Scott Perry

Early life and education

Scott Gordon Perry was born in San Diego, California, to Cecile Lenig and Jim Perry. Scott's grandparents were Colombian immigrants. His mother was a flight attendant and left an abusive relationship with his father after he was born. She moved with him and his brother to south-central Pennsylvania, when he was seven. After losing her flight attendant job, she worked for a wholesale food company. The family lived first in Harrisburg and then soon afterwards moved to Dillsburg.

Perry and his family were on public assistance for several years during his youth. He was raised in a simple home that initially had no electricity and plumbing, pumping water from a well and cutting firewood with his older brother in the winter. When he was eleven years old, his mother married his step father, Daniel Chimel, who was an airplane pilot and air traffic controller.

In 1980, Perry graduated from Northern High School in Dillsburg and Cumberland-Perry Vo-Tech School in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. He put himself through college while working full-time, earned his associate's degree from Harrisburg Area Community College, and graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration and management in 1991. In 2012, he received a Master of Science degree in strategic planning from the United States Army War College.

Perry began working at age 13, picking fruit at Ashcombe's Farm in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Since then, he has worked as a mechanic, dock worker, draftsman, and licensed insurance agent, among other jobs.

Military service

Army National Guard

Perry enlisted in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard in 1980. He attended basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey, and graduated from Advanced Individual Training at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, as a technical drafting specialist. He graduated from Pennsylvania's Officer Candidate School and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Field Artillery.

After receiving his commission, Perry qualified as a helicopter pilot in the United States Army Aviation Branch, where he earned qualifications in numerous aircraft (Huey, Cayuse, Kiowa, Cobra, Chinook, Apache, and Blackhawk) and an Instructor Pilot rating. He commanded military units at the company, battalion and brigade levels and served in a variety of staff assignments as he advanced through the ranks, including executive officer of 1st Squadron, 104th Cavalry Regiment during deployment to Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2002–03, and commander of 2nd Battalion (General Support), 104th Aviation Regiment beginning in 2008.

Iraq War

In 2009–2010, Perry commanded 2nd Battalion, 104th Aviation Regiment during its service in Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom. As Task Force Diablo, 2-104th Aviation was credited with flying 1,400 missions, accruing over 10,000 combat flight hours, and transporting over 3 million pounds of cargo and 50,000 soldiers and civilians. Perry flew 44 combat missions in Iraq, and accrued nearly 200 combat flight hours. On Thanksgiving Day 2009, Perry and some of his soldiers participated in a race around the airfield at Camp Adder.

Post-Iraq

After returning from Iraq, Perry was promoted to colonel and assigned to command the Pennsylvania National Guard's 166th Regiment (Regional Training Institute). From 2012 to 2014, he commanded the garrison at the Fort Indiantown Gap National Training Center. In May 2014, Perry was assigned as assistant division commander of the 28th Infantry Division and promoted to brigadier general in November 2015. In May 2016, he was selected as assistant adjutant general at the Pennsylvania National Guard's Joint Force Headquarters. Perry retired from the Pennsylvania National Guard on March 1, 2019.

Business career

After graduating from college, Perry co-founded mechanical contracting business Hydrotech Mechanical Services.

In 2002, Perry was charged with falsifying reports to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The reports regarded levels of chlorine and acidity at a sewage plant which had a maintenance contract with Hydrotech. He completed the state's Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program, and the company paid a $5,000 fine. Perry says he learned of problems at the sewage plant and reported the problems to the DEP; he said, "I saw something going on that I thought was wrong, and as bureaucrats often do, they pursued me in that regard.”

Government service

Before entering politics, Perry chaired the Carroll Township Planning Commission and was a member of the Township Source Water Protection Committee. He chaired the Dillsburg Area Wellhead Protection Advisory Committee and served on the Dillsburg Revitalization Committee. He remains a member of the Jaycees and was once a regional director for the state organization. He is a member of Dillsburg American Legion Post #26, Dillsburg Veterans of Foreign Wars VFW Post #6771, and Lions Club International.

Pennsylvania House of Representatives

Elections

In 2006, state representative Bruce Smith of Pennsylvania's 92nd House district decided to retire. Perry won the Republican primary with 41% of the vote. He won the general election with 71% of the vote, and took office on January 2, 2007. In 2008, Perry was reelected to a second term unopposed. In 2010, he was reelected to a third term unopposed.

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

In 2012, Perry gave up his state house seat to run for the 4th congressional district. The district had previously been the 19th district, represented by six-term incumbent Republican Todd Platts, who was giving up the seat to honor a self-imposed term limit. In 2010, when Platts wanted to become U.S. comptroller general, he spoke to Perry about running for the seat.

Perry won a seven-way primary with over 50% of the vote. Although he was outspent nearly 2 to 1 in the campaign, he beat his closest competitor with nearly three times as many votes. Political newcomer Harry Perkinson, an engineer, advanced in a two-way Democratic primary. Perry won the general election, 60%–34%.

In 2014, Perry was unopposed in the Republican primary, and the former Harrisburg mayor, Linda D. Thompson, was unopposed in the Democratic primary. Perry won the general election, 75%–25%.

Perry won the 2016 election with no primary challenge and no official Democratic opponent. Joshua Burkholder of Harrisburg, a political novice, withdrew from the Democratic primary after too many signatures on his qualifying petition were successfully challenged. His subsequent write-in candidacy won the Democratic primary, but he was unaffiliated in the general election. Perry defeated Burkholder, 66%–34%.

