(The Center Square) \u2013 As Republicans try to cling to majorities in both chambers of Congress this November, former two-term U.S. Senator Pat Toomey has some advice for candidates in closely watched races.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst of all, I think if you are a Republican running in a competitive House district or a competitive statewide race, you don’t want this to be a referendum on Donald Trump because he’s very unpopular in those kinds of places,\u201d Toomey, a Republican, said during an interview on CNN Tuesday. \u201cSo, you want to localize the election.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even though control of the U.S. Senate will not run through the Keystone State this November, Pennsylvania will be home to multiple competitive U.S. House races that could determine which party has the majority in 2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to the Cook Political Report<\/a>, a national ratings outlet, Pennsylvania currently has the most U.S. House races rated \u201ctoss-ups.\u201d Those contests are the reelection bids of freshman GOP U.S. Reps. Ryan Mackenzie and Rob Bresnahan, running in the 7th and 8th Districts, respectively, plus multi-term incumbent GOP U.S. Rep. Scott Perry\u2019s race in the 10th Congressional District.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bresnahan is being challenged by Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti for the district in northeast Pennsylvania, while Mackenzie is facing a challenge from Bob Brooks, a firefighters\u2019 union leader in the Lehigh Valley, an area Toomey represented in Congress from 1999-2005<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Perry\u2019s race for the district covering southcentral Pennsylvania is a rematch against Janelle Stelson, a former central Pennsylvania television anchor.<\/p>\n Also, GOP U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick\u2019s reelection bid for the 1st Congressional District in the suburbs north of Philadelphia against Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie is garnering attention, although the Cook Political Report describes the race as \u201clikely Republican.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite winning the state\u2019s 19 electoral votes in 2024, Trump has low approval ratings in Pennsylvania. The president has issued public endorsements of Bresnahan, Mackenzie, and Perry in their 2026 races, while he hasn\u2019t formally weighed in on the race for the 1st Congressional District between Fitzpatrick and Harvie.\u00a0<\/p>\n Toomey, who decided not to seek reelection in 2022, found himself at odds with Trump at times over a few policy matters. In 2021, Toomey was one of seven GOP senators who voted to convict Trump at an impeachment trial, the Associated Press<\/a> noted, believing that Trump betrayed his office by trying to \u201chold on to power despite having legitimately lost\u201d the election to Joe Biden.<\/p>\n While the 2026 election is less than three months away, Toomey said there is still time for those candidates in federal races to pass a few bills to boost their campaigns.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSo, two bills that are ready to go and could be a significant boost for Republican incumbents anyway,\u201d Toomey argued. \u201cOne would be permitting reform.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Americans for Free Markets have done a great job advocating for the increased supply of products that would lower prices if we had permitting reform,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Toomey has been outspoken on the need for permitting reform. On Monday, he penned an op-ed published on Fox News<\/a> where he makes the case that \u201cCongress has an opportunity to modernize the permitting system while preserving core environmental protections.\u201d<\/p>\n U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., has also highlighted the need for permitting reform<\/a> and has talked about it at length this year.<\/p>\n The other bill that Toomey referenced was the CLARITY ACT, which would regulate cryptocurrency.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere’s a not insignificant number of people for whom crypto legislation that creates sensible regulatory guidelines is their number one issue,\u201d Toomey said on Tuesday. \u201cIt’s not a majority, but it’s a handful of really passionate voters, and in swing districts, in close races, it could make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n Some Democrats have expressed concern about the CLARITY Act as they are pushing to force Trump to ditch his crypto investments<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to CNN, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, has said that she and her colleagues would introduce a bill to ensure that no president, vice president, or their immediate families, or other senior government officials could exploit their positions to own or control a bank if a bank charter were approved.<\/p>\n On Friday, World Liberty Financial, a crypto firm Trump and his sons launched in 2024, announced<\/a> that it received a preliminary conditional approval from banking officials to become a trust bank, according to CNN<\/a>, adding that \u201cfinal approval hinges on a series of conditions being met.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think there are legitimate questions that need to be addressed about the president and his family’s involvement in this, but this should not prevent the United States from having a sensible set of guardrails on crypto,\u201d Toomey responded. \u201cRight now, there’s no regulation, there’s no law, there’s no certainty, and a really important technology, the blockchain technology that is a very, very powerful technology for consumers: it’s going to languish in the absence of well-defined regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf Congress wants to separately make decisions about what presidents and presidents’ families and cabinet members can and cannot invest in, that’s a fair conversation,\u201d he added. \u201cIt’s a lengthy one. It probably should be done separately.\u201d<\/p>\n However, Toomey noted that there currently is bipartisan support for the current version of the CLARITY Act and the Senate is prepared for an important procedural vote<\/a> on it when they return to session next month.<\/p>\n