At Heartland Signal, we want to be sure voters are informed heading into the midterm elections. Accordingly, we’re creating a series where we offer voters in those districts a look at the two candidates and their stances on issues that matter most to voters right now.

Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District 

Incumbent: Rob Bresnahan (Republican)

District geography: Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and Northeast Pennsylvania

Last election:

Candidate	Party	Votes	Percent
Rob Bresnahan	Republican	195,663	50.7
Matt Cartwright (incumbent)	Democrat	189,411	49.1

At a glance: Rob Bresnahan’s term in Congress has been most notable for his support of Donald Trump’s policies and frequent stock trades coinciding with government actions affecting their value. Paige Cognetti is running on her track record of fighting corruption in Scranton to defeat him.

Candidate information

Q: Who is running to represent Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District?

A: Incumbent Republican congressman Rob Bresnahan is running against Democratic Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti in November’s election.

Q: Where is Rob Bresnahan from?

A: Rob Bresnahan grew up in Wyoming Borough in Luzerne County. At the age of 19, his grandfather hired him as the CFO of his construction company. He worked in the private sector until he was elected to Congress in 2024. While he claimed that he never ran for office before 2024, he actually was elected a Republican committeeman in 2018.

Q: Where is Paige Cognetti from?

A: Paige Cognetti grew up in Oregon and moved to Scranton after marrying her husband, who’s a native of the city. After moving to the city, she joined the school board then ran for mayor as an independent dedicated to fixing the city’s finances. As mayor, she balanced the budget by fighting waste, fraud and corruption in the city’s government.

Issues: Health care

Q: Does Rob Bresnahan want to make health care better?

A: Rob Bresnahan voted for the One Big Beautiful Bill that contained nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts. A week before the vote, he sold $130,000 of stock in Centene, Elevance Health, United Health and CVS Health, four companies that oversee roughly half of all Medicaid managed care organizations.

Q: Does Paige Cognetti want to make health care better?

A: Paige Cognetti wants to make it easier for people to get health care, crack down on insurance company middlemen and make it harder for insurers to deny claims. She also wants paid family leave, which she has personal experience with: She won her first mayoral election while eight months pregnant.

Issues: Costs and tariffs

Q: Is Rob Bresnahan trying to make things cheaper?

A: Rob Bresnahan has a history of voting to support Donald Trump’s priorities, some of which have led to higher costs. He has voted to support the Iran War both soon after Trump launched it and in September. The war has caused gas and diesel prices to skyrocket, along with mortgage rates. He also voted to support higher tariffs in March 2025, September 2025 and this past February. The higher tariffs have led to increases in the cost of a lot of everyday items. Notably, Bresnahan bought stock in U.S.-based companies like IBM and Texas Instruments the week before the tariffs were announced.

Q: Is Paige Cognetti trying to make things cheaper?

A: Cognetti opposes tariffs against U.S. allies that she thinks are overly broad, but she wants to leave more targeted ones in place to help domestic industry. She also wants to end the war in Iran to help lower the cost of things for people in her district.

Issues: Data centers and energy bills

Q: Will Rob Bresnahan stop data centers?

A: Rob Bresnahan has been broadly supportive of data centers, as he said they can “serve as catalysts for economic growth and technological innovation for our region” and “celebrated” building gas plants to power them. He also voted to ban communities from stopping or putting moratoriums on data centers. And notably, he has significant investments in companies that benefit from looser regulations on AI. But as data centers have gotten more unpopular, he has walked back his support of them.

Q: Will Paige Cognetti stop data centers?

A: Paige Cognetti is against data centers taking advantage of her district the way that coal and gas companies had in the past. She wants them to stop polluting, be transparent, hire local, union labor and not raise electricity bills.

Issues: Ethics and accountability

Q: Will Rob Bresnahan fight corruption?

A: Rob Bresnahan has faced intense scrutiny over his frequent buying and selling of stocks while in office. A week before he voted to cut Medicaid, he sold $130,000 of stock in Centene, Elevance Health, United Health and CVS Health, four companies that oversee roughly half of all Medicaid managed care organizations. He also bought stock in Lockheed Martin before the first strikes against Iran, data center provider Credo Technology while advocating for more data centers in his district and U.S.-based companies like IBM and Texas Instruments the week before the tariffs were announced. Nevertheless, he says he supports banning the practice.

Q: Will Paige Cognetti fight corruption?

A: Paige Cognetti started her political career by fighting corruption within the Democratic Party, winning the Scranton mayoral election as an independent candidate. While mayor, she reformed how the city was managed, eliminated waste, fraud and corruption and won re-election as a Democrat. If elected to Congress, she says she will pursue an anti-corruption agenda that would prevent politicians from enriching themselves or donors at the public’s expense. She has called Bresnahan’s pattern of stock trading sickening and dishonest.