose murder by an undocumented immigrant who had previously been arrested for shoplifting and endangering a child became a rallying cry for the Trump campaign’s immigration proposals. The vote in Pennsylvania’s House delegation was bipartisan. Democratic Reps. Brendan Boyle and Chris Deluzio voted for the bill along with all Republicans from the state. The Senate has yet to take a final vote on the bill.

The bill would require Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents to detain undocumented immigrants who are charged with theft-related crimes like burglary and shoplifting, regardless of whether they’re convicted. It would also give state attorneys general greater power to sue the federal government for harm to their citizens caused by undocumented immigrants.

Recent polling shows that support for deporting undocumented immigrants has grown among the American public.

U.S. Sen Dave McCormick (R-PA) toured the Pennsylvania Farm Show on Jan. 11, 2025. (John Cole/Capital-Star)

Pennsylvania’s recently-elected Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.) also addressed immigration at the Farm Show on Saturday, saying that immigration reform should follow efforts to increase border security and slow immigration.

“Job one has to be closing the border, but I’m hopeful that as we get a little further into the president’s term, we’ll also be able to return to legal immigration reform,” McCormick said.

Speaking specifically to the needs of Pennsylvania farmers, McCormick said, “in this community in particular, there are needs for H-2A and other reforms that allow us to have legal agricultural workers,” McCormick told the Capital-Star. “And these are jobs that are not replacing American workers. These are jobs that are left unfilled unless we have legal immigration reform

‘We’re already struggling to get enough workers’

As it stands, the H-2A visa program, which allows U.S. employers to bring in foreign workers to fill temporary agriculture jobs, may not be able to bring in enough people to make up for the loss of undocumented workers if Trump enacts a broad deportation program.

“The H-2A program, in its current capacity, I don’t know if it could handle that,” said Fisher, the federal affairs specialist at the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau. “We’re already struggling to get enough workers through the program.”

Fisher said the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau isn’t taking a stance in debates over immigration, but is talking with the incoming Trump administration to convey the seriousness of the worker shortage and seasonal migrant workers’ roles in filling it.

The Pennsylvania Farm Bureau is advocating to let visa holders work for a full year, as opposed to just six months, and to make it easier for farmers to apply for the program.

Fisher also said that getting enough workers isn’t the only issue with the program. Employers relying on it have to fill out a hefty amount of paperwork, sometimes requiring them to hire specialized consultants. And with strict housing standards and transportation requirements, hiring seasonal workers can become expensive.

“We of course want to make sure employees feel safe and healthy,” Fisher said. “But we also want to have some practicality to it.”

But ultimately, Fisher said, reform may be difficult.

“The H-2A program is such a beast,” Fisher said.

And there’s another issue. “We understand immigration is related to ag labor with the H-2A visa program, but whenever you bring up immigration it turns into this politicized topic and you can never get anything done.”

Fisher said she’s begun to hear concerns from business owners in the Pennsylvania agricultural sector about the potential impacts of a deportation program. But, like Shapiro, she’s telling them, “wait and see what happens. Right now a lot of this can be just rumors.”

The chairman of the Republican National Committee said at a rally for former President Donald Trump in Allentown on Tuesday that the Trump campaign intends to file a lawsuit against Bucks County for turning away voters who had lined up to apply for mail ballots on demand.

“Folks, here’s what’s happening: Democrat election officials are seeing our numbers. They’re seeing our turnout. They are seeing us breaking early vote records across Pennsylvania. They are terrified. And they want to stop our momentum,” RNC Chairperson Michael Whatley said. “We are not going to let them suppress our votes. We are going to fight.”

Whatley told voters to stay in line at about 7:30 p.m. — two-and-a-half hours after the state deadline to accept mail ballot applications.

“Donald Trump needs your votes. Donald Trump needs Pennsylvania. And America needs Pennsylvania,” Whatley said.

Bucks County spokesperson James O’Malley said officials had been notified of the campaign’s intent to sue, and had no comment Tuesday..

County officials have said several times over the last few days that the election offices are not polling places and on-demand printing of mail ballots is not early voting. Pennsylvania law does not allow early voting.

