Big Dom, Elon Musk and George Santos. The Pa. campaign cameos are getting weird.| PA 2026 Newsletter
Plus what to know about Josh Shapiro’s new federal PAC, a heated rematch in Harrisburg and the voter registration race.
📅 There are 18 days until Election Day.
The Harrisburg congressional contest’s theatrics have reached a crescendo as the Nov. 3 election nears. This week on the debate stage, candidates held nothing back.
🎤 I’m Michelle Baruchman, the campaigns and elections reporter at The Inquirer. I’m based in Philadelphia, but this week I’m focused on a race 100 miles west in Harrisburg. Republican Rep. Scott Perry and Democrat Janelle Stelson, a former TV anchor, debated each other for the second time in two years to represent Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District.
It was spicy.
But as Stelson and Perry head to an election rematch, after just over 5,100 votes separated them in 2024, voters in the key swing district have become even more pointed in their rhetoric than the candidates. One voter said he “despises” Perry, who he called an “election denier”; Stelson is “the crazy lady” who “doesn’t have decent values,” another voter told The Inquirer’s Al Lubrano.
In this edition:
🗳️ The more you know: Our 2026 midterms voter guide is here!
🗳️ Money, money, money: Elon Musk and a national GOP group are pouring millions into competitive Pa. congressional races.
🗳️ Big Dom makes a big promise: At a Philly Dems fundraiser with some of the biggest names in Pennsylvania politics, Big Dom reassured Eagles fans. (Go Birds.)
— Michelle Baruchman, Sam Janesch Gillian McGoldrick and Fallon Roth, (pa2026@inquirer.com)
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The latest
Exclusive: Gov. Josh Shapiro has established a new federal PAC, the strongest signal yet that the Pennsylvania governor could be eyeing a run for higher office.
Democratic Sen. John Fetterman is accomplishing little legislatively and is largely absent from committee meetings and public appearances. He’s also voting less with his party since President Donald Trump took office, an Inquirer analysis found.
And as party switch rumors swirl, Fetterman’s joint fundraising effort with Republican Sen. Dave McCormick filed its first report with the FEC.
Democrats are hoping the midterms give them their first trifecta in Harrisburg in decades — and they have a long list of priorities.
Shapiro said his administration is prepared to defend legally cast ballots in court if Trump or others try to interfere.
As of last week, approximately $90 million has been allocated from both Democrats and Republicans to ad spending in Pennsylvania’s congressional races.
Data dive
Trump and U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick aren’t exactly best friends.
The Bucks County Republican votes for the president’s priorities the least out of any House GOP lawmaker (at a rate of 70%). And Trump, far from shy about punishing Republicans he considers disloyal, suggested in the spring that Fitzpatrick’s future might not “work out well” as a result.
So it caught our eye this week when the Trump-aligned MAGA Inc. PAC dropped $100,000 on digital ads supporting Fitzpatrick’s reelection.
The spending was among dozens of other investments by the massively funded PAC as Trump looks to keep GOP control of Congress — and as national Republicans also step in to save the last Republican in the Philadelphia region.
Earlier this week, the Congressional Leadership Fund — which is aligned with House Speaker Mike Johnson — redirected $3.6 million to boost Fitzpatrick in his tough race against Democrat Bob Harvie.
Elon Musk, meanwhile, hasn’t used his America PAC to help Fitzpatrick (at least not yet), but has thrown $1.5 million behind three other vulnerable Pennsylvania Republicans.
We’ll be continuing to dive into the spending spree in the final few weeks of the election. That includes digging all the way down to critical state-level races, where Pennsylvania Senate Democrats and Republicans have spent about $27.7 million in five districts that could give Democrats their first Harrisburg trifecta in three decades.
Campaign scrapple
👀 A big tent: Former U.S. Rep. George Santos (R., N.Y.), whose seven-year prison sentence for fraud and identity theft was commuted by Trump last year, is a likely voter for… Gov. Josh Shapiro? Santos, who lives in Monroe County, posted on X that a Democratic volunteer called him to solicit his vote in the upcoming Nov. 3 election, despite his status as a registered Republican. Santos said he’ll vote for Republican U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan in Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District, but he’s also leaning toward supporting Shapiro’s reelection because the Democrat “knows how to run this state.” He also had a message for the state GOP: “Wake up, Republicans ‘cause they’re calling the opposition!”
🤝 Blast from the past: Former U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, the centrist Democrat turned independent, endorsed U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a Republican who says he wishes he could be an independent. In a video posted to Fitzpatrick’s social media, Manchin said that in their years working together on Capitol Hill the Republican lawmaker “wasn’t worried about his politics. He wasn’t worried about political parties.”
🍼 Baby o’clock: A number of Democratic members of the state House and Senate launched a new Kids & Families Caucus this week. The effort, being led by members with small children, aims to better represent the needs of families with young children who are grappling with the high cost of childcare and other needs. It’s one of several ways Democrats hope they can advance changes for working families if they win a trifecta in November.
Gov. Josh Shapiro visited The Inquirer’s newsroom earlier this week to speak with our reporters. (Treasurer Stacy Garrity swung by the newsroom last month)
Look out for that story next week. In the meantime, read our coverage of the governor’s new federal PAC.
👀 What we’re watching
📝 Pennsylvania’s voter registration deadline is Monday. We’ll be watching the final registration push from both parties — often a signal of enthusiasm levels as voters pay more attention just before Election Day.
This time last year, Republicans were on track to completely erase what had been a massive 916,000 voter registration advantage for Democrats at the beginning of the Trump era. But Democrats have spent 2026 on a mission to reverse the trend — and they’ve had some success. As of Monday, Democrats held a 234,500 voter registration edge after a year of gains.
For more information on how to vote and who is on your ballot, check out our voter guide here.
In a room including a former president, the governor and the mayor, there was one person there who could talk about an issue Philadelphians actually care about: Big Dom DiSandro.
DiSandro — or “Big Dem,” as our colleague Anna Orso nicknamed the Eagles’ head of security for the night — spoke briefly at the Philadelphia Democratic City Committee’s annual fall fundraiser as the party celebrated former U.S. Rep. Bob Brady’s 40th year at the helm. Former President Joe Biden and Gov. Josh Shapiro spoke, too, in addition to a number of other elected leaders.
DiSandro, who also spoke when the Birds visited Trump in the White House last year, used his brief remarks to say Brady is “someone I consider family” — and to promise that the 2-3 Eagles would get back on track, a top issue for most Philadelphians.
Now we have to just need to figure out how Big Dom can protect the team from any on-field injuries. (Heal up, Jalen Hurts 🙏)
👋 Thanks for reading this week’s edition of The Inquirer’s PA 2026 newsletter. Enjoy all the autumn leaves this week. (We’ll be in peak foliage status before you know it!) We’ll see you back here next Friday.
