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Around 20 House races are toss-ups in November's midterms. This morning, we have a look at the messaging in one of those contests - Pennsylvania's 10th Congressional District. NPR's Tamara Keith reports.
TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: Listen to this campaign ad.
(SOUNDBITE OF POLITICAL AD)
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As narrator) Everything's become too expensive - gas, groceries, even healthcare. Pennsylvania families are struggling.
KEITH: It's from 2024, run in support of Republican Congressman Scott Perry. Now listen to this one that's been airing in his district all summer.
(SOUNDBITE OF POLITICAL AD)
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As narrator) Every day prices rise - gas, groceries, electricity bills. We pay more...
KEITH: That was paid for by House Majority Forward, a group working to elect Democrats all over the country, like local news anchor Janelle Stelson, who's challenging Perry, as she did two years ago. A key Republican campaign message in 2024 with an unpopular Democrat in the White House has become the centerpiece of the Democratic pitch two years later. Now it's President Trump whose approval on the economy is deeply underwater. Mike Smith is president of House Majority PAC and House Majority Forward.
MIKE SMITH: The No. 1, 2 and 3 issues on voters' minds is cost of living and affordability.
KEITH: This district has a little bit of everything - urban Harrisburg, rural farm country and plenty of suburbs. In 2024, President Trump won here by 5 points and the race to represent it in Congress was even closer. Perry, a seven-term congressman, had his closest race ever, beating Stelson by just a percentage point. Now they're meeting again. Ask district voters what their top issue is and there's no hesitation. Gerald Brown (ph) is a retiree living in Harrisburg.
GERALD BROWN: The prices are too high.
KEITH: At a cute coffee shop in Camp Hill, hairdresser Rusty McAndrew explains what affordability means to him.
RUSTY MCANDREW: I don't go grocery shopping a lot because they're just too expensive. I usually only drive to and from work. I don't take pleasure rides anywhere.
KEITH: So it's no wonder Stelson and the groups backing her are hitting Perry hard on the economy.
(SOUNDBITE OF POLITICAL AD)
NATHAN: Out here, we're just trying to get by, but in D.C., Scott Perry is voting with special interests and making it more expensive for us.
KEITH: The economic message from Republican candidates and the groups backing them is largely centered on the 2025 tax law known as the One Big Beautiful Bill.
(SOUNDBITE OF POLITICAL AD)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Scott Perry is looking out for us. He gave us the largest tax cut in American history.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: He cut taxes on our tips.
KEITH: In 2024, Democrats from the top of the ticket on down spent lots of time and money focused on abortion rights and defensive democracy messaging, but the lesson they've taken from those losses is an old one. It's the economy, stupid. Again, Smith from House Majority PAC.
SMITH: If you put cost of living versus any other issue set, by upwards of 85- to 95% of the time, they're going to say cost of living is more important to me than all those other things combined.
KEITH: Back at the coffee shop, Mary Taylor (ph) and a friend are enjoying their drinks outside. Taylor is mad about a lot of things and hasn't made up her mind about how to vote in the congressional race. But she says she absolutely can't vote for a socialist - an echo of a major Republican criticism of Democrats this election year.
MARY TAYLOR: It's not your parents' Democrat. It's not your grandparents' Democratic Party anymore. I don't know who these people are. I don't know who they are and I don't know where they came from.
KEITH: Republican consultant Vince Galko with Mercury Public Affairs in Pennsylvania says disqualifying Democrats in this way is going to be in the GOP playbook for 2026.
VINCE GALKO: At a certain point, whether it be the Republicans or outside groups, the Perry campaign need to find a way - a mix of doing both, pointing out that you may not agree with everything Republicans say or do, but the other side is just plain crazy.
KEITH: The ad wars have barely gotten started, but you can be sure that what we're seeing in Pennsylvania 10 will be repeated in swing districts all over the country.
Tamara Keith, NPR News, Camp Hill, Pennsylvania.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CLOSE YOUR EYES (AND COUNT TO F***)")
ZACK DE LA ROCHA: (Rapping) Run them, run them, run them, run them, run them, run them, run them, yeah. Run them, run them, run them. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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