Paige Cognetti

Paige Cognetti is the Democratic nominee for Pennsylvania's 8th Congressional District, running to unseat freshman Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan. Non-partisan race raters have rated the contest a "Toss-Up," and Cognetti has been added to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's "Red to Blue" program. Her campaign has centered heavily on Bresnahan's stock-trading activity, after he broke a campaign promise to ban the practice.

Cognetti was born in Eugene, Oregon, and graduated summa cum laude from the University of Oregon with a degree in English literature and Romance languages before earning an MBA from Harvard Business School. After teaching English in Japan through the JET Programme, she worked as a fundraiser for the Clinton and Obama 2008 presidential campaigns and served from 2009 to 2012 as a senior advisor at the U.S. Treasury Department during the Obama administration. She later served on the Scranton School Board and advised Pennsylvania's Auditor General on oversight of public schools and elder care.

In 2019, Cognetti was elected Mayor of Scranton as an independent, running under the banner "Paige Against the Machine" after her predecessor resigned amid federal bribery, conspiracy, and extortion charges. She was re-elected as a Democrat in 2021 with 72.5% of the vote and won her second full term in November 2025 with 57%. As mayor, she guided Scranton out of Pennsylvania's Act 47 financial distress program and improved the city's bond rating to its highest level in decades.

Paige Cognetti has pledged to fight for:

• A ban on congressional stock trading
• Rejecting corporate PAC money as a candidate and member of Congress
• Auditing the federal government to cut waste, fraud, and abuse
• Breaking up monopolies that squeeze out small businesses and raise consumer costs
• Strengthening unions and making it easier to organize
• Directing more federal funding straight to municipalities and counties
• Capping predatory fees, like credit card fees
• Preventing healthcare middlemen from denying doctor-prescribed care and medications
• Reshoring manufacturing jobs, including defense manufacturing, in Northeastern Pennsylvania
• Cutting red tape on permitting to speed up infrastructure projects

Cognetti has framed her candidacy around bringing the same anti-corruption, results-focused approach she brought to Scranton City Hall to a "broken" Washington.