Many Latinos in Hazleton expressed joy and relief following the Nov. 3 midterm elections, which saw the Democratic Party flip hundreds of state and federal government seats across the United States, including the 8th Congressional race in which Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti beat Republican incumbent Rob Bresnahan.
In a year when Latino residents of Hazleton highlighted the rising cost of living and the growing presence of ICE as their top concerns, the news of the Democratic shift in Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. brought happiness to many.
“When I woke up and saw the results, I remember feeling very excited and very relieved,” Hazleton resident Juan Colomb said. “The cost of gas and groceries has been very hard on my family and me, so I’m looking forward to seeing the prices ease off a bit.”
In the 2024 presidential election, Donald Trump won Hazleton, a city that is 63% Hispanic, with 62% of the vote to Harris’ 38%.
That same year, Bresnahan carried Hazleton with 55.7% of the vote (4,124 votes) against Democrat incumbent Matt Cartwright’s 44.3% (3,275 votes). Despite lower overall voter participation in 2026, Cognetti won Hazleton with 54.1% of the vote (2,526 votes) to Bresnahan’s 45.9% (2,140 votes), a 9.9-point swing for the Democrats.
Much of this shift was attributed to local volunteers going door to door as part of voter outreach programs.
Tony Cruz of Alter Street smiles after voting in Hazleton on Nov. 3. John Haeger / Staff Photographer
“About a month ago, some representatives from UnidosUS, one of the largest Latino rights groups in the country, reached out to me about starting a volunteer program in Hazleton. There are a lot of Latinos living in the greater Hazleton area, and they can have a lot of influence on the local elections, so it was really important to us to make the effort to contact them,” said Francesco Torres Aranda Jr., a local organizer of UnidosUS. “Our goal was just to teach people how much power their vote had, and it’s clear that it was well received. Looking at the wards that had the biggest shift in voting this year, you almost get a map of where we were most present.”
As of Friday, the Democratic Party had flipped seven seats in the US.. Senate and 31 in the House of Representatives, securing majorities in both chambers of Congress, with two more Senate races and 26 House races yet to be called.
Voters enter the polling site at St. John Baptist Polish National Church on North Church Street in Hazleton on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. (John Haeger / Staff Photographer)
Across the country, several people of color made breakthrough entries into various offices, such as Abdul El-Sayed, the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate, and Gina Hinojosa, the first Latina woman elected Governor of Texas.
“What I’m most excited by after the election is the presence of so many new Latinos in office,” Hazleton resident Sonia Lopez said. “The United States is a country that is always changing, and it makes me happy to see those changes reflected in the people who represent us.”
Above all, though, one Hazleton resident expressed hope for a better tomorrow after the election.
“On election day, I drove around to a few of the polling sites, and spoke with the people who were there. They all had the same story: concern over the costs of gas, groceries and insurance mixed with fear over how much worse things could get if they didn’t act,” said Amilcar Arroyo, the publisher for El Mensanjero. “But there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel, even if you can’t see it yet. This is a country of immigrants; we are all either immigrants ourselves or the children of immigrants, and that means that we all have to stick together.”
“This year, for the first time in a while, it felt like the country really remembered that,” Arroyo concluded.