{"id":197283,"date":"2026-05-20T00:39:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T00:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/197283\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T00:39:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T00:39:07","slug":"paige-cognetti-to-face-rob-bresnahan-in-pas-8th-district-general-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/197283\/","title":{"rendered":"Paige Cognetti to face Rob Bresnahan in PA\u2019s 8th District general election"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti<\/a>, a former independent who later joined the Democratic Party, will face freshman Rep. Rob Bresnahan<\/a> (R-PA)\u00a0in November\u2019s race for Pennsylvania<\/a>\u2018s 8th Congressional District.<\/p>\n

Cognetti, whose campaign has focused heavily on anti-corruption measures and economic growth, cruised through Tuesday\u2019s Democratic primary without opposition. Bresnahan also advanced uncontested on the Republican side, setting up a high-stakes general election that could determine control of the House.<\/p>\n

The northeastern Pennsylvania showdown between Cognetti, who has led former President Joe Biden<\/a>\u2018s hometown since 2020, and Bresnahan is expected to rank among the nation\u2019s most competitive and costly House races.<\/p>\n

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE PENNSYLVANIA PRIMARY RACES<\/a><\/p>\n

\"ScrantonScranton Mayor Paige Cognetti speaks during a campaign event for President Joe Biden in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on April 16, 2024. (AP Photo\/Matt Rourke)<\/p>\n

Cognetti, Scranton\u2019s first female mayor, has faced criticism over past remarks faulting Biden\u2019s handling of the southern border, which she described as \u201creally terrible\u201d and a \u201chuge misstep.\u201d Critics have argued she did not publicly voice those concerns while Biden was still in office.<\/p>\n

Bresnahan, meanwhile, has drawn scrutiny over stock trades that appeared to clash with his campaign support for banning members of Congress from trading individual stocks. The issue was central to his 2024 bid, when he unseated a Democratic incumbent in a district that also backed President Donald Trump over Democratic nominee Kamala Harris by a 53.8%-45.4% margin.<\/p>\n

Since arriving in Congress, Bresnahan, who became chief financial officer of his family\u2019s highway electrical company at 19 and later rose to CEO after college, has reported buying and selling roughly $7.2 million in stock, according to disclosure filings. Some of the transactions involved companies connected to Medicaid ahead of a major vote on Trump\u2019s signature One Big Beautiful Bill Act.<\/p>\n

Bresnahan has denied any wrongdoing, saying he does not personally direct his trades and instead relies on financial advisers. He has maintained that his votes in Congress are guided by the interests of his northeastern Pennsylvania constituents.<\/p>\n

\"Rep.Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-PA) speaks before President Donald Trump arrives at the Mount Airy Casino Resort in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo\/Matt Rourke)<\/p>\n

HOUSE DEMOCRATS EYE FOUR GOP-HELD PENNSYLVANIA SEATS IN MAJORITY QUEST <\/a><\/p>\n

No congressional candidate in Pennsylvania raised more than Cognetti\u2019s campaign in April, according to the latest campaign finance reports.<\/p>\n

Cognetti raised just under $495,000\u00a0from the beginning of the month through April 29. Bresnahan raised just under\u00a0$315,000 during the same time period.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti, a former independent who later joined the Democratic Party, will face freshman Rep. Rob…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[25041,6375,3613,5182,28,70771,178,180,179],"class_list":["post-197283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-2026-elections","tag-democratic-party","tag-house-of-representatives","tag-mayors","tag-pennsylvania","tag-primaries","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}