Paige Cognetti
Who: Paige Cognetti
Where: PA-08
Why: Pennsylvania offers three prime opportunities to flip red House seats to blue in November, and Paige Cognetti is a strong and electable Democrat opponent in what could be the toughest contest of the three. First-term incumbent Republican Rob Bresnahan is leading her in fundraising but recent polling shows them in a virtual dead heat.
Cognetti is currently serving her second term as mayor of Scranton, the first woman to serve in that office. She also has federal government experience, having worked at the U.S. Treasury Department in the Obama administration.
Her campaign platform focuses on bringing transparency and accountability to Capitol Hill and rooting out corruption. That is a stark contrast to Bresnahan who made nearly 650 individual stock trades during 2025 while also proposing legislation banning stock trading by members of Congress.
Shortly before the House took its first vote on the President’s One Big Beautiful Bill, which includes deep cuts to Medicaid, Bresnahan sold hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stock in companies that oversee Medicaid managed care organizations. Twenty-seven percent of PA-08 residents—including half of all children—currently receive Medicaid benefits, the third-highest among the state’s Congressional districts. Moreover, because Congress has failed to extend the enhanced premium subsidies for Affordable Care Act plans, 25,000 residents of PA-08 who are enrolled in those plans will see premium increases of 275%.
Bresnahan won this working-class district against a different opponent by less than one percentage point in 2024. Cognetti should get a downballot boost from popular sitting Governor Josh Shapiro who will be at the top of the ticket.
Sources: AP analysis of data from U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Ballotpedia, KFF, The New York Times, Spotlight PA
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