Eden Durbin, left, canvassed for candidate Janelle Stelson in York, Pa., on May 10, 2026. Candidate Justin Douglas, middle, canvassed with volunteer Terrance Webb in Harrisburg, Pa., on May 12.
Jordan Wilkie / WITF News
The ‘political outsiders’ who want Pa. Democrats’ votes – a final look at Stelson and Douglas in PA-10’s Democratic primary for Congress
Stelson claims outsider status but has the support of the Democratic establishment and $3.3 million cash on hand. Douglas, without party support, is looking for an under-resourced win.
-
Jordan Wilkie/WITF
Jordan Wilkie / WITF News
Eden Durbin, left, canvassed for candidate Janelle Stelson in York, Pa., on May 10, 2026. Candidate Justin Douglas, middle, canvassed with volunteer Terrance Webb in Harrisburg, Pa., on May 12.
On Tuesday, Democratic voters across Dauphin County and most of Cumberland and York Counties will choose the next challenger to the seven-term Republican incumbent in the U.S. House of Representatives, Scott Perry.
The expected 60,000 or fewer voters, based on previous midterm primaries, have the choice between former local TV news anchor Janelle Stelson and Dauphin County Commissioner Justin Douglas. The results will show how in sync the Democratic party machine is with its voters.
Stelson, running as a moderate candidate, has the official support of the Democratic Party. Douglas, a former pastor running as a progressive, is waging a shoe-string campaign reliant on volunteer support and relationships he’s made as commissioner.
Stelson has reason to be confident. Every major Democrat in Pennsylvania, from Gov. Josh Shapiro to local state Sen. Patty Kim, has endorsed her, as has the national Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and over 20 influential unions and political groups.
Endorsements and money go hand-in-hand, and Stelson likewise leads Douglas in financial support. She has spent over $1.3 million in the primary and still has more than $3.3 million cash on hand, per Federal Election Commission filings through April 29. Douglas has raised just over $138,000 and said he plans to spend it all by Tuesday.
Douglas said he still thinks he’ll win. He compares the primary to his 2023 commissioner run, when he was outspent 25-to-1 and flipped the seat Democratic for the first time in a century.
“Whatever disadvantage we have, we think we’re making up for it with energy, enthusiasm, commitment, and we’ll see where the chips fall on May 19th,” Douglas said.
He compared the dynamics in this race to his underdog run three years ago. Voters are dissatisfied with how the government is working, and Douglas is calling for bold reforms. In 2023, it was reforming conditions in the Dauphin County Prison. Now, Douglas said Democrats in Congress need to be like Franklin Roosevelt and his New Deal platform following the Great Depression.
He and Stelson are broadly aligned, at least in values if not specific policies, on major Democratic platform issues like reproductive freedom, civil and voting rights, election reform, and education funding. Both candidates have made corruption in Washington a central focus, including calling for bans on stock trading from elected officials who have insider knowledge on how the markets will move.
They also echo similar positions important to central Pa. candidates, saying the federal government needs to reinvest in rural communities and agriculture while also supporting small businesses. Both call for increased taxes on the wealthy to fund the government.
But on issues of immigration, healthcare, and foreign policy, the gaps between moderate Stelson and progressive Douglas shine through.
Both candidates have condemned Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions, especially killing protesters in Minnesota, and hiding their identities while on the job.
“There need to be independent and thorough investigations into every killing involving ICE agents,” Stelson’s website says.
Douglas goes further and said ICE should be abolished.
“ICE is not redeemable at this point,” Douglas said. “I think it would take far more resources and time to build trust back with ICE than it would to delegate those responsibilities to someone else.”
Similarly, in healthcare, Stelson calls for reforms, including having the federal government negotiate drug prices. Douglas wants universal health care.
On foreign policy, both candidates oppose the Iran war, but differ on their assessment of Israel’s role in violence in the Middle East. Stelson told the Pennsylvania Capital-Star that she wants the U.S. to be more active in negotiating the war in Gaza but that she still supports Israel, if not Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Douglas said Israel is guilty of war crimes.
