SCRANTON — Democratic Scranton Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti announced Thursday an ambitious eight-point “anti-corruption policy agenda” she’d push to enact in Congress if she unseats Republican U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan in November.
Cognetti, the Democratic candidate for the 8th Congressional District seat Bresnahan narrowly won in 2024, again accused her GOP opponent of corruption involving stock trading while in Congress and of using his position to line his own pockets. Bresnahan’s campaign fired back in a statement calling Cognetti “as corrupt as they come.”
The stock-trading controversy has dogged Bresnahan, who campaigned on and supports banning congressional stock trading, since an April 2025 New York Times report identified him as “one of the most active stock traders in the freshman class.” He and his spokespeople have repeatedly said he doesn’t trade his own stocks and had no involvement in the hundreds of trades he disclosed last year.
Cognetti, portraying her political career here as an anti-corruption crusade, announced the eight planks of her proposed policy agenda at the United Association Local Union 524 building on East Corey Street in Scranton. Several dozen supporters and volunteers joined her there.
Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania’s 8th congressional district Paige Cognetti is introduced during a press conference at the United Association Local Union 524 in Scranton Thursday, July 9, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG. / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
The anti-corruption agenda includes banning congressional stock trading; banning corporate PAC donations; withholding pay for federal lawmakers if Congress fails to pass a timely budget; implementing term limits restricting members of Congress and Supreme Court justices to 18 years of service; auditing the federal government and requiring agencies that fail audits to address every finding; permanently banning members of Congress from becoming lobbyists after leaving office; banning active members of Congress from sitting on corporate boards; and banning members and their staffs from prediction market gambling on “war, elections and government activity.”
“I realize some of these would be tough to do but I firmly believe that we are at a moment in America where the people are begging for these types of reforms,” Cognetti said. “I do think that we can get to a Congress in January of 2027 that is firmly focused on getting that corruption out of our system and making the system work for people. … Our ability to help the American people will improve when we gut out these conflicts of interest and we make sure that we don’t have people in Congress who are literally there to make money for themselves no matter what the cost to us in places like Northeastern Pennsylvania.”
Supporters hold signs during a press conference held by Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania’s 8th congressional district Paige Cognetti at the United Association Local Union 524 in Scranton Thursday, July 9, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG. / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Cognetti, who won a 2019 special election for Scranton mayor as an independent candidate in the wake of former Democratic Mayor Bill Courtright’s corruption scandal, is confident at least some of the proposed reforms will garner bipartisan support.
“I think for the folks who go to Congress to represent people, it doesn’t matter what your party affiliation might be,” she said. “If you’re listening to people in America in 2026, these are the things that people are asking for. It is, again, beyond partisan politics. So even though something like term limits — it’s of course an extraordinary lift — (but) I think there are folks on both sides of the aisle that understand that this is something that we need to work towards.”
For his part, Bresnahan has endorsed imposing congressional term limits and cosponsored legislation last year proposing a constitutional amendment to establish them.
U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan, R-8, Dallas Twp., talks about Crossroads East Business Park following a closed-door roundtable with U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner and elected officials, chambers of commerce leaders and local stakeholders on federal opportunity zones and other housing priorities in Northeastern Pennsylvania on Tuesday, July 7, 2026 at Crossroads East Business Park.(John Haeger / Staff Photographer)
“Paige Cognetti is as corrupt as they come, and not just because she tried to sell these recycled ideas as her own, including several already championed by Rep. Bresnahan,” his campaign said. Its statement, among other charges, accused Cognetti of having secured “sweetheart deals to benefit her family and campaign” during her mayoral tenure. “This is a laughable and pathetic attempt at distraction from her flailing campaign.”
Politico reported in late February that Republicans were poised to make Cognetti’s “support for a local bank a top issue in one of the nation’s most competitive House races,” a reference to Fidelity Bank. The report said she received $14,600 in campaign contributions from Fidelity board members months before getting the city to buy the Fidelity building next to City Hall, though Cognetti has repeatedly denied any connection between the contributions and the pending purchase.
A prior city council narrowly authorized the purchase of the bank building in December to eventually serve as a municipal annex, and the city then executed a contract and put down a 10% deposit. A recent ordinance to assemble $1 million in funds to carry out the purchase remains tabled by the current council.
“Every decision that we have made at the city is for the betterment of the city,” Cognetti said Thursday.
The Bresnahan/Cognetti race is expected to be among the nation’s most competitive House races. The 8th Congressional District includes all of Lackawanna, Wayne and Pike and parts of Luzerne and Monroe counties.
The midterm elections are Nov. 3.