With political corruption and rising gas and grocery prices at the top of voters’ minds heading into the 2026 midterm elections, Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti (D) sees this moment as the perfect opportunity to tie the two together.
According to Cognetti, corruption comes at a cost that trickles down to the general public.
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“People are tying the costs that we are facing with the corruption that is in Congress. They are making that tie, and you can’t not do it,” Cognetti told reporters while campaigning with Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) in Wilkes-Barre earlier this month.
“The war, very clearly, is one of the causes of our rising gas and diesel prices, which means our food prices are going up.”
President Donald Trump launched the Iran war in late February, which has caused gas prices and home heating oil to hit record levels.
Dubbed “Paige Against the Machine,” Cognetti was first elected as mayor of Scranton in a 2019 special election, running as an independent and defeating the local Democratic machine.
Her election followed the resignation of Scranton’s previous mayor, Bill Courtright, who pleaded guilty to federal corruption and bribery charges. Since then, Cognetti has been reelected twice.
“I ran in 2019 as an independent for mayor, and ‘Paige Against the Machine’ became our informal moniker. ‘Paige Against the Machine’ is just more salient than ever,” Cognetti said.
Cognetti is running against US Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-Luzerne), who has made headlines for trading stocks. According to Quiver Quantitative, Bresnahan has made over 644 stock trades totaling $8.4 million since he took office in 2025.
Earlier this year, Cognetti said that she wants a bill banning congressional stock trading to be the first issue the next Congress takes up if Democrats flip the House in November.
Since the start of last year, Bresnahan has come under scrutiny for trading stocks related to Medicaid prior to voting for President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act; which cut the program by $1 trillion; trading Lockheed Martin and other defense stocks prior to Trump launching his 2025 attacks against Iran; and trading, and owning millions, in stocks in artificial intelligence and technology companies related to data centers.
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”It’s remarkable that you can actually make trades on your votes, and that is a legal thing to do. Almost anyone you ask in America does not want that to be the case,” Cognetti said.
During his first term in Congress, Bresnahan has voted multiple times in support of Trump’s tariffs and Iran war, which have increased costs for consumers across the country.
A recent report from Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee found that Pennsylvania families paid an extra $5,100 on average for goods and services thanks in part to Trump’s war and tariffs.
“There is no reason that we need these tariffs. Tariffs can be an effective tool, but not like this. There’s no reason that we should be in a trade war with Canada. People can’t help but tie corruption to costs. That’s why, day one in a new Congress, we have to make anti-corruption the very first thing that we take up,” Cognetti said.
