Democrats have a union problem in working-class Scranton.<\/p>\n
The city that gave President Joe Biden his blue-collar bona fides sits at the center of a battleground district that\u2019s critical to Democrats\u2019 hopes of retaking the House. Now, several unions are breaking for the Republican incumbent in a highly competitive district that shifted toward President Donald Trump in 2024 \u2014 underscoring the challenges Democrats continue to face in winning back working-class voters.<\/p>\n
Over the past few months, GOP Rep. Rob Bresnahan has locked up support from several major unions that had endorsed the Democrat he unseated in 2024, including the American Federation of Government Employees and the Pennsylvania Laborers\u2019 District Council. The laborers\u2019 council had also backed Bresnahan\u2019s Democratic challenger, Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti, in her last mayoral bid<\/a>.<\/p>\n Phil Glover, who leads the AFGE chapter for the region, told POLITICO that \u201cwe would like the House to flip\u201d to Democratic control and is supporting the party\u2019s candidates in other races in Pennsylvania<\/a>. But he said Bresnahan has shown he has the union\u2019s back \u2014 including by crossing party lines to support a bill<\/a> that would restore collective bargaining rights for federal workers \u2014 and they would have his in return.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe overall the Democratic Party is better for unions,\u201d Glover said. But \u201cthere are individuals in the Republican Party that have chosen to build relationships with unions in their districts, and for those people I think you don\u2019t just jump off that train whenever there\u2019s a [Democrat] running.\u201d<\/p>\n That support is straightforward compared to the other union endorsement Bresnahan recently secured.<\/p>\n Last week, the Pennsylvania Conference of Teamsters endorsed him \u2014 nearly two months after its members appeared to endorse Cognetti in a voice vote<\/a> at the union\u2019s convention in late April, per social media posts and a video captured by Pennsylvania Cable News and reviewed by POLITICO.<\/p>\n The state and national Teamsters chapters declined to respond to repeated requests for comment from POLITICO. Cognetti and staffers for both her campaign and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee \u2014 who had promoted her seeming endorsement on social media but later deleted the posts, according to screenshots shared with POLITICO \u2014 also declined to respond to questions about the situation.<\/p>\n The Teamsters\u2019 political arm donated $5,000 to Bresnahan\u2019s campaign<\/a> last year, along with contributions to several other battleground Republicans and GOP campaign arms.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a bizarre turn of events from an arm of the powerful union that caused an uproar<\/a> in 2024 when its president spoke at the Republican National Convention and the Teamsters declined to endorse a presidential candidate after backing Democrats for decades.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s part of a longer pattern of Democrats bleeding support from their traditional allies in organized labor, especially from the building-trades unions. Several of them went in early<\/a> for GOP gubernatorial hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy<\/a> and Sen. Jon Husted in Ohio. National exit polls<\/a> also show voters in households with a union member shifted right between 2020, when Biden won them by a 16-point margin, and 2024, when Vice President Kamala Harris only carried the group by an 8-point margin.<\/p>\n Democrats argue that Pennsylvania unions tend to favor incumbents and suggested Cognetti could easily overcome the endorsements for the incumbent given the dour midterm outlook for Republicans. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who has endorsed Cognetti, called her a \u201cfar better fit for the district\u201d than the first-term Republican who \u201cvoted to take health care away from tens of thousands of people in the Scranton area\u201d when asked by POLITICO about the union shifts.<\/p>\n Cognetti also counts several major unions in her corner, including the state\u2019s largest teachers\u2019 union and the SEIU PA State Council, as well as several local trades unions. Her campaign argued that Bresnahan, who\u2019s faced a firestorm of criticism<\/a> over his regular stock trading despite calling to ban it, is disconnected from the working class.<\/p>\n \u201cRob Bresnahan is no friend of working people: he is a poster child for public corruption, enriching himself by playing the stock market on his votes that are hurting hardworking Northeastern Pennsylvanians,\u201d Emma Mustion, a spokesperson for Cognetti\u2019s camp, said in a statement.<\/p>\n Republicans cast the 8th District shifts as signs of trouble for Cognetti, who has also had some friction<\/a> with local unions as mayor, in a closely contested congressional race<\/a>. Samantha Bullock, a spokesperson for Bresnahan, said \u201cDemocrats have a serious problem on their hands with Paige Cognetti\u2019s failure to hold onto labor support in this district.\u201d<\/p>\n Cognetti\u2019s strategy \u201chas got to be running up the numbers in Scranton and Wilkes Barre,\u201d which are the bluer parts of the district, said local GOP strategist Vince Galko, who\u2019s not working with either campaign. But \u201cthe heart of her base in those areas are trade unions \u2026 and they\u2019re siding with her opponent,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s not a good sign.\u201d<\/p>\n Adam Wren contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Democrats have a union problem in working-class Scranton. 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