Misleading videos, conspiracy theories, confusion on both sides of the aisle about the difference between on-demand mail ballots and early voting, and unclear direction from state election officials created chaos in the last days Pennsylvania voters had to apply for mail ballots. Though officials said anyone who was in line to apply for a ballot by 5 p.m. on Tuesday was able to submit their application.

On Tuesday, voters lined up at local election offices across Pennsylvania to apply to get mail ballots on demand before the 5 p.m. deadline. Many voters didn’t realize that they were in line to apply for a mail ballot; they thought they were in line to vote like they would on Election Day.

The process of getting a mail ballot on demand has each voter submit a mail ballot application and receive a ballot on the same day. It can take 10 minutes or more per voter. The voter can then fill the ballot out and turn it in on the spot, or they can take the ballot home and return it another day before Election Day. Most voters chose to fill out their ballots on the spot.

Confusion over mail ballots at Bucks County election office leads to long lines, frustrated voters

The result was long lines. And in places like Doylestown, in Bucks County, county security guards had to divide the line around 2:45 p.m. County officials said there were some early miscommunications, but everyone should have been able to submit a mail ballot application. People who arrived after the cut off wouldn’t get their ballots that day.

Videos of guards placing signs to divide these lines or telling voters they would not be able to cast ballots, quickly circulated on social media, with many saying they showed voters being denied entrance to the offices altogether. Some posts containing the videos had more than a million views and garnered responses from Elon Musk and right-wing influencers. Whatley appeared to cite these when he announced his intent to sue.

“Contrary to what is being depicted on social media, if you are in line by 5 p.m. for an on-demand mail-in ballot application, you will have the opportunity to submit your application for a mail-in ballot,” the Bucks County officials said in a post on their government Facebook page. “We are aware that, due to a miscommunication, individuals in line to apply for an on-demand mail-in ballot were briefly told they could not be accommodated. In fact, these voters were given the opportunity to submit mail-in ballot applications today.”

The crowds, however, were not entirely unexpected. Last Friday, the Department of State emailed county election officials, urging them to prepare for a crush of voters applying for mail ballots and requesting on-demand ballots before the deadline.

The email tasked boards of election with “ensuring that every voter who is in line by 5:00 PM is provided with an opportunity to request and submit a ballot” on the last day to do so. “This uniquely busy election cycle may require you to consider logistical challenges that you previously didn’t need to consider,” the email said.

On Tuesday, Schmidt assured Pennsylvania voters in a virtual press conference that “if you’re in line today and that 5 p.m. deadline is approaching, counties must give you the opportunity to apply for your mail ballot.”

But issues with on-demand ballots slowing lines had already begun.

On Saturday, some Bucks County voters who lined up to get ballots on demand were turned away before the election office closed because lines had gotten too long.

State Sen. Frank Farry (R-Bucks) said reports from constituents that day led him to publish a memo announcing his intent to sponsor legislation that would require county election officials to serve anyone in line by the posted closing time.

“There’s these long lines because the process is obviously cumbersome and it’s not the way the system’s set up, quite frankly,” Farry said.

Farry described the proposed legislation as something of a stopgap in the absence of more comprehensive legislation to reform early voting.

There’s no chance of Farry’s bill being taken up before the election because there simply aren’t enough session days scheduled for it to make it through both chambers, something he’s aware of.

“I’m sure after this election, maybe everybody can sit down and reflect on the ways we could do some of this better,” Farry said.

With millions now casting ballots, democracy watchdogs stress voter protection

For the last two years, with Democrats in control of the House and Republicans in control of the Senate, getting consensus on any legislation has been difficult. State House Democrats have proposed a series of election reform measures that would have allowed for pre-canvassing of mail votes and expanded options for early in-person voting, though the latter would not have been able to take effect until 2027. Senate Republicans, however, said they would not back any major changes to election law unless they included more stringent voter identification requirements, which Democrats largely oppose.

A bill to allow pre-canvassing actually passed the House this year, but was not taken up by the Senate.

“I urge you, please, please be patient with county election officials today,” Schmidt said at Tuesday’s press conference. “They’re all working diligently to make sure every registered voter who wants to vote by mail ballot on demand can do so.”

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson attended a Mechanicsburg fundraiser for U.S. Rep. Scott Perry (R-10th District) Friday as the former Freedom Caucus chair faces what may be his toughest reelection challenge since taking office in 2013.

