| In case you missed it, Paige Cognetti held an anti-corruption town hall in Nanticoke over the weekend alongside Navy veteran and retired astronaut U.S. Senator Mark Kelly and End Citizens United.
A wave of local news coverage spotlighted the town hall, where Paige “said she’s fought corruption since she was appointed a Scranton school [board member] in 2018” and “explained how Bresnahan’s corruption comes at a public cost.”
Reminder: Congressman Bresnahan campaigned on a promise to ban congressional stock trading, but instead has traded hundreds of times while voting on legislation that hurts Northeastern Pennsylvanians.
Read key highlights from the coverage for yourself:
- Paige Cognetti promised Saturday to ban stock trading by members of Congress if voters elect her to represent them.
- After taking office in January 2025, Bresnahan became one of the most prolific stock traders in Congress, according to Quiver Quantitative, which tracks trading.
- Cognetti said she’s fought corruption since she was appointed a Scranton school [board member] in 2018. “We’ve had judges, mayors, county commissioners, state senators actually go to prison for public corruption. That is not fair to us. There is a cost to that,” Cognetti said.
- Cognetti said corruption affects [the] cost of living. She said it contributes to whose interests are considered, pointing to tax breaks for billionaires and potential Medicaid cuts affecting working people.
- [Senator] Kelly said Americans need to elect leaders to fight corruption. “Paige Cognetti is that person,” he said.
- “With every stock trade he has made and cruel vote he has cast, Congressman Rob Bresnahan has come to embody everything that is wrong with our broken political system,” Cognetti later said in a statement. “Together we will beat Congressman Bresnahan and build a government that works as hard as the people it’s supposed to serve.”
- Dubbed “Paige Against the Machine” for her willingness to buck Scranton’s Democratic Party, Cognetti has made Bresnahan’s congressional stock trading record and combating corruption two hallmarks of her campaign. She also highlighted her own career as Scranton mayor.
- Towards the end of the town hall, Cognetti explained how Bresnahan’s corruption comes at a public cost […] “ It’s very, very clear that the corruption and the cost that we are dealing with are intricately linked, and that’s why we have to fight. It’s always about corruption and costs, the cost of corruption.”
- The mayor and the senator were moderated by End Citizens United and spoke on a matter of issues from corruption in the commonwealth, cuts to healthcare and Medicaid, how Congress is only benefitting the ultra-wealthy, candidates taking corporate PAC money, and a promise to ban all stock trading for congressmen.
- An audience question asked Mayor Cognetti, “Do you commit to not trading stocks and getting a bill on the floor ASAP to ban stock trading?”
- She responded, “Yes, absolutely.”
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