With rising gas prices and increased costs sitting front and center in most voters’ minds ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti (D) is tapping into northeastern Pennsylvania’s working-class roots to address those concerns.
Cognetti, who was first elected mayor in a 2019 special election by running as an independent and beating the local Democratic Party machine, is challenging US Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-Luzerne) this November.
Meet the candidates: Paige Cognetti and Rob Bresnahan face off in Pa-08
Since launching her campaign, Cognetti has the backing of more than 15 labor unions and affiliated organizations, which include the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO and the Greater Wilkes-Barre Labor Council.
“We have a tremendous amount of labor support. Teachers, nurses, ironworkers, steelworkers,” Cognetti said at a press conference in Scranton earlier this summer.
“As mayor, I have worked very hard over six and a half years to negotiate multiple rounds of contracts with our six unions. We’re very proud of that record,” she added.
Throughout her campaign, Cognetti has pushed for the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which would make it easier for workers to form unions and expand collective bargaining rights.
“As the only candidate in this race who backs the PRO Act, I’m committed to expanding labor rights and protections, holding the powerful accountable, and strengthening collective bargaining,” Cognetti said in a previous statement. “In Congress, I will champion these issues and always do the next right thing by NEPA workers.”
United Mine Workers of America backs Paige Cognetti for Congress
As mayor, Cognetti previously supported apprenticeship programs by building trade unions to help create jobs locally.
With the Tobyhanna Army Depot, which manufactures parts for military weapons, sitting in the district, Cognetti has called for “reshoring manufacturing jobs” and adding more defense manufacturing jobs to the region.
According to her campaign website, Cognetti wants to break up monopolies that hurt local businesses, cut junk fees, and restore healthcare cuts.
Bresnahan voted to cut Medicaid by $1 trillion in President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which is projected to force over 21,000 constituents to lose their healthcare.
An additional 9,000 constituents dropped their healthcare coverage through Pennie, the state’s healthcare marketplace, after Congress allowed Affordable Care Act tax subsidies to expire at the end of last year. Bresnahan joined a small group of Republicans in voting to extend those subsidies.
”When you gut healthcare across a community, that’s bad for folks,” Cognetti said.
“It’s bad for working folks who maybe if you’re in a union, you have healthcare, but if your neighbor doesn’t, when you both go to the [emergency room], that ER is packed because of these healthcare cuts.”
