![\"Scranton](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784231287_220_STT-L-5THINGS-0111_7d85fb.jpg\")
Scranton Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti and U.S. Rob Bresnahan, R-8, Dallas Twp. (TIMES-TRIBUNE FILE)<\/p>\n
Bresnahan, a first-term Republican incumbent elected to Congress in 2024, has raised more money overall this election cycle, with Cognetti having only launched her congressional campaign in September. But he\u2019s also spent considerably more than his Democratic challenger, who launched her first television ad of the cycle this week.<\/p>\n
The latest report Bresnahan\u2019s campaign filed<\/a> lists total receipts this cycle of about $5.33 million and total disbursements, essentially money spent, of about $2.81 million. Cognetti had raised about $4.61 million in total this cycle as of the end of last month and spent about $1.2 million, per her most recent filing<\/a>.<\/p>\n In terms of cash on hand at the end of the last reporting period, Cognetti had almost $3.41 million to Bresnahan\u2019s almost $2.61 million, their filings show.<\/p>\n \u201cOur campaign is rooted in a simple mission: making government work as hard as the people it\u2019s supposed to serve,\u201d Cognetti said in a press release about her second-quarter fundraising. \u201cI\u2019m honored by the support we are earning across NEPA, and I\u2019m proud to be running this race without taking a dime of corporate PAC money. We are going to continue building momentum to win in November and clean up corruption in Washington.\u201d<\/p>\n Bresnahan\u2019s campaign provided a statement Thursday on his fundraising in recent months.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile Paige Cognetti\u2019s campaign is fueled by out-of-state donors and the liberal elite, we\u2019re proud of the astounding $1 million raised to help Rep. Bresnahan continue his work on behalf of Northeastern Pennsylvanians in Congress,\u201d the campaign said.<\/p>\n Voters will decide Nov. 3 which of Cognetti or Bresnahan will represent the 8th District in the next Congress and hold the key House seat for the last two years of the second Trump administration. Bresnahan\u2019s reelection would bolster the GOP\u2019s chances of maintaining its House majority, while a Cognetti victory would make more likely the prospect of Democrats regaining majority control of the lower chamber.<\/p>\n Race forecasters and others expect the Bresnahan\/Cognetti midterm matchup to be among the most competitive House races in the nation. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report\u2019s House Race Ratings shifted the 8th District race in April from leaning Republican to a \u201ctoss up,\u201d which is how it identifies the most competitive races where either party has a good chance of winning.<\/p>\n Campaign themes<\/p>\n Cognetti, who has made fighting corruption a theme of her campaign, announced last week an ambitious eight-point \u201canti-corruption\u201d policy agenda she said she\u2019d pursue in Congress if elected. Her first television ad of the cycle, \u201cMachine,\u201d embraces the theme and portrays Cognetti as a reformer and enemy of a \u201ccorrupt old boys club\u201d who\u2019d work to root out corruption in Washington.<\/p>\n She\u2019s also repeatedly accused Bresnahan of corruption over the stock-trading controversy that\u2019s dogged him despite his insistence that he doesn\u2019t trade his own stocks and had no involvement in the hundreds of trades he disclosed last year.<\/p>\n A recent Cognetti campaign press release about the television ad says Bresnahan \u201chas become the poster-child of Washington corruption by breaking his promise to ban congressional stock trading and instead trading off of his votes in office.\u201d<\/p>\n Bresnahan and the GOP, meanwhile, have attempted to paint Cognetti as a weak-on-crime political opportunist with far-left views more aligned with the progressive politics of the West Coast than voters here.<\/p>\n His campaign recently launched billboards in the style of the famous \u201cgot milk?\u201d advertising campaign that say \u201cgot gangs?\u201d and bear Cognetti\u2019s name. The billboards also include a web address that links to a recent Breitbart News report on a photo, apparently posted on social media in early 2024, of Cognetti posing with two \u201coperators of a Crips-linked hookah lounge.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNortheastern Pennsylvanians deserve to know that Paige Cognetti is cozying up to gang members and providing safe spaces for criminals at the expense of their communities,\u201d Bresnahan campaign spokesperson Samantha Bullock said in a statement included in a recent email about the billboards.<\/p>\n A Cognetti spokesperson told Breitbart that violent crime has gone down under her leadership and that Scranton has invested millions in its Police Department to bolster public safety.<\/p>\n The ultimate effectiveness of the above examples and other messaging by the campaigns between now and November remains to be seen.<\/p>\n![\"U.S.](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784231288_958_STT-L-BRESNAHAN-0714-01.jpg\")
U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan (PA-08) speaks during a press conference on Dalilah\u2019s Law held at the Paul Bickelman FOP Lodge 46 in Spring Brook Twp. Monday, July 13, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)<\/p>\n