GOP House candidates Scheller, Dellicker square off in 1st debate
The two business owners seeking to unseat Rep. Susan Wild agree on some issues, differ on others
Republicans Lisa Scheller and Kevin Dellicker squared off Friday evening on topics ranging from Russia and China, to education and abortion, in the first debate of their campaigns for the chance to challenge two-term Democratic incumbent, Congresswoman Susan Wild, this November.
Scheller and Dellicker, both business owners, told a standing-room-only crowd at Northampton Community College that they would bring unflinchingly conservative politics to Washington if given the opportunity to run for the Lehigh Valley’s 7th Congressional District seat, which Scheller described as ground zero in the effort to return control of the U.S. House of Representatives to the Republican Party.
While both espoused America-first positions on foreign policy and said they’d push for energy independence by unlocking fossil fuel reserves in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, the candidates stood apart in their focus on future opponents. While Scheller used her time to criticize President Joe Biden and Wild’s policy positions, Dellicker suggested Scheller has put her business before national interests when it comes to trade with China.
Dellicker, a Heidelberg Township resident who announced his candidacy in July, cast himself as an underdog candidate who can win without endorsements or influence. He owns an IT firm and has a 25-year record of service in the Army and Air National Guard.
“I’ve acquired a lot of relevant experience on issues that are important to us, like safe communities, with jobs and strong families,” he said. “I also want to prove that a guy from New Tripoli, who’s authentic and who has a strong conservative message, can still win any election in the Lehigh Valley.”
Scheller is chairperson and president of Silberline Manufacturing Co., a Schuylkill County pigment maker founded by her grandparents in 1945. A former Lehigh County commissioner chairperson, Scheller received former President Donald Trump’s endorsement before the 2020 Republican primary. She ran against Wild, but lost.
“I’ve always been a part of the solution, whether it’s cutting taxes, saving taxpayers millions, whether it is providing a quality education for our disadvantaged youth, or whether it’s helping addicts in recovery get back into the workforce,” Scheller said, noting that Friday was the 40th anniversary of the start of her own recovery from heroin addiction.
Moderator Terry Tracy of the Philadelphia think tank Broad + Liberty began the debate with questions on foreign policy, with both candidates saying they support arming and training Ukrainian troops in their fight to repel Russia’s invasion but would not support a no-fly zone because of the risk of direct conflict with Russia.
Tracy asked the candidates if they support additional tariffs on China given the mixed success of former President Donald Trump’s trade deal with the Asian nation.
Scheller said she supported Trump’s tariffs and would support additional measures to ensure American businesses can compete.
“I believe that we should have free enterprise, but it has to be on a level playing field. So when China isn’t playing on a level playing field, we should push back and we will push back, and I will be the candidate who knows how to push back,” Scheller said.
Dellicker questioned Scheller’s company’s investments in China, alleging that she had not supported the tariffs, but had lobbied against them.
“We cannot continue to invest money in China to partner with them in business as usual, and just look the other way when they’re acting the way that they do,” he said.
Scheller highlighted her company’s investments in its Pennsylvania workforce and its Schuylkill County plant. Dellicker, citing news reports, criticized Sc hell er for shrinking her company’ s domestic workforce and increasing its foreign workforce.
On education, both said they would work to limit federal policy that binds local officials and educators on decisions about curriculum and pandemic-related school closings. Tracy asked the candidates to explain their views on critical race theory, an academic concept examining how racism has shaped public policy, which has become shorthand to encompass any lesson on race.
Scheller said she believes the curriculum on racism is teaching children to hate America and to be divided by race and that she would ban critical race theory.
“We need to protect the American Dream by bringing Americans together not by dividing us,” she said.
Dellicker agreed, calling it a dangerous ideology in which he sees parallels to “The Communist Manifesto,” and stating that it exposes people who oppose certain policies to charges of racism without examining the reasons for their opposition
“That type of ideology, I agree has no place in our public schools,” Dellicker said. “I also think we have to seriously take a look at our entire federal education system and ask the question, how we can have things come from on high at the federal government and be pushed all the way down to parents at the local level.”
Perhaps the starkest difference in positions between Dellicker and Scheller came on the topic of abortion. Asked whether they would vote to allow abortions in cases where the health, but not the life of a mother, was in jeopardy or in cases of rape or incest, Scheller said she would while Dellicker said he would not.
Dellicker said he would vote for a bill that allowed those exceptions for abortion if it was the best compromise that Congress could pass.
“I would vote to protect life period, and I will vote to protect the best legislation that I can to protect life,” Dellicker said.
Scheller said she would never support legislation that codified the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision and would prioritize redirecting funding for organizations that offer abortion to provide resources for mothers.
“We need to stop paying for abortions with taxpayer funds by putting our Hyde Amendment back in, and we need to create a culture of life within this country,” she said.
Dellicker called for additional debates in Lehigh and Monroe counties and on television before the primary election May 17.