After ruling the state's congressional map unconstitutional as a gerrymander, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued a new map for the 2018 elections. Perry's district was renumbered the 10th and made significantly more compact than its predecessor. It lost most of the more rural and Republican areas of York County to the neighboring 11th district (the old 16th). To make up for the loss in population, it was pushed slightly to the north, absorbing the remainder of Democratic-leaning Dauphin County that had not been in the old 4th. On paper, the new district was less Republican than its predecessor. Had the district existed in 2016, Donald Trump would have won it with 52% of the vote to Hillary Clinton's 43%; Trump carried the old 4th with 58% of the vote.

Pastor and Army veteran George Scott won the Democratic primary by a narrow margin and opposed Perry in the general election for the reconfigured 10th. The two debated in October before Perry won with 51.3% of the vote to Scott's 48.7%, with the new district boundaries taking effect in 2019. Perry held on by winning the district's share of his home county, York County, by 11,600 votes.

Tenure

Perry is a member of the Freedom Caucus. In November 2021, he was elected to chair the group, succeeding Andy Biggs in January 2022; Bob Good succeeded Perry as chair in January 2024.

In October 2017, in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, Perry accused CNN anchor Chris Cuomo of exaggerating the crisis in Puerto Rico.

In January 2018, Perry suggested that ISIS might have been involved in the 2017 Las Vegas shooting. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, but authorities have maintained that gunman Stephen Paddock acted alone.

In December 2019, Perry was one of 195 Republicans to vote against both articles of impeachment against President Trump.

Perry participated in attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election, including by attempting to replace Pennsylvania's electors. The House committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack sought to question Perry about his role in efforts to install Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clark as acting attorney general and his introduction of Clark to President Trump. Perry declined both the committee's initial request and subsequent subpoena, leading to his referral to the House Ethics Panel after the November 2022 elections.

In March 2021, Perry voted against the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. The bill's main purpose was stated to be economic relief during the COVID-19 pandemic, but Perry claimed the majority of its funds were dedicated to partisan political efforts by the Democratic Party.

In June 2021, Perry was one of 21 House Republicans to vote against a resolution to give the Congressional Gold Medal to police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on January 6. He cosponsored a bill, introduced the same day, that would give the same medal to police officers without mentioning the attack.

In July 2022, Perry was among 47 House Republicans to vote for the Respect for Marriage Act, which would protect the right to same-sex marriage at a federal level by repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. Perry said, "Agree or disagree with same-sex marriage, my vote affirmed my long-held belief that Americans who enter into legal agreements deserve to live their lives without the threat that our federal government will dissolve what they've built." In December 2022, Perry voted against the final version of the bill. He said his initial "yes" vote was a mistake based on a lack of time to review the legislation, claiming that his initial reasoning was primarily focused on protecting interracial marriage at the federal level, but that he did not want to "vote against traditional marriage."

Committee assignments

Committee on Foreign Affairs

Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific and Nonproliferation

Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations

Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

Subcommittee on Aviation

Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials

Caucus memberships

Freedom Caucus (former chair)

Second Amendment Caucus

Congressional Caucus on Turkey and Turkish Americans

Congressional Motorcycle Caucus

Congressional Taiwan Caucus

Sharia-Free America Caucus

Involvement in attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election

According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Perry was "one of the leading figures in the effort to throw out Pennsylvania's votes in the 2020 presidential election."

After the election, Perry promoted claims of election fraud. Days after the election, in text messages to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, Perry suggested John Ratcliffe should direct the National Security Agency to investigate alleged Chinese hacking. Perry also asserted "the Brits" were behind a conspiracy to manipulate voting machines and that CIA director Gina Haspel was covering it up. The next month, he sent Meadows a link to a YouTube video that asserted voting machines had been manipulated via satellite from Italy; Meadows later sent the video to former acting attorney general Richard Donoghue, seeking an investigation. Donoghue told the committee the contentions in the video, originating from QAnon and far-right platforms which had been brought to the White House, were "pure insanity."

Perry was one of 126 Republican House members to sign an amicus brief in support of Texas v. Pennsylvania, a lawsuit filed at the United States Supreme Court contesting the results of the 2020 presidential election, in which Joe Biden defeated Trump.

Perry reportedly played a key role in a December 2020 crisis at the Justice Department, in which Trump considered firing acting attorney general Jeffrey A. Rosen and replacing him with Jeffrey Clark, the acting chief of the Civil Division of the DOJ. According to The Los Angeles Times, Perry "prompted" Trump to consider the replacement. The New York Times reported that Perry introduced Clark to Trump because Clark's "openness to conspiracy theories about election fraud presented Mr. Trump with a welcome change from Rosen, who stood by the results of the election and had repeatedly resisted the president's efforts to undo them."

Before the certification of the electoral college vote on January 6, Perry and Clark reportedly discussed a plan in which the Justice Department would send Georgia legislators a letter suggesting the DOJ had evidence of voter fraud and suggesting the legislators invalidate Georgia's electoral votes, even though the DOJ had investigated reports of fraud but found nothing significant, as attorney general Bill Barr had publicly announced weeks earlier. Clark drafted a letter to Georgia officials and presented it to Rosen and his deputy Donoghue. It claimed the DOJ had "identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple States". It urged the Georgia legislature to convene a special session for the "purpose of considering issues pertaining to the appointment of Presidential Electors." Rosen and Donoghue rejected the proposal.

Personal life

Perry and his wife, Christy reside in northern York County. They have two children.