“I’ve also called what’s happening in Gaza a genocide,” Douglas said. “Because it is. I’ve been to Palestine. I’ve seen the abuses. First-hand, I’ve seen houses bulldozed. Like, I’m not gonna ignore that because how politically that could get you in trouble.”
Douglas gave WITF an hour-long interview. Stelson’s campaign staff said her schedule was too demanding in the last week before the primary to find time, though for WITF’s radio broadcast Stelson did record a three-minute voice memo responding to WITF’s written questions.
The race is a microcosm of the national question roiling the Democratic Party — move to the center or embrace its progressive wing? Nationally, approval for the party from Democratic voters is at 37%, its lowest point since 1992, according to an October Gallup public opinion report.
Neither candidate’s victory will surprise Berwood Yost, he said. Yost leads public opinion polling at Franklin & Marshall College. The smart money bets seem to be on Stelson with her near-universal name recognition and huge fundraising advantage. Yost said he’s not so sure.
“Douglas seems to be working to win the primary while Stelson seems to be focused on the general election,” Yost said. “Is that a mistake?”
He has not done polling on this race, and hasn’t seen internal data from elsewhere. He added that there are two divides in the Democratic Party right now — ideological and generational. Stelson is both more conservative and older than Douglas, which may work in his favor.
Winning the general
Stelson’s loss by 5,000 votes out of more than 400,000 cast in 2024 is the narrowest margin yet of a Democrat challenging Perry. The Cook Political Report says the district is a toss-up again this fall.
Stelson hardly took a break in campaigning, immediately pivoting after 2024’s narrow loss to shore up support for this year’s election cycle. She has used the primary season to set up her general election campaign and has employed the political strategy of ignoring Douglas.
Douglas has used Stelson’s refusal to debate him as a political cudgel. This is the first PA-10 Democratic primary without a debate since 2016 when only one Democrat ran for office.
Other Democrats have also criticized Stelson for not debating, including George Scott, who ran against Perry in 2018 and then for state Senate in 2020.
“I absolutely feel that you should [debate],” Scott said. “I did both times that I ran and I feel that I was a better candidate in the general election because of that.”
Responding to questions about her strategy, Stelson pivoted to Perry.
“My focus is exactly where it should be, defeating Scott Perry, and finally bringing the independent leadership our area deserves,” Stelson said in her recorded message to WITF.
Stelson’s campaign is coordinated with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which backed her in its Red to Blue campaign to flip the U.S. House.
“The Democratic nominee is going to be Janelle Stelson, and it’s not because of Washington,” said Eli Cousin, a press secretary for the DCCC. “It’s because of the remarkable coalition that she has brought together in the district, in her community, in the community that knows her and trusts her and is going to support her in November.”
No matter who wins, party unity is important going into the fall, said Rogette Harris, chairwoman of the Dauphin County Democratic Committee. The Committee is planning a unity day after the primary, and so is Stelson’s campaign.
Jordan Wilkie / WITF News
Eden Durbin, a Democratic organizer based in Maryland, stands with campaign materials after door knocking in York, Pa., for Janelle Stelson on May 10, 2026.
Stelson said she will endorse Douglas should he win, but Douglas has not said the same. Given her resources, Stelson may not need Douglas’ support in the general election.
Still, Harris said she hopes Douglas would help get his supporters behind Stelson.
Douglas said he doesn’t have the authority to tell the groups that support him what to do. If Stelson earns endorsements from the groups currently behind Douglas, he said he will follow suit with his own support.
“This is why the Democratic Party continues to move to the center, because we allow for candidates that ignore entire swaths of the Democratic Party and are endorsed by the Party, and then during the entire process, just seem to kind of shrug their shoulders at grassroots movements,” Douglas said. “I can’t give an account for that.”
Harris said no matter who wins the primary, the goal is to defeat Perry in November.
Douglas said he plans to spend all his campaign cash by Tuesday. If he wins, he would gain the resources and support from the DCCC, Cousin confirmed, but Douglas would start the general election more than $2.3 million behind Perry’s campaign in cash on hand.
Stelson’s war chest cannot simply be transferred over, either. Per federal election rules, only $2,000 can be sent from one federal campaign to another per election cycle, according to a Stelson campaign spokesperson, who also declined to say how the money would be spent should Stelson lose.
