Incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan and Democratic Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti will debate next month just days before voters cast ballots\u00a0in what\u2019s expected to be among the nation\u2019s most competitive midterm matchups.<\/p>\n
Bresnahan announced Tuesday his commitment to participating in a WVIA Congressional Debate the evening of Oct. 29. Cognetti, his challenger in the 8th Congressional District race, subsequently confirmed plans to participate.<\/p>\n
Both candidates also traded broadsides, with Bresnahan portraying Cognetti as a radical interloper with \u201cliberal Portland values.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cVoters in Northeastern Pennsylvania deserve to hear directly from the candidates about the issues that matter most to them and I look forward to highlighting the work we\u2019ve done for them in Washington, from passing the largest tax break in history for working class families to introducing a bi-partisan bill to lower food costs,\u201d he said in a press release. \u201cNEPA is my home and my north star, unlike Mayor Paige Cognetti, whose liberal Portland values have guided every decision in City Hall, every radical statement against common-sense priorities, and every career move for two decades as she served the Democrat Machine working with Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cognetti said she\u2019ll hold Bresnahan accountable, again accusing him of using his seat in Congress to benefit himself at the region\u2019s expense.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis election is a choice between a reformer who will shake up a broken Washington and fight for families, or a congressman who in his short time in office has shown he is only interested in serving himself,\u201d she said in a statement. \u201cRob Bresnahan has spent his time in office breaking promises and playing the stock market while voting to hurt our community with devastating health care cuts and higher prices. Bresnahan has traded stocks tied to his votes in Washington, including voting five times for a new forever war, and holds millions of dollars worth of stock in corporations that are trying to push data centers on our community. I look forward to holding him accountable on the debate stage and beating him in November so we can clean up Washington and put NEPA first.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bresnahan\u2019s release says the \u201c55-minute debate will be broadcast live on WVIA-TV, WVIA Radio, live streamed on WVIA.org, and WVIA\u2019s Social Media Channels,\u201d and be made available to local media for broadcast. WVIA News Managing Editor Faith Golay confirmed those details Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n
The first-term GOP incumbent won his seat in Congress two years ago by defeating longtime incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright. Cognetti, Scranton\u2019s mayor since 2020, hopes to wrest the seat from Bresnahan as Democrats work to regain and Republicans fight to maintain a House majority.<\/p>\n
The race remains a toss-up, according to major race forecasters, and could play a key role in determining the balance of power in Congress for the last two years of the second Trump administration.<\/p>\n
Election Day is Nov. 3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan and Democratic Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti will debate next month just days…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[836,201,182,803,139,28,50,178,180,179],"class_list":["post-286783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-election","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-luzerne-county","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-politics","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286783","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=286783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}