A spokesperson for Perry’s campaign, Matt Beynon, did not say how much attendees donated to share a meal with Johnson and Perry but said “they’re very generous voters.” He estimated around 90 people attended.

“We have a really important Republican delegation down in this state,” Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, told a gaggle of reporters, who were relegated to a side room of the restaurant where the event was held. “One of the most important members of Congress from my perspective, and the perspective of my colleagues, is Scott Perry.”

The show of support from Johnson comes as the most recent polls find Perry trailing his Democratic opponent, Janelle Stelson. And campaign finance filings show he is being outraised as well.

“That is a sign that the Republicans are deeply concerned about this race,” said Alison Dagnes, a professor of political science at Shippensburg University. “They would not waste leadership time, effort, money, etc. on something they were not concerned about.”

But Johnson and Perry both dismissed the unfavorable polls.

“These polls at this time are meant to drive opinion, not reflect opinion,” Perry said. “The poll that the speaker and I are most interested in is going to happen next month,” he added, referring to the election.

An August poll commissioned by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee found Stelson leading Perry by a single point, within its margin of error. But the most recent poll, which was privately commissioned and conducted by Susquehanna Polling, found Perry trailing Stelson by nearly 10 points, with a five point margin of error. Stelson also had significantly higher favorability ratings than Perry — 40% to 27%. Dagnes noted that congressional polling can often be less accurate than national polls, since there are fewer of them and samples are typically smaller.

‘He is who he is’

Perry’s apparent slipping support is due to a number of factors, but multiple local analysts made note of his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

“He’s gotten a lot of negative attention since 2020,” said Dan Mallinson, associate professor of public policy and administration at Penn State Harrisburg. “His involvement in 2020 and trying to overturn the [election] results here in Pennsylvania, all the subsequent information that was released in the investigation into his post-election activity, the FBI taking his phone … There’s just been a lot of negative attention to a candidate.”

Perry was a booster of conspiracy theories alleging fraud in the 2020 election and voted against certifying the results in Pennsylvania. After Jan. 6, he was investigated by the FBI for his alleged role in organizing attempts to undermine the election. Information from that investigation, as well as that of the congressional Jan. 6 committee, has trickled out in the years since.

At a recent debate with Stelson, Perry did not directly answer a question about whether the upcoming election would be fair, and at another point said that the post office shredded ballots in 2020.

The fundraiser with Johnson was held only days after Perry signed onto a lawsuit demanding the state impose stricter voter ID requirements on overseas voters, including members of the military. The complaint, filed on behalf of six Pennsylvania Republican congressmen, asks the state to segregate overseas ballots until the voters who cast them can verify their identities.

“He is who he is,” Mallinson said. “I don’t think he’s the kind of politician who loosens his positions around trying to meet the moment.”

Perry, a retired Army brigadier general, said the lawsuit was intended to prevent foreign interference.

“What we’re trying to do is ensure the overseas votes for military veterans aren’t abused by people in foreign countries like Iran who have openly talked about and openly targeted hacking into our election process for overseas votes,” Perry said.

The Pennsylvania Department of State pushed back and accused Perry of trying to frighten or disenfranchise military voters.

“This lawsuit is nothing more than an attempt to confuse and frighten people ahead of an important election,” the Department of State said in a statement. “Ballots cast by ineligible voters occur at extremely low rates and are routinely investigated and prosecuted by the appropriate authorities when they occur.”

Asked about the possibility of military votes being thrown out or discounted due to the lawsuit, Perry said, “if we just follow the law, then everything will be OK. It’s unfortunate that we have to ask our government or demand that our government follow its law.”

But according to the Department of State, Pennsylvania law has an exemption to voter ID requirements for overseas voters. And a federal law, signed by Republican President Ronald Raegan, which was designed to ensure military members could vote, does not require it either.

“It’s interesting to me that the parties to this lawsuit are lawmakers in the majority,” Ari Mittleman, the executive director of Keep Our Republic, a non-partisan group that studies election threats and conducts civic education around voting issues. “They’ve been in the majority for some time. This law could have been examined through committee hearings or through floor action.”

Asked whether he would attempt to alter the Uniformed and Overseas Citizen Voting Act, Perry demurred.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” said Perry, who serves on House intelligence and foreign affairs committees. “There are a lot of problems across the country, and America’s just been holding its breath for the last four years hoping that this nightmare will end.”