Winds blowing in a Democratic direction
Several factors are leaning in the Democrat’s favor this fall. As low as public opinion is of the Democratic Party, it’s just as low for the Republican Party, led by declining approval ratings for President Donald Trump.
If gas prices stay high, or get higher; if the Iran war continues and remains unpopular; and if Americans continue to say there’s an affordability crisis, all that is expected to help the Democratic candidate, according to polling that shows most voters place the blame for those issues with Trump and Republicans. Their party currently control both chambers of Congress, the White House, and have a 6-3 majority of conservative justices in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Another factor: Pennsylvania’s big-ticket governor’s race will be at the top of the ballot next fall, and Shapiro remains popular and is polling ahead of his opponent, Republican Stacy Garrity, Pennsylvania’s Treasurer.
Harris said it is key for Democrats to win PA-10 if they want to control the U.S. House of Representatives. A majority would give Democrats another way to push back against the Trump administration and amp up for the 2028 presidential election.
Communicating the platform
Stelson’s campaign calls her a “political outsider” because she spent her career in journalism and has never held public office. She compares that background to Perry’s decade-plus in Congress and the state legislature before that.
To push the point home, Stelson is calling for term limits after 12 years, and has said she’ll leave office after that long regardless of whether there’s a law.
At the same time, Stelson said she learned from her first campaign and is a more resourced and better candidate this time around.
“We have built one of the largest organizing programs this district has ever seen because that is what it takes to win, building real relationships and trust,” Stelson said in her recorded message to WITF.
Eden Durbin, who volunteers for Stelson in York County, described that trust-building in mathematical terms.
“You have to touch a voter on average seven times,” Durbin said, referring to how much effort it takes to spur a voter to action. “Janelle Stelson’s campaign is going to try to touch voters 20 times so that they’re focused on the election and they know to come out and vote.”
On Sunday, May 10, Durbin walked around a West York neighborhood to knock on doors and introduce possible voters to Stelson. On a few occasions, Durbin introduced Stelson as not-your-normal candidate; a former Republican who left the party when Trump was elected and who is now running as a Democrat. Stelson changed her registration to Democrat in 2023, according to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star.
Durbin herself is a political insider. She’s the chief of staff for Maryland state lawmaker Jared Solomon and the Executive Director for DoTheMostGood, a group of volunteers based out of Montgomery County, Maryland, who campaign for Democrats.
Stelson’s campaign did not respond to WITF requests to follow her while she canvassed.
Douglas did allow WITF to follow him as he canvassed in Harrisburg’s Allison Hill neighborhood one week ahead of the election.
Jordan Wilkie / WITF News
Justin Douglas, left, talks with Marcus Clark, seated, and Bernard Dow in his Super Star Status Barber shop in Harrisburg, Pa.’s Allison Hill neighborhood on May 13, 2026.
Campaigns use voter data to create lists of houses where likely supporters live. Then candidates or campaign workers target those houses to encourage turnout during the election. Durbin’s approach to door knocking was methodical, ready with Stelson’s literature in one hand and starting each interaction in the same way.
Douglas had some talking points at the ready, like how he raised the county minimum wage to $16/hour, but several times he had to double back for his fliers.
He also embraced quality over quantity in his interactions, similar to that of a local community organizer but not typical for a major political candidate. Around seven in the evening, Douglas walked past a playground where a couple dozen kids were running around. A handful of teens were playing basketball. Douglas asked if he could play a couple points. They said yes. Douglas took a photo with them, then started a game.
Ten minutes later, after laughing with the kids and his campaign volunteers for getting a shot soundly blocked, Douglas handed out fliers to the kids, and only one voting age adult.
Tuesday night at 8 p.m., Dauphin, Cumberland and York will start posting voting results, which will roll in until about midnight, barring problems. The results will show which campaign strategy had enough reach and motivation to win the Democratic Primary.
Jordan Wilkie / WITF News
Justin Douglas prepares to play basketball with kids at the Scott Elementary School playground in Harrisburg, Pa.’s Allison Hill neighborhood on May 13, 2026.
Produced with assistance from the Public Media Journalists Association Editor Corps funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.
Help make trusted journalism available to everyone. Support WITF today.