(The Center Square) – 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. 

“First 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,” Toomey, a Republican, said during an interview on CNN Tuesday. “So, you want to localize the election.”

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. 

According to the Cook Political Report, a national ratings outlet, Pennsylvania currently has the most U.S. House races rated “toss-ups.” 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’s race in the 10th Congressional District. 

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’ union leader in the Lehigh Valley, an area Toomey represented in Congress from 1999-2005. 

Perry’s race for the district covering southcentral Pennsylvania is a rematch against Janelle Stelson, a former central Pennsylvania television anchor.

Also, GOP U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick’s 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 “likely Republican.”

Despite winning the state’s 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’t formally weighed in on the race for the 1st Congressional District between Fitzpatrick and Harvie. 

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 noted, believing that Trump betrayed his office by trying to “hold on to power despite having legitimately lost” the election to Joe Biden.

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. 

“So, two bills that are ready to go and could be a significant boost for Republican incumbents anyway,” Toomey argued. “One would be permitting reform.”

“The 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,” he said. 

Toomey has been outspoken on the need for permitting reform. On Monday, he penned an op-ed published on Fox News where he makes the case that “Congress has an opportunity to modernize the permitting system while preserving core environmental protections.”

U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., has also highlighted the need for permitting reform and has talked about it at length this year.

The other bill that Toomey referenced was the CLARITY ACT, which would regulate cryptocurrency. 

“There's a not insignificant number of people for whom crypto legislation that creates sensible regulatory guidelines is their number one issue,” Toomey said on Tuesday. “It'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.”

Some Democrats have expressed concern about the CLARITY Act as they are pushing to force Trump to ditch his crypto investments. 

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.

On Friday, World Liberty Financial, a crypto firm Trump and his sons launched in 2024, announced that it received a preliminary conditional approval from banking officials to become a trust bank, according to CNN, adding that “final approval hinges on a series of conditions being met.”

“I 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,” Toomey responded. “Right 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.”

“If 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,” he added. “It's a lengthy one. It probably should be done separately.”

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 on it when they return to session next month.

While in elected office, Toomey, who served as the President of Club for Growth from 2005-2009, was known for being a fiscal conservative. 

During Tuesday’s interview, he was asked about the national debt being on pace to hit $40 trillion with Republicans at the helm and if fiscal responsibility is a “thing of the past.” 

“Well, if you look at what's actually happened legislatively, yes, but it's a thing of the future one way or another because we can't continue on this path of huge deficits, mounting debt,” Toomey responded. “At some point, something's going to give, and it could be very ugly.”

“The answer for this,” according to Toomey, “is to gradually, in the future, gradually curb the rate of growth of the big entitlement programs that are driving our deficits.”

“It can be done without throwing anybody off the programs that they've come to depend on, Medicare and Social Security and even Medicaid,” Toomey argued. “But the rate of growth has to be curbed so that the deficit shrinks to a manageable level. We're not there yet.”

Toomey thinks tackling entitlements is ultimately the answer to this dilemma. 

“If you look at it, revenue to the federal government has been coming in as it has averaged for decades,” Toomey said. “It's spending that keeps growing, and it's growing at a rate that exceeds the greater growth of our economy. That's got to be brought under control.”