Stelson’s campaign has sought to paint Perry as extreme and has plastered the 10th district with ads. The tactic apparently caught Republicans’ attention. Johnson attributed Perry’s falling favorability to Stelson’s campaign “carpet bombing him with negative ads trying to assault the character of a man who has served his country valiantly for 40 years.”

In a statement to the Capital-Star, Stelson’s campaign said “Perry voted against health care for veterans exposed to toxic burn pits, voted against housing for homeless veterans and is now trying to throw out the votes of the men and women who serve our country overseas. This kind of extremism is exactly what’s wrong with Washington and Central Pennsylvanians are tired of it.”

A changing landscape.

Jim Lee, the president of Susquehanna Polling, noted that the 10th District’s demographics have been changing .

While much of Pennsylvania is losing population, the city of York and Cumberland County — significant parts of Perry’s district — have been growing.

“The growth patterns are such that the people moving into northern York and the Camp Hill, west shore, Cumberland County area, they’re moderate, in my opinion,” Lee said. “I don’t think they’re red ruby Republicans on social issues.”

And the political landscape around social issues has changed as well, especially since Roe v. Wade was overturned with the Dobbs decision in 2022.

At a recent debate with Stelson, Perry dodged a question on whether he would continue to support a national abortion ban.

“I oppose taxpayer-funded abortions, but I make exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother, and that has never changed,” Perry said.

But Perry isn’t the only Republican hurting in the 10th District. The Susquehanna poll also found Trump trailing Harris by four points, within the poll’s margin of error.

In 2020, Trump beat Biden by four points in the district, according to Lee. Information compiled by the Daily Kos shows similar results.

“If Trump can’t win the 10th congressional, how’s he gonna win the state?” Lee said. “He’s gotta at least match his 2020 numbers, if not do a little bit better if he’s gonna offset the shellacking he’s gonna get in the Southeast.”

Ultimately, though, Lee, like Mallinson, thinks Perry’s political fortunes may rise or fall based on his own decisions.

“I think he’s being true to himself,” Lee said.

Pennsylvania Capital-Star is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kim Lyons for questions: info@penncapital-star.com. Follow Pennsylvania Capital-Star on Facebook and X.

On Jan. 5, 2021, then-Treasurer elect Stacy Garrity stood before a cold crowd at the Pennsylvania Capitol, at a rally intended to push lawmakers to decertify the results of the presidential election in Pennsylvania.

“Let there be no question, I’m speaking about election integrity,” Garrity said to a crowd waving Trump flags that had cheered on speaker after speaker decrying a stolen presidency. “The election from this November is tarnished forever.”

But, according to her re-election campaign, Garrity wasn’t talking about that election.

“Stacy Garrity spoke at the January 5 rally in Harrisburg on one issue and one issue alone: the inconsistent application of ballot counting rules that directly affected the outcome of a state senate race in the 45th District,” said Jim Tkacik, a spokesperson for her campaign.

Tkacik also said that Garrity accepts the results of the 2020 election, and will accept the results of the 2024 election, even if former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee, loses.

Yet it was not the only time Garrity appeared to publicly question the results of the election.

At a 2022 rally for GOP Senate candidate Mehmet Oz, Garrity was invited on stage by Trump. Speaking about the help he offered her 2020 campaign, Garrity pointed to Trump and said, “we know that he won.”

Even taking Tkacik at his word about the Jan. 5 rally, and assuming Garrity was only speaking about the 45th District, the event’s organizer told reporters at the time that the goal was “asking the state legislature to have a vote on the floor to decertify the election votes.”

A video of 40 minutes of the rally, which does not include Garrity’s remarks, shows speakers were unequivocally challenging the presidential election results.

The only available video of Garrity’s speech, published by a partisan blog, appears to begin in the middle of her remarks, yet in the three minutes available, she never mentions the 45th district.

When questioned about these inconsistencies, Tkacik said, “Treasurer Garrity has previously stated that Joe Biden is the duly elected president of the United States. Pennsylvanians are reminded of this reality every time they fill up their gas tanks or buy groceries.”

Pennsylvania Capital-Star is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kim Lyons for questions: info@penncapital-star.com. Follow Pennsylvania Capital-Star on Facebook and X.