A fight over drag has broken out in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where Democratic Mayor Paige Cognetti is running for Congress against Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan.<\/p>\n
It began with a photo<\/a> of the mayor and a drag queen at the city\u2019s 2025 Pride flag raising. It escalated with the congressman\u2019s opponents rediscovering a charity<\/a> video<\/a> of him working out in heels. Republicans were happy to battle it out, pointing out that the images of the congressman in pink were for a breast cancer awareness event.<\/p>\n At issue: a new TV ad<\/a> that Bresnahan and the National Republican Congressional Committee began running on Aug. 12. Titled With Them, evoking the 2024 Trump campaign spot that accused Kamala Harris of siding with \u201cthey\/them\u201d over \u201cyou,\u201d it displayed a photo the city of Scranton shared last June, showing Cognetti next<\/a> to drag queen Frank Carey.\u201cCognetti\u2019s a member of the radical group trying to force grown men in girls\u2019 bathrooms and women\u2019s sports,\u201d says the ad. The \u201cgroup\u201d was Action Together PA, which campaigned<\/a> for Luzerne County\u2019s new, gender identity-inclusive non-discrimination ordinance<\/a>.<\/p>\n Carey appears twice in the ad. He protested that on social media, with friends launching<\/a> a GoFundMe to support possible legal action.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes you have to stand up and say enough is enough,\u201d Carey wrote on his personal Facebook page, promising to fight back for his drag personas, who go by \u201cLady Lydia\u201d and \u201cChlamydia Berns.\u201d \u201cThis Queen isn\u2019t going quietly,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n The NRCC continued<\/a> attacking Cognetti, denouncing her for appearing with the drag queen \u201cwith small children present.\u201d Cognetti\u2019s campaign didn\u2019t respond to a question about the ad, and Brosnahan\u2019s campaign spokeswoman, Samantha Bullock, said that the picture had now \u201cbeen shown in the context of Cognetti\u2019s true liberal agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n Democrats angry at the ad suggested that the congressman was demonizing drag queens as a politician while apparently having no issues with them as a citizen. In 2023, Bresnahan joined<\/a> his wife, Chelsea, at a fundraiser for the KISS Theatre Company in Wilkes-Barre. Carey was a member of the company at the time.<\/p>\n