Rep. Scott Perry Has Consistently Sailed to November. This Year Is Different.

With a stacked Democratic primary, a new Republican challenger and a lawsuit around his role in Jan. 6, Perry’s road to reelection is more narrow than it’s ever been.

Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa.

Rep. Scott Perry at a news conference on Capitol Hill on Aug. 23, 2021. Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/AP

For the first time since being elected to Congress more than a decade ago, Rep. Scott Perry is not going to slide to reelection.

The Republican, closely aligned with former President Donald Trump, is facing not just a legal push to kick him off the ballot, but his first primary challenger.

Besides one failed special election bid for Gettysburg school board in 1995, John Henry Newman has no political experience. He’s spent decades in academia, alongside positions in the federal government at the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Fire Administration. He didn’t imagine entering politics, but Perry changed his mind.