Midterm results: Rep. Susan Wild defeats millionaire Lisa Scheller to represent Pennsylvania’s 7th District
Brady Knox
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Incumbent Rep. Susan Wild (D-PA) defeated Republican challenger Lisa Scheller in a midterm rematch from their 2020 contest for Pennsylvania’s 7th District.
The Democrat won her third consecutive term, her second victory over the ex-Lehigh County commissioner, due in no small part to an advantage in fundraising, earning nearly $1 million more than her opponent since July. Wild was able to successfully campaign portraying herself as a centrist with a history of bipartisanship, shrugging off efforts by her opponent to tie her tenure to that of President Joe Biden.
RealClearPolitics said the race leaned Republican, although it cited polling data that gave the advantage to both candidates.
Scheller went the centrist route for her campaign, with her website focusing mainly on inflation, taxes, and the economy. Hot-button conservative issues such as abortion, gun control, and immigration are noticeably absent from her “issues” page. She appeared to imply that she would not always vote with the Republican Party, criticizing her opponent for always voting with Democrats.
“Our current Congresswoman, Susan Wild, votes with the leaders of her party 100% of the time. We need a member of Congress who votes with Pennsylvanians, not Washington,” her website reads.
In contrast, Wild’s website stressed bipartisanship but also puts hot-button progressive issues such as abortion and LGBT rights at the forefront of her “issues page.”
Debates between the two mostly focused on economic concerns, though Scheller called Wild an “extremist” on abortion, according to Lehigh Valley Live.
In line with the economic focus of the campaign, Wild and Scheller repeatedly sparred over the Republican millionaire businesswoman’s usage of factories in China.
“Yeah, I create jobs. You create talking points,” Scheller said during an October debate.
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“You create jobs for the Chinese, yes,” Wild retorted.
Scheller justified the decision to open factories in China as economically necessary to keep up with competition while stressing the fact that she had created hundreds of jobs for U.S